Some locals in St. Louis say $1,200 stimulus check never came

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    ST. LOUIS (KMOV) — Now that it’s clear who will take the Oval Office in January, the matter of another stimulus check remains unclear.

The Senate is back in session, but so far, there have been no agreements. We learned there are still many people in our area waiting for their first check and some say they are desperate and downright angry.

“Just give me an answer, that’s all I’m asking,” said Wanda Durns.

It’s tough times for Durns, a restaurant owner looking for every penny possible.

“Pay bills, just to pay bills. I am just getting farther and farther behind just like everyone,” she said.

The fountain is still flowing at Meyer’s Country Cottage and Irish Pub in Florissant, but the stream of customers just hasn’t been the same. That’s why Durns says she’s desperate for what she’s due: the stimulus check many of us got months ago.

“Right now, I don’t know what happened to it,” Durns said.

The IRS website, she says, has been no help.

“It always says May 1, every time I check it, it says May 1,” Durns said.

Multiple calls to the IRS, she says, went nowhere. She’s filed taxes and gotten her refunds. So where’s the stimulus check? Cashed by someone else? Lost in the mail?

“Maybe it just fell off somebody’s desk,” Durns joked.

And now, with talks about a second stimulus, she says she’s doubtful.

“I just laugh, I would like to get the first one,” Durns said.

Durns isn’t alone. News 4 Investigates has received numerous calls from our viewers, complaining they haven’t gotten their stimulus checks. Not in the spring. And still nothing.

“They lie to us and say it’s coming every three or four weeks,” said Sandra Nickens.

Nickens says she had to fight to get her daughter Dorothy’s check. The IRS, she says, couldn’t get the address right.

“There are people complaining they don’t have a second check, but there are a lot of people who don’t have their first check, they shouldn’t send out the second check, when not everybody has gotten their first check,” Nickens said.

Earlier this year, News 4 Investigates uncovered issues with people’s checks, being deposited into other unknown bank accounts or even dead people getting checks.

But now we wanted to know: how many people in our area were still waiting for their money?

The IRS would only provide numbers from July, saying that in Missouri 3 million people and in Illinois nearly 6 million people, had received checks. But the agency would not say how many people hadn’t gotten the funds.

In September, they say they sent letters to tens of thousands of non-filers of tax returns. Recent court rulings have allowed for checks to be sent to prisoners, while advocates have pushed for undocumented people to receive theirs.

But some people say there’s been no exact explanation why people like Durns are still waiting.

A spokesperson for the IRS said it’s against the law for them to comment about specific taxpayers.

“I think it’s bad management, total bad management,” said Durns.

Left in the dark, Durns and others we talked to say the IRS is great at collecting money, they should be better at distributing it.

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