WLBT 3 - Jackson, MS: Treasure Hunt - Mississippi's Unclaimed Property

Treasure Hunt - Mississippi's Unclaimed Property

By Marsha Thompson - bio | email

Times are tough. The economy is tanking. But there is a silver lining. 40- million dollars up for grabs and it belongs to Mississippians.

There's a little known goldmine in Mississippi, laying in wait for gold diggers. Millions of dollars in unclaimed property that rightfully belongs to you. Dormant funds that businesses report to the Mississippi Treasury Department.

Knowing 1 in every 5 Mississippians has money waiting for them to just claim it, we set out on our quest to find the rightful owners.

Once again we are on our treasure hunt we have our trusty maps, the phone book. We located an address on West Northside Drive.  No one was home.  It looked vacant.  Records indicated the former resident had over 6 thousand dollars coming to them. 

Then we traveled to an Eastover address in Jackson. No one lives there. They would have had over 6-thousand dollars.

Finally pay dirt!  We tracked down Hugh Addision and posed this question, "Do you know you have over $853.20 coming to you?"

He was flabbergasted.

This 62- year old Jackson man hit the jackpot. He will soon receive long overdue money from an insurance company.

"Whew, it couldn't have come at a better time," said Addison, who has been down on his luck.  His home needs work and his car is broken down.

Ironically Addison was clutching the list of free money, sent out by State Treasurer Tate Reeves. He even knew he had money coming.

"I put the paper down and figured after the holidays I'll take a good look" Addison said.  

He never bothered to follow up. 

Not far away, Sandra Davis was in disbelief when our search turned up hundreds of dollars for her. "How about $606.23 that's yours. We found it for you at the State Treasure's office." 

"It was a great day and I sure do appreciate it" Davis replied.

Our spot check of the Treasurers list even turned up a member of the WLBT family, Robin Smith. $700.18. Money in the bag, that Robin had no idea existed from an old insurance policy.

She immediately did a dance for joy. A dance for money.

You can do the money dance to, a simple check of unclaimed property held by the state treasurers office can be a life changing event.  

Unclaimed property consists of dormant funds that businesses report to the Mississippi Treasury department. 

Businesses such as banks, savings and loan companies, insurance companies and travelers' check companies are required by law to report these monies to the state treasury after funds have been dormant for five years.

The Treasurer's office attempts to contact owners of the unclaimed funds by mailing a notice to the last known address, publishing the names every three years in statewide newspapers, and circulating the names to county court houses.

Mississippians can check for unclaimed property on the Treasurer's web site at www.treasurertatereeves.com or call 1-601-359-3600.

All unclaimed funds of $50 or more are listed by the owner's last name.