Crawford County residents have $9.7 million in unclaimed property

Jul. 26—Crawford County residents have a total of $9.7 million in unclaimed property being held by state government, and Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity is eager to help them get it back.

Garrity, during a visit to the county on Monday, spoke with The Meadville Tribune on the issue of unclaimed property and the process by which people can reclaim their missing items or money. It is not an uncommon situation, with Garrity saying that one in 10 Pennsylvanian residents has unclaimed property and a total of around $4 billion-worth going unclaimed statewide.

"It comes to Treasury from a variety of places," she said. "It's typically in a financial institution, if you've had an account go dormant after three years — so if after three years there's been no contact with your bank — then the property is turned over to Treasury. So it could be abandoned safety deposit boxes, it could be uncashed checks, it could be an old bank account that somebody had when perhaps they were in college and they forgot about it, utility rebates, you name it."

Reclaiming that missing property is, in most cases, relatively easy. For the majority of cases, the resident can just look up their name at patreasury.gov/unclaimedproperty. If the person has unclaimed property, they'll only need their driver's license to be able to get the items, with the whole process taking around five minutes.

Garrity said the claiming process was simplified in June 2021, as previously residents needed more forms of documentation.

"We really tried to take the red tape out and make it easy for people to get it," she said.

In the case of tangible property, such as items left in a safety deposit box, the Treasury will hold on to those items for at least three years. If they can't find the person after that point, they'll auction the item off in twice-annual auctions held in the spring and the fall.

However, the Treasury then holds on to the money from those auctions in perpetuity, allowing the original owner to at least get money back from their missing items. Garrity said on average the amount claimed is $1,500, which can be a helpful sum at a time when inflation is so high.

There is an exception to this. Military medals are never auctioned off, even as they are a frequently added item to the Treasury's vault. Garrity said since she took office on Jan. 19. 2021, her office has returned 226 medals, but still have more than 500 left.

"These can be medals, campaign ribbons from every branch of service from every major conflict," she said. "Purple Hearts, Bronze Stars, Meritorious Service Medals, you name it. We have a lot from the Korean War, some Vietnam and World War II campaign medals."

Tracking down the veterans who had these medals can take "a fair amount of detective work," Garrity said, but all worth it. She recalled a recent incident on Memorial Day weekend where the Treasury returned a Bronze Star to a family in Westmoreland County who had a World War II veteran in the family. The Bronze Star had been held in a safe deposit box of one of the veteran's sons who passed away before it was retrieved.

"It came to Treasury, we found it, we tracked them down," she said. "They were delighted because they had the uniform of their dad in a shadow box, they had all his medals in a shadow box and they had a Purple Heart that he had but they were missing that Bronze Star. They thought they'd never get it back."

As a veteran herself — Garrity served in the United States Army Reserve, retiring as a colonel — returning those medals is among the most important things she does.

In the case of deceased unclaimed property owners, direct family members — such as spouses, parents, siblings or children — can claim the property with a few extra steps, something Garrity said her office would be able to assist with.

All unclaimed property is held in the Treasury's vault, which is the largest working vault in the United States. Built in 1939, the vault has 400 tons of steel, with the front door alone weighing 60 tons.

"Our vault is way cooler than the vault in 'Ocean's Eleven,'" Garrity said, referencing the 2001 film. "Except that we don't have George Clooney."

The Treasury Department will have a booth at the Crawford County Fair from Aug. 21-27, where representatives will be able to help residents with information on retrieving unclaimed property. The booth also will promote other Treasury programs, such as PA 529, which helps residents save money for post-secondary education for their kids, offering significant tax benefits, and PA ABLE, which gives residents with disabilities a way to save money without affecting their federal benefits. More information on those programs can be found at PA529.com and PAABLE.gov.

Sean P. Ray can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at .