She had nowhere to live and didn’t ask for money. Asking people to read a note, she held it up. Someone read it at last after 16 years, and everything transformed. It said the following in the note:
Wana Ritter, who is 80 years old, wants to tell the world a touching story with a happy finish.
Wendy hasn’t slept in her own bed at home in 16 years. Several people believed she was crazy since she kept saying “the government owes her $100,000.” Every day she said it again. They didn’t notice that she had a bag full of papers and checks that weren’t paid. It was thought that she was just another person with mental health problems.
Wanda used to be a plumber and had four kids. She kept saying that Social Security owed her a lot of money on the streets of Washington, D.C.
“I seriously considered throwing away my papers,” she said. “I warned myself that people would think I was crazy if I did something stupid.”
But everything changed when social worker Julie Turner, 56, heard her story and became interested in her case. She nearly passed out when she saw the papers.
Wanda needed money help, not help with her mental health. Turner told the government that they owed her $100,000.
How did Wanda figure out what the trouble was, though?
Wanda started getting checks every month for $300 to $900. She thought there was a problem with these checks, so she didn’t cash them. Instead, she gave them back. Ritter did call Social Security Services to look into the matter, though.
“Those who cashed them would not have believed me if I said there was a mistake.” Ritter told media in the area. She thinks that she can solve the problem once she gets her case in order.
Employee Julie Turner helped Ritter find a $500 room.
Ritter got her first $1,644 check from Social Security a week after the news spread.
