Mark Whitney’s phone buzzed.

The call was from an unknown number. Mark answered it.

The voice on the other end announced that she was from Child Protective Services and that she was calling to follow up on a report made against him regarding the neglect of his children.

Mark took a deep breath and tried to calm his nerves.

He then asked the investigator for more details about the allegation.

The investigator told Mark that a delivery driver had contacted CPS and said that he had seen two young children outside unattended.

Mark knew that this was false. Their younger children were never allowed outside the home without an adult.

Mark told the investigator that he would like to get his attorney involved and asked her if he could call her back.

The investigator said that would be fine and gave him her name and number.

Mark then called his wife, Julie, and told her what had happened. Julie immediately called Heritage Defense, where she was connected with an attorney.

The attorney asked her if she remembered a delivery and what had happened.

Julie told the attorney that the report had most likely come from a Walmart delivery. Julie told him that the delivery driver had dropped off the groceries and that Julie had her kids bring them inside.

Julie said that her younger children were helping, along with her eighteen, fourteen, and eleven year old.

Julie suspected that the delivery driver had seen her younger children and thought they were bringing the groceries in by themselves.

Our attorney told Julie he would contact one of our local attorneys near her, and they would contact CPS.

Our attorney told Julie that all the attorney fees would be covered by Heritage Defense.

Our attorney promptly contacted a local attorney near the Whitneys and told him about the situation.

Our local attorney then reached out to Mark and Julie, and they discussed the situation.

Mark told the local attorney that he had at first thought this was a prank because of how ridiculous the allegation was.

Mark said that the investigator had described the supposed unattended children as being two and three years old, yet the youngest child they had was 6 months old, with the next youngest being five.

The local attorney agreed that the allegations sounded completely ridiculous.

The local attorney then contacted the investigator and explained the grocery delivery and that the younger children were under the supervision of their older siblings.

He also told her about the age differences between the report and the actual ages of Mark and Julie’s youngest children and that the Whitneys were very strict about allowing their younger children outside without adult supervision.

The investigator then told the attorney that she would be in touch.

A couple of weeks later, the investigator called our local attorney back and told him that she was satisfied with the explanation and agreed that the allegations were unfounded.

She went on to say that CPS would be closing the case.

Mark and Julie thanked Heritage Defense: