Charity check stolen; Troubleshooter gets money back after 9-month ordeal

MORRISVILLE, N.C. (WTVD) -- A donation to a charity was stolen.

A Morrisville couple was frustrated because, despite reporting the fraud, they couldn't get the money back for the charity.

Robert and Sally Sadler like to do good and say they send checks to their favorite charities each month.

However, after sending one check, they realized it never made it to the charity; instead, it ended up in someone else's hands.

"At the end of the year, we get a statement from the charity saying that what you gave during the year, one check was missing," Robert Sadler said.

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He went to check his bank account to see why the one check has not been cashed.

"It showed that it had been fraudulently endorsed instead of being stamped with 'for deposit only' by the organization; it had a hand-printed first name written on the back for the endorsement," he added.

Sadler filed a fraud claim with his bank, Bank of America. He said the bank told him it needed 90 days, but it took much longer.

"I had to go through that process twice because later, they told me the same thing again. 'OK, we've got the information. Now you have to wait another 90 days for us to process it.' So that's what stretched out for months."

Sadler finally got a letter from his bank in July stating it was unable to honor his claim because the claim package they sent him wasn't returned in the specified time. Sadler said that simply was not true.

He told Troubleshooter Diane Wilson, "We watch Channel 11 and we said ... let's try them and it was incredible."

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Wilson contacted Bank of America and Sadler said that brought results.

"Next day credit shows up on our account, $500 case closed. We are so grateful to you, you do what no one else can do," Sadler said to Wilson.

The representative with Bank of America said they'd work with the Sadlers directly -- which they did -- to resolve the case, but did not add any comment.