{"id":34218,"date":"2026-07-08T00:30:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T04:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/child-loses-thousands-in-savings-after-bank-transfer-confusion-action-news-investigation\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T00:30:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T04:30:19","slug":"child-loses-thousands-in-savings-after-bank-transfer-confusion-action-news-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/child-loses-thousands-in-savings-after-bank-transfer-confusion-action-news-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"Child loses thousands in savings after bank transfer confusion | Action News Investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \"><span class=\"oyrPY qlwaB AGxeB  \">LAUREL SPRINGS, N.J. (WPVI) &#8212; <\/span>A South Jersey family says their 7-year-old son&#8217;s savings account inexplicably vanished, leaving them scrambling for answers until the money ultimately resurfaced in New Jersey&#8217;s unclaimed property system.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Sarah Dimarco said she has been stuck in what she called &#8220;paperwork purgatory&#8221; after discovering her son Finn&#8217;s account balance had dropped to just $1.79.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;I still don&#8217;t have a solution because the bank is still like, &#8216;Well, it&#8217;s out of our hands,'&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The issue began in April, when Finn opened his Fulton Bank statement and saw the missing funds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;He was like, &#8216;Mommy, it says I don&#8217;t have any money.&#8217; And I&#8217;m like, ha ha&#8230; you know, let me see, but he was telling the truth,&#8221; Dimarco said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Finn originally banked with Republic Bank, which shut down and transferred accounts to Fulton Bank.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The family received a letter in late 2025 instructing them to confirm ownership of the account by October 27, 2025, through actions such as making a deposit or withdrawal, executing a new signature card, providing a change of address form, or writing to Fulton Bank.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Dimarco said she visited a branch twice before the deadline and sent a letter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;They said, &#8216;No, you&#8217;re in good standing. All good.&#8217; That was not true,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Despite Finn having a Fulton checkbook and statements, the bank told the family the account had been turned over to the New Jersey Unclaimed Property Administration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">A search of the state database initially showed nothing under Finn&#8217;s name.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;They&#8217;ve given zero answers,&#8221; Dimarco said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Fulton Bank later issued a statement saying, &#8220;We took extensive steps to help customers confirm ownership of their Republic Bank deposit accounts. While most customers successfully claimed their refunds, a small number of accounts &#8211; despite our outreach &#8211; were transferred to the FDIC and, after, to state unclaimed properties as required.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">New Jersey holds roughly $7 billion in unclaimed property, while Pennsylvania holds about $5 billion.  State databases allow residents to search for unclaimed funds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">A day after the Investigative Team contacted Fulton Bank in April about Finn&#8217;s account, his money appeared on the New Jersey unclaimed property website.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Last week, Finn finally received his savings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">When asked whether Fulton Bank mishandled the situation, Dimarco said, &#8220;Absolutely. Absolutely.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">Residents can search state databases to see whether they are owed money, including <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/unclaimedfunds.nj.gov\/app\/claim-search\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">New Jersey&#8217;s unclaimed property site<\/a>, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patreasury.gov\/unclaimed-property\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Pennsylvania&#8217;s database<\/a>, or <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/unclaimedproperty.delaware.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Delaware&#8217;s system.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LAUREL SPRINGS, N.J. (WPVI) &#8212; A South Jersey family says their 7-year-old son&#8217;s savings account inexplicably vanished, leaving them scrambling for answers until the money ultimately resurfaced in New Jersey&#8217;s unclaimed property system. Sarah Dimarco said she has been stuck in what she called &#8220;paperwork purgatory&#8221; after discovering her son Finn&#8217;s account balance had dropped [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/19467306_070726-wpvi-lost-bank-account-investigation-11pm-video-CC-vid.jpg?w=1600","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11573],"tags":[24263,247,1191,1923,6405,1353,4285,46,9521,1320,616],"class_list":["post-34218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-philadelphia-breaking-news","tag-24263","tag-action","tag-bank","tag-child","tag-confusion","tag-investigation","tag-loses","tag-news","tag-savings","tag-thousands","tag-transfer"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/19467306_070726-wpvi-lost-bank-account-investigation-11pm-video-CC-vid.jpg?w=1600",0,0,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/19467306_070726-wpvi-lost-bank-account-investigation-11pm-video-CC-vid.jpg?w=1600",0,0,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/19467306_070726-wpvi-lost-bank-account-investigation-11pm-video-CC-vid.jpg?w=1600",0,0,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/19467306_070726-wpvi-lost-bank-account-investigation-11pm-video-CC-vid.jpg?w=1600",150,150,false],"medium":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/19467306_070726-wpvi-lost-bank-account-investigation-11pm-video-CC-vid.jpg?w=1600",300,300,false],"large":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/19467306_070726-wpvi-lost-bank-account-investigation-11pm-video-CC-vid.jpg?w=1600",1024,1024,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/19467306_070726-wpvi-lost-bank-account-investigation-11pm-video-CC-vid.jpg?w=1600",1536,1536,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/19467306_070726-wpvi-lost-bank-account-investigation-11pm-video-CC-vid.jpg?w=1600",2048,2048,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/19467306_070726-wpvi-lost-bank-account-investigation-11pm-video-CC-vid.jpg?w=1600",370,265,false],"kava-thumb-s":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/19467306_070726-wpvi-lost-bank-account-investigation-11pm-video-CC-vid.jpg?w=1600",150,85,false],"kava-thumb-s-2":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/19467306_070726-wpvi-lost-bank-account-investigation-11pm-video-CC-vid.jpg?w=1600",230,230,false],"kava-thumb-m":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/19467306_070726-wpvi-lost-bank-account-investigation-11pm-video-CC-vid.jpg?w=1600",400,400,false],"kava-thumb-m-vertical":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/19467306_070726-wpvi-lost-bank-account-investigation-11pm-video-CC-vid.jpg?w=1600",370,500,false],"kava-thumb-m-2":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/19467306_070726-wpvi-lost-bank-account-investigation-11pm-video-CC-vid.jpg?w=1600",570,450,false],"kava-thumb-l":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/19467306_070726-wpvi-lost-bank-account-investigation-11pm-video-CC-vid.jpg?w=1600",1170,650,false],"kava-thumb-xl":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/19467306_070726-wpvi-lost-bank-account-investigation-11pm-video-CC-vid.jpg?w=1600",1920,1080,false],"kava-thumb-masonry":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/19467306_070726-wpvi-lost-bank-account-investigation-11pm-video-CC-vid.jpg?w=1600",600,999,false],"kava-thumb-justify":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/19467306_070726-wpvi-lost-bank-account-investigation-11pm-video-CC-vid.jpg?w=1600",640,640,false],"kava-thumb-justify-2":["https:\/\/cdn.abcotvs.com\/dip\/images\/19467306_070726-wpvi-lost-bank-account-investigation-11pm-video-CC-vid.jpg?w=1600",1280,640,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"#RiseCelestialStudios","author_link":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/author\/ralph-c\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/category\/philadelphia-breaking-news\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Philadelphia Viral News<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"LAUREL SPRINGS, N.J. (WPVI) &#8212; A South Jersey family says their 7-year-old son&#8217;s savings account inexplicably vanished, leaving them scrambling for answers until the money ultimately resurfaced in New Jersey&#8217;s unclaimed property system. Sarah Dimarco said she has been stuck in what she called &#8220;paperwork purgatory&#8221; after discovering her son Finn&#8217;s account balance had dropped&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34220,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34218\/revisions\/34220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design-providers.com\/rise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}