State Treasurer Cary Kennedy had $64,000 to give away Sunday, but the lady on the other end of the line was skeptical.
“She doesn’t believe it is hers,” Kennedy told media members gathered in her office to witness workers calling potential claimants for money and other property saved in the state’s unclaimed-property program.
A few more questions from Patty White, the director of the program, and the woman, who wasn’t identified, was digging through her memory to determine how she could have come into possession of a $64,145.56 savings bond and then forgotten she had ever owned it.
Then the woman remembered. She had purchased the bond with money she inherited from her brother. Since she paid for it with found money, it had slipped her mind, said White.
“It was a $64,000 phone call,” White said.
Kennedy kicked off the 2010 Great Colorado Payback campaign Friday, and by Sunday afternoon 48,000 claims had been filed.
In the 20 years since the program began, the state has returned to owners almost $200 million of unclaimed property reported to the State Treasurer’s Office by financial institutions, insurance companies and other businesses.
Under state law, public and private organizations must surrender to the state assets they have held for someone they can’t contact for five years.
Kennedy’s office holds on to them until an owner claims them.
The state can sell nonmonetary items after five years and keep the proceeds for the owner to claim.
Last year, the state returned a cool $25 million, Kennedy said.
Sometimes, the property is a paycheck left behind by an employee who moved without leaving a forwarding address with the company, Kennedy said.
And sometimes it is the contents of a forgotten safe-deposit box. A 6.2-carat canary-yellow diamond, appraised on PBS’s “Antiques Roadshow” at $80,000, is among the valuables waiting to be claimed.
This year, 80,000 names have been added to the list for $50 million worth of unclaimed property.
Included on the list are six people with more than $100,000 worth of unclaimed property and one with more than $500,000 in unclaimed property, Kennedy said.
The names, published in The Denver Post on Sunday, are a small chunk of the full database of potential claimants, gathered over the past 20 years, which now totals 1.5 million names.
Those who believe they are in line for some of the loot can contact the treasurer’s office any time throughout the year.
The full list is available at www . Potential claimants can call 303-866-6070 or 800-825-2111.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
