He’s throwing a ‘Hail Mary’ passbook

Dear John: I’m a longtime reader of your column and a big fan of your commonsense answers.

To solve my problem I believe that you’d need the wisdom of Solomon and the perseverance of Gandhi.

While cleaning out an old trunk, I came across an old passbook from Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn. The passbook showed a CDfor $20,852 and a maturity date of Sept. 8, 1989. Times were good back then, and both my wife and I completely forgot about this passbook. The bank was since

sold to JPMorgan Chase.

My wife and I are both 79 now and in poor health. We survive on Social Security, which is not enough.

We really, really can use these funds. Thank you for your consideration of our plight. I.T.

Dear I.T.: I asked Chase and New York state to look for records of your account, and, unfortunately, almost nothing turned up.

“We’ve searched our database several times for this couple’s lost bank account to no avail. We didn’t have any luck finding this account, but we did find a tax refund check (worth around $125) that they can claim,” said a spokesperson for the State Comptroller’s office.

“As with many of these cases of lost and found passbooks, the account was most likely closed without the passbook. We often suggest to people to revisit their tax records to see if they had declared any interest gained from the account,” she added.

I know $125 isn’t what you wanted. But at least it’s something. Chase is still looking and should have already contacted you.