Spill Deposits Thousands of Tax Refund Checks on Freeway

To passing motorists, it looked like the great tax rebate of 1991.

At least 2,000 federal government checks, many of them tax refunds, spilled onto the San Diego Freeway in Sherman Oaks late Friday night. But the checks had been canceled and were worthless, officials said Saturday.

The brightly colored checks apparently fell from a private courier truck on the way from Southern California banks to the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco, according to the U.S. Secret Service, which is investigating the spill.

The incident translates into a bookkeeping headache for banks and Federal Reserve officials, but it will not deprive recipients of their tax refunds or Social Security payments, said Joe Perez of the Secret Service office in Los Angeles.

“The people have already received their money,” Perez said. “If these were uncanceled checks, you’d have a major problem.”

The checks fluttered through the air as cars passed. Some motorists found checks wedged in their radiator grilles or stuck to windshields, the California Highway Patrol said.

Checks were scattered along the shoulder and center divider of the northbound side of the freeway between the Ventura Freeway interchange and Victory Boulevard, California Highway Patrol Sgt. Tony D’Ambrosio said. The freeway remained open while Caltrans workers plucked them from storm drains and bushes, he said.

Witnesses said the spill occurred about 11:30 p.m. Friday, but the CHP was not notified until about 5 a.m. Saturday, Perez said.