This Sounds Messed Up

      From NBC Chicago:

… [L]ast summer Jo and Holly Howard visited the Social Security office in Woodstock. The good news: Jo Howard was issued a check for almost $55,000 [under the Social Security Fairness Act] and The bad news - she never got it. …

It turns out, just five days after the check was issued in June, it was cashed. According to the police report, the ‘female suspect, employed by Amazon inc’ was using an ID with Jo Howard’s information.

“We thought the case would be solved, that she would be prosecuted,” she stated. 

According to the police report,there was even video of the suspect cashing the check at the bank. But the officer "could not open the encrypted file." That lead was quickly abandoned, and then Old Dominion Bank stopped responding to the police department, police stated.

“So the police just closed the case,” Holly Howard said. …

“I made seven trips to the Social Security office. Every time you see a different person, you get a different story,” she said. 

On the seventh visit, Jo Howard said she was told to file a theft report with the U.S. Treasury Department. Now almost a year from the theft, she said the investigation is just ramping up. …

   Does the Secret Service still investigate these cases? The Secret Service isn’t even in the Department of the Treasury. It’s in Homeland Security now.  Has she even contracted the right agency? Doesn’t Social Security have an obligation to pay this woman now, regardless of the investigation? Whether the crook gets caught is irrelevant. Where is Social Security’s Office of Inspector General? Old Dominion stopped responding? No kidding. If they accepted a forged endorsement they’re the ones on the hook for this fraud. I remember that much about the U.C.C.

     Please, no snarky remarks about the Social Security Fairness Act. If she’s owed the money, she’s owed the money.