CATEGORY
MALICIOUS IDENTITY THEFT
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Jamey & Lora Costner
jamey_lora@bellsouth.net
TN
ID THEFT VICTIM STORY
In 2004 my husband and I gained custody of my biological niece. Her Mother, my now estranged sister, called one afternoon and said she could no longer care for her. We found she was in a relationship with and illegal immigrant. At that point we hired an attorney and began the process of adoption. After the biological Mother terminated her parental rights and we filed the correct paperwork. The court sent a copy to her, the documents had all of our personal information. A year later we received a letter that my husbands drivers license was to be revoked in 7 days. It was for an unpaid speeding ticket, failure to appear, and driving without insurance. This was not him, but an illegal immigrant driving @ 3AM in a car owned by my sister. He was on his way to work - @ a job he had working under the name of Jamey Dee Costner. Despite having no insurance or the ability to speak English, he was let go with a speeding ticket. He was not charged for almost a year and a half - we were advised that he was arrested *for something else* after we made contact to the police department he was charged with ID theft. This was not his first time being charged with this. After we took a day off work, went to the court and were told by the DA he would be deported - we found out a month later that he got out on time served 45 days! He called our home at 2am laughing & threatening us. The police told us to get our phone # changed. All of that finally died down - in FEb of 2007 I was out of work and contacted the TN Dept of Labor - I found that another person using my identity filed a workers comp claim in Jan of 2007 - she fell off the line deboning chickens. I had to prove this was not me - this lady had been working in my maiden name for almost 3 years @ Koch Foods in Morristown TN. - she was charged - yet we now owe $7854.00 for 2005 alone to the IRS. No one will help us. I finally contacted a local newspaper and an article was written. The Citizen Tribune. After it was printed I was contacted by a local DRs office. The billing clerk advised me that she had proof that the female signed in to have a procedure in my name - and when she went to the hospital she used her true name. She faxed the HR manager @ Koch Foods a letter stating that her identity was not matching up. That was in MAy of 2006 - he continued to let her work under my name until Feb of 2007 - when I went to the facility with the police. Our lives are upside down! If we get the 2005 IRS issue solved - we still have 2006 & 2007. I am depleted. My husband and I were only doing what was in the best interest for a beautiful little girl. Now we have all of these problems and no help from anywhere. Oddly enough a nice man who heard our story on a news radio station in California has helped. We wrote to State REP & Senator - no help. Went thru the court process - no help. The Police, THE IRS - no one had any answers. Yet this man - who does not know us has taken his time to help * offer advice. How can this be? I hope this may help someone. Watch everything!
Story submitted on: 2008-01-02 00:00:00.0.