Meet William L. Field, father of one and famed ukulele player from Enumclaw, but to the state of Arizona he's known as William J. Field, a dead-beat dad who owes his kids $46,000.
"It was a total shock, it was 'oh my God! What do we do now?" he said.
That's right. Arizona's chasing a delinquent father with bad information. Let's go over this again.
William L. Field - nice guy. William J. Field - a guy who doesn't pay his kids' child support.
The state of Arizona, didn't know the difference and wiped out William L. Field's bank account.
"It was complacency or total error, I don't know," William L. Field told me. Either way, it's not a good situation.
"It was a total disaster," he said.
Out some $3,500, William L. called the state of Arizona. They had his cash, but no real answers.
"At that point I had no money, there was no money," he said.
At that moment William L. Field had something in common with the state of Arizona: They're both broke.
So he called me and we got in contact with Steve Meissner, spokesman for Arizona's Child Support Enforcement Agency.
"So we have access to a lot of different databases, a lot of different information. We work with people in the federal level at various different state levels, banks, in trying to find people who owe money," said Meissner.
And not one of those investigative tools worked in this case. Not one. Steve did admit there was a mistake in William L. Field's case, but provided no details.
"In the case of Mr. Field, I believe we've worked with him to rectify any problems that may have occurred and I'm going to have him talk about anything else," he said.
William L. Field is pretty steamed.
"They were obviously being very zealous about thinking I am this guy, and there are a couple of accounts with money in them, so they have to act they had to pounce," said Field.
After we called the state, William L. Field got his cash, but he's still uneasy about the whole situation and he plans on checking that account every day.
"It feels good, but there are some doubts," he said. "Yeah, my bank is going to get sick of me."
The state of Arizona has refused to tell us how it mixed up the two gentlemen in the first place. William L. Field, the Enumclaw guy, had over $100 in overdraft fees because of this. His bank has dropped those charges so he's completely taken care of.
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