TAMPA, Fla. -- The widow of slain Tampa police officer David Curtis has finally received her 2009 tax refund.
Kelly Curtis became the most prominent victim of a crime that has exploded on Tampa streets in the last couple of years in which criminals steal identities and use the information to file fraudulent tax returns. Authorities say the fraud bilks U.S. taxpayers of billions of dollars a year.
Curtis said she learned when she tried to file her tax return in March 2010 that her husband's identity had been stolen.
Her story was disclosed last month when Det. Sal Augeri testified by a U.S. Senate subcommittee chaired by Democrat Bill Nelson of Florida.
The day after the story was made public, Curtis said she was contacted by someone who said the IRS was going to try to help. "It sounds good," she said then. "I know I'm one of hundreds of thousands of people that this has happened to. They're all still going to have to wait."
Last week, she said, she got her refund.
"It was about time," Augeri said Wednesday. "She shouldn't have had to wait that long, just like everybody else that's waiting...She deserved it."
Police Chief Jane Castor called the refund "good news."
And Nelson said in an email statement released by his staff: "I'm glad this case was resolved, but it shouldn't have taken this long or required a senate hearing to get the IRS's attention. Going forward, I hope others won't have to wait months or even years to get their tax refund."
Curtis said the IRS told her the tax return was filed from somewhere in South Florida, but wouldn't tell her anything else, including the amount of the fraudulent refund. Authorities say identity thieves are getting Social Security numbers and other information from institutions and businesses that keep that kind of data, including doctors' offices, assisted living facilities and schools.
But it's likely a thief obtained David Curtis' information directly from the federal government -- specifically the Social Security Death Master File, a database of identifying information made public online by the Social Security Administration.
During the hearing, Nelson said he wants the government to stop releasing that information for at least three years after people die so it couldn't be used for filing fraudulent tax returns.
"The commissioner of Social Security told me that he cannot administratively stop putting up dead people's Social Security numbers immediately," Nelson said during the hearing. "All we want him to do is to delay it."
Copyright 2012 - Tampa Tribune, Fla.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
