State treasurer opens unclaimed property vaults

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel opened the state's unclaimed property vaults Thursday to look at some of the more unique items, and to remind people that there is more than $600 million waiting to be claimed.

Among the items displayed Thursday were four tickets from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and an uncut sheet of $1 bills. The items came from the 960 safe deposit boxes the office has received since January, according to a news release from Zweifel's office.

The items found in safe deposit boxes are sold at auction, with proceeds held indefinitely for property owners.

One in 10 Missouri residents has unclaimed property, averaging $365, the release said. Most of the property is cash from bank accounts, stocks, bonds and contents from abandoned deposit boxes. The southwest Missouri region, which covers the Springfield and Joplin areas, has $30 million in 300,000 unclaimed accounts.

The state has returned more than $36 million in unclaimed property to more than 100,000 account owners since January 2009.

“Each year, banks throughout Missouri send my office hundreds of forgotten safe deposit boxes and materials left in bank vaults,” Zweifel said in the release. “They do include many unique items – some with monetary value and some with sentimental value. My job is to return them to their owners."

For more information on the state's unclaimed property holdings, visit www.showmemoney.com.