CHEYENNE — The Unclaimed Property Division of the Wyoming State Treasurer’s Office issued 2,389 checks totaling $2.564 million between July 1 and Sept. 30, according to a Tuesday release.

The first-quarter results included $1.07 million paid in the month of September highlighted by a  $125,000 check issued to a Teton County resident and a $102,000 check delivered to a governmental  entity. The Unclaimed Property Division has now issued three six-figure checks this fiscal year as a  former Cheyenne resident received nearly $170,000 in July. 

“We continue to locate individuals with large property values and reunite them with their lost money,” Wyoming State Treasurer Curt Meier said. “While our staff tries to locate individuals owed some of these  high-dollar amounts, the best way to see if you are entitled to any of our remaining $97 million is to visit our website and check for yourself.” 

Those wanting to see if they are owed any of the properties held by the state are encouraged to watch the two-minute instructional video at www.mycash.wyo.gov before searching the online database. Wyoming returned more than $8 million in unclaimed property in the fiscal year that ended June 30, and the State is on pace to break that record amount. 

“It is estimated that one out of every 10 citizens is owed unclaimed property, but you won’t know if you  don’t check,” Meier said. “It only takes a couple of minutes to search our site and then submit a claim if  you find that you are owed any money.” 

Meier said there are more than 900,000 individual properties in the State’s database. While many of  these may only be worth a few pennies, the largest is valued at over $1 million and 38 others are worth at  least $100,000.

“Even if you got a check from us a year ago, it’s worth the time to search to see if any of these new  properties turned over to the State belong to you,” Meier said. “We have received more than $1.7 million  in new funds since the start of this fiscal year, and we anticipate another $8-10 million will get delivered  over the next couple of months.” 

Unclaimed property is turned over when a business, agency or governmental entity owes money, securities and/or the contents of a safe deposit box, among other items, to someone and for whatever  reason cannot locate the owner for a specified duration of time. The property is turned over to the state of  last known address, if an address was ever known. If there was no last known address, it is turned over to the state in which the business was incorporated.

Keeping this in mind, those who ever lived in another state may want to visit www.unclaimed.org and  click on the state (or states) on the map to get redirected to other official unclaimed property sites.

To make a valid claim at www.mycash.wyo.gov or any other state’s site, owners will need to provide information about themselves and may need to submit official documents. This could be as simple as a copy of a driver’s license, but additional documents may be required for those claiming as an heir or a business. 

Wyoming law requires the State to hold unclaimed property in perpetuity until it is claimed by the  rightful owner.