Unless they have kept over 250,000$ in their account, it would impossible to loose their money due to FDIC.
Also if you have a co-ownership and a single ownership account you could increase your coverage to 500,000$
You could also add your IRA's into that coverage as well...so 750,000$
Also you can add to the list your POD/ITF accounts...so now your covered up to 1,000,000$
So, if you put your money into 4 different ownership accounts you will covered up to $1,000,000 at a single institution. Where I work at ,IBC, we have 4 charters. Each charter is considered its own institution..so at IBC you can be covered up to $4,000,000.
FDIC has not back out of a single payment since its inititation.
Oh yeah, the story... LOL!! Working as a teller at my bank I hear everything just like you mentioned...it just amazes me at how stupid people can be.