It took a year of effort and the help of an Arizona TV station for a little girl's bank to finally give her the money she earned raising chickens for the county fair.
In Thatcher, Arizona, 10-year-old Kinley Maner spent months raising and selling chickens to earn $2,100 at the Graham County Fair auction. But when her family deposited the check at Chase Bank, they found themselves caught in a year-long battle to access her hard-earned money, AZ Family reported.
After depositing her check from the Small Stock Association, the Maner family was shocked when Chase froze Kinley's account, labeling the check "suspicious" because an old phone number for the association was out of service. Despite multiple attempts from the association's treasurer to verify the check in person, Chase would not budge.
"Their ultimate response is that, sorry, Kinley is not going to get her money back," J.R. Maner, Kinley's dad, told AZ Family. "And there's nothing we can do unless we can verify that check."
Kinley's mother, Kalli, worked tirelessly to resolve the issue. "The guy who wrote the check has gone into Chase three different times, saying, 'Hey, this is me. You can verify it in person,'" she told the outlet, "but they said the only way to verify it is through that number on the phone."
Frustrated, the family turned to AZ Family for help. Just hours after the station contacted Chase, the bank reversed course, apologized to the family, and sent Kinley her $2,100 check overnight. "I was surprised when I got it, but I also was excited," Kinley told the station.
J.R. Maner believes the TV station made all the difference. "If we wouldn't have contacted you guys, it was pretty much a dead end. I don't think we would have got the money back," he told the outlet. Now, Kinley plans to save most of her earnings for college.
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