File Under: "What The Hell?"

A day after I sent an email asking why I got the refund check for $637, here's the email I got in return:

Hi Kristi,
The check you got marked as a sales tax refund was actually your income tax refund that we snatched and appiled to the unfiled sales tax return. So even though the check says "sales tax refund" it is actually your 2009 income tax refund. It looks to me as though you can safely cash that check.
Hope this helps.
Rxxx.

So they took money that was theirs without the required proof of any paperwork, and then took money that never did belong to them, without telling me where it had gone. I wonder if I would not have filed the appeal would they have kept the refund with no explanation?
Scary, with a capital S-C-A-R-Y.
Our government at work, people.