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November 8, 2005
CHICAGO - Hundreds of unemployment checks that should have been in recipients' hands a week ago are nowhere to be found.
The Woodstock office of the Illinois Department of Employment Security processed the checks Oct. 31, and postal workers signed for them. That's where the trail goes cold.
Recipient Renee Young tipped WBBM. She initially feared she'd run into a problem with her claim, made last month, but said a worker told her Monday it was a problem with the U.S. Postal Service, not her.
"Hopefully they just got lost somewhere and they'll find them soon," she said.
Employment Security spokesperson Geraldine Conrad won't even admit that much.
"The checks are not lost. They are not missing," she said, although she admitted that the Postal Service is searching for them.
"We are asking that they (claimants) wait a few days for their checks, due to the complications of issuing a replacement check," Conrad said.
If checks fail to arrive by Thursday night, Conrad said the department will then concede that they may be lost and begin the process of reissuing them. Postal Service spokesman Tim Ratliff could say only that a search is underway.
Employment Security workers have checked with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and Conrad said that so far, there is no evidence that anyone unauthorized has cashed one of the checks.
Conrad said an unknown number of recipients from the Woodstock, Grayslake, Evanston and Arlington Heights offices are affected.
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