'Dash' the 'terrorist' dog prompts security alert at US bank

LOS ANGELES: A dog whose name "Dash" sounded too much like the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State militant group prompted a security scare at a California bank.

The alarm was raised after Dash's owner Bruce Francis, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and lives in San Francisco, tried to make an online payment to the person who walks his pitbull mix.

Francis wrote "Dash" in the memo line for the check, panicking officials at Chase Bank who mistook it for "Daesh" and canceled the payment, local news reports said.

The bank also flagged the payment to the US Treasury Department which sent a note to Francis asking him to "explain what Dash means."

"I thought to myself, 'great, they're stopping the world's stupidest terrorist," Francis told the local KTVU station after the incident earlier this month.

In spite of the mix-up, Francis said he is taking the incident in his stride and didn't mind the inconvenience.

His check for walking "Dash" has since been approved.