10,000 Lost Social Security Checks Found in Indiana

Nearly 10,000 missing Social Security checks have been found in Indianapolis, and Postal Service workers rushed today to deliver the money to residents in six southern Indiana counties.

“All the checks will be delivered today,” said Evansville Postmaster Ed Hayes.

The missing checks were found around midnight in a trailer that was thought to be empty, Hayes said. They were shipped to Evansville and arrived about 5:45 a.m., he said.

“How they got to Indianapolis, I don’t know,” he said.

The checks totaling nearly $3 million were delivered from the U.S. Treasury’s regional financial center in Kansas City, Kan., to the main post office in Kansas City, Mo., according to Jack Adams, director of the regional center.

They were to be flown to Louisville, Ky., and then trucked to Evansville. But they never made it to Kentucky and were no longer in Missouri.

Nineteen trays of checks were found in a truck trailer that had been hired to run between Kansas City and Indianapolis, Hayes said.

The Social Security office in Evansville fielded about 1,500 calls Tuesday from pensioners missing their checks, and 100 people were waiting outside the office before it opened this morning, said office manager Phyllis France.

“This is the best possible thing that can happen, of course. We’re just happy the checks were located,” she said.

About 400 replacement checks had already been ordered from the Treasury, but France said she would try to cancel those requests.

“We’re going to ask people to return the second check once they receive it,” she said.

The postal service is investigating how the checks were lost.