7 On Your Side tracks down $10K tax refund check for retired teacher
BROOKLYN (WABC) -- The deadline to file your taxes is next Tuesday, April 15.
Many people are still filing, and others are anxiously waiting for that refund.
If you opted for a direct deposit, you may have already received your funds.
A woman from Brooklyn was waiting, and waiting for her $10,000 refund but it never came.
That is until she got a special delivery from 7 On Your Side.
"Millions of people are probably going through the same situation as myself," Annette Mitchell, a retired educator, said.
She files her taxes the same way every year.
"I've been filing refunds electronically for the past 20 years. Never had a problem before with the IRS sending my direct deposit funds," she said.
She opts for what is safe and speedy.
But after hitting "submit" on her 2023 tax return she waited for the $10,000 boost in her balance. But instead, she got nothing.
"I started my outreach to the IRS. My first phone call was April 2024," Mitchell said.
That's when she learned that someone reversed her direct deposit request to a paper check.
The entire refund for over $10,000 got stolen and cashed.
Over and over, she says, she implored the IRS to switch to direct deposit.
"They mailed it out to me three times, but I have not received my check at all," she noted. "I feel like I'm in a circus going around and around in circles with no end in sight."
After waiting nearly a year, she finally had enough.
"That's when I said, 'This is it! Let me contact 7 On Your Side,'" Annette said.
After 7 On Your Side got involved, the refund was finally direct deposited.
"Thanks to Eyewitness News and 7 On Your Side, you gave me a voice," she said. "Thank God I got my refund!"
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