UNICOI COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL) — Like many in the Temple Hill community of Unicoi County, Kasey Garrison and David Saults’ home was flooded in September from the remnants of Hurricane Helene. They were approved for FEMA funding, but the check for several thousands of dollars meant to be used to repair their home never arrived.

David Saults told News Channel 11 they’d been waiting for the check since December.

“We’ve been waiting and waiting–and come to find out, an investigator came to our door and said someone stole the check that was coming our way,” said Saults.

That investigator is Lt. Harmon Duncan with Unicoi County. He’s been working on two similar, but different, cases in the county. Chief Deputy Frank Rogers said both involve large federal checks stolen from Unicoi residents.

“It’s obvious that the victims live here, but we believe that these checks have been intercepted somewhere in the mail system before they even arrived here,” explained Rogers.

A person who tried to cash Garrison’s check in another part of Tennessee has been arrested, but the investigation into how the check was even obtained is still ongoing.

In the case of Jessica Ramey, her stolen Social Security check was actually deposited at a bank in another state. She says she’s been calling the local Social Security office for months with little progress.

“They didn’t discover it had been cashed until I kept calling and saying, ‘hey, where is this check? I haven’t gotten it,'” Ramey said.

Ramey says the suspected thief was able to obtain a very good, but very fake, duplicate Tennessee driver’s license with Ramey’s info. It’s believed by investigators to have been discarded after it was used to open a bank account and deposit the check. A good citizen mailed it to Ramey’s address, not knowing it was fake and had been used to commit a crime.

“I got an envelope in the mail and it had a Tennessee driver’s license in it with a post-it note saying it was found on a street in Atlanta, Georgia. And the driver’s license was exactly like mine, except it had a photo of a young Black woman. All of the information on the license was correct. I compared it to mine and it’s so similar. It’s unbelievable. It even has the hologram on it.” Ramey told News Channel 11.

Rogers says both cases are likely out of Unicoi County’s jurisdiction, but investigator Duncan has put in several hours connecting the victims with the right agencies to help. Rogers estimates Duncan has called more than half a dozen other state and federal agencies so far.

“We’ve been successful in the two cases that we’re involved in now with getting the proper authorities involved. But there’s likely more of these out there,” Rogers said. “And what I would tell people is if you’re expecting a government check, whether it be from Social Security or FEMA and you haven’t received that yet, make the inquiry to the issuing agency to see if it’s being drafted in a time frame, because we’re we believe that there’s going to be more of these cases.”

Meanwhile, both victims are still waiting for their funds. And for Saults and Garrison, until they get their FEMA check, they can’t finish the repairs on their flooded home. They say the theft has added insult to injury.

“We could still use the money to get our house back to the way it was,” said Saults. Garrison added that there are still good people in the world and wanted to especially thank Erwin Rise, Erwin Church of Christ and the Red Cross for helping them after the flood.

A FEMA spokesperson told News Channel 11 in an email that in accordance with the Privacy Act, FEMA does not discuss individual disaster assistance cases. But, survivors who believe a check may have been stolen and cashed are urged to contact the following division:

FEMA Fraud and Internal Investigation Division: 400 C Street SW, Mail Stop 3005; Washington, DC 20472-3005.

If an applicant reports that the check did not arrive in the timeframe provided by FEMA and the check was not cashed, FEMA may process a “stop payment”. Once a “Request to Stop and Reissue Disaster Assistance Check” letter is processed and Treasury has verified the original check was canceled, another check can be issued by FEMA’s Finance Division and mailed to the applicant. This process may take up to 90 days to complete.