One Fort Hood Veteran said he's being slammed with outrageous child support bills, as if he never made a single payment.
Darrin Pendleton has received several letters from the Texas Attorney General's Office in the last few months saying he owes money for child support. The most recent bill claims he owes $28,000. Pendleton said his obligation to pay stopped in February of 2015 and there's no way he owes that much money.
Pendleton said a court ordered him to make child support payments in 2002 while he was stationed at Fort Hood after learning he had a child in Germany. The payments were coming out of his military pay.
After he retired, the money started to come out of his military retirement fund. Pendleton made child support payments until the child turned 18 in February 2015.
However, just last month, Pendleton received a letter saying he owed $195.75 in child support. A few days later, he received another letter stating he owed $3,715.05 in unpaid child support. About a month later, he received another bill saying he owed $28,551.92.
Pendleton called the Child Support Office to find out why he was getting the bills, but he was told their system showed he owed the money. Pendleton said in all of the years he made child support payments, he never received a letter saying he was behind in payments.
"I've seen all my money come out of my account. For you to say $195, $3,700 and $28,000 and the biggest thing is that you can't explain to me why it's $28,000. Don't just tell me I owe $28,000. Explain to me how I owe you $28,000," said Pendleton. "That's the thing that irks me more than anything. You can't explain to me why it's $28,000."
The most recent letter states that $340 will be taken out of Pendleton's retirement fund each month to pay for the $28,000 starting on April 1.
News Channel 25 reached out to the Texas Attorney General's Office. An official told us Pendleton does not owe $28,000. They said there was a glitch in their system when they were inputting information they received regarding pay records from Germany. At that time, they had to manually enter all of the payments Pendleton ever submitted from 2002-2015. Letters were automatically sent out as they were inputting that information.
News Channel 25 was told Pendleton would be contacted about the situation to get it cleared up, but Pendleton said he has not received any information from them telling them he's all clear. Until then, he's waiting and worried that he will be losing money come April 1st.
"How much money are they going to take before I get my money back? And am I going to get any of my money back? That's the biggest concern that I have. If I don't owe anything, and they are taking it, are they going to return any of my money back to me? Or this just a loss that I've got to suck up?"
