State Looking to Return Unclaimed Money, Property

Salem-News.com

(SALEM AP) - The state of Oregon is looking to return 200 million dollars -- and some of it may be yours.

The money and property comes from a variety of sources. They include utility refunds, uncashed payroll checks, unclaimed tax refunds, estates with no known heirs and abandoned safe deposit boxes.

It is the responsibility of employers, businesses, estate trustees, landlords and banks to try and track down people who are owed money or who abandon safe deposit boxes. But if those efforts fail, the assets are sent to the state for safekeeping.

The state receives more than 20 million dollars in unclaimed assets annually. It returns about eight million to those owners.

In one recent Oregon case, two sisters were informed that their mother had left behind a 109-thousand dollar bank account, which was registered at an old address