PORT ANGELES — Betty Longshore, whose bank account was stripped of $16,953 after the government declared her dead, has received all her money back.
As of Friday morning, the bulk of the funds — $13,990 in civil service retirement benefits — had been returned to her First Federal account by the federal Office of Personnel Management, she said.
“It got there overnight,” said Longshore, 92, of Port Angeles.
A crew from KOMO-TV, the Seattle news partner of the Peninsula Daily News, was on hand to record the call to the bank.
The video moment can be found online at http://tinyurl.com/pdnfunds.
The federal government already had returned $2,963 to her account Thursday, she said.
Friday’s happy ending brought Longshore, who receives about $25,000 in benefits annually, back to where she was before Feb. 29.
That’s when First Federal called her to ask her if she was deceased because the bank had noticed her account was active.
The bank, as required by law, had withdrawn $16,953 from her account after being notified by the federal government that she had died July 20.
The sum withdrawn equaled the benefits she received from Aug. 1, 2011, through February, a period when the federal government had considered her dead.
She told the PDN last week that the federal Office of Personnel Management explained “someone clicked the wrong button” on a computer to prompt her alleged demise.
An OPM representative told the PDN: “We regret the error.”
“I am relieved, but I still want to get civil service [retirement benefits from her deceased husband] straightened out,” Longshore said Friday.
“I sent a copy of [the PDN] article with a letter saying they really need to straighten out their procedures,” she said.
“I think they should have a procedure for verifying deaths.”
Longshore was flooded with emails and telephone calls from well-wishers after the newspaper article was published, she said.
Those happy to see her still alive included the owner of her favorite place to visit: McComb Gardens in Sequim.
Longshore said the owner, Neil Burkhardt, came running out to the car to greet her.
“He said, ‘I’m so glad you’re alive. I was going to mail you a gift certificate, so come in, and I’ll give you a gift certificate,’” Longshore recalled.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
