State Has Money for Peters Township Schools, Peters Police and You

Each year, the Pennsylvania Treasury receives millions of dollars in unclaimed property, including abandoned bank accounts, forgotten stocks, uncashed checks, certificates of deposit, life insurance policies, safe deposit box contents and recovered stolen property. 

Most of this unclaimed property is owed to individual residents. (Read below to find out how to search for yourself or for a relative). However, there are a number of municipalities, school districts, fire and police departments, civic groups, and other organizations that also have money waiting for them.

The state website identifies the property as either "under $100" or "over $100" and the source of the property. A quick (and by no means complete) search of the state's website shows that:

• "Peters Township" is owed money/property from Eli Lilly and Company.
• "Peters Township Police Department" is owed money/property from Washington County Clerk of Courts.
• "Peters Township Schools" is owed money/property from Kellogg Company.
• "Peters Township Tax Office" is owed money/property from Equitable Production Co.

Just last week, state Treasurer Rob McCord let libraries in the state know about unclaimed money owed to them. McCord said that the more than $232,000 that his department holds for these organizations represents just a fraction of the $1.9 billion in unclaimed property that the Treasury currently seeks to reunite with businesses, organizations and citizens.

McCord encouraged everyone to search the Treasury's free unclaimed property database at http://www.patreasury.gov/unclaimedproperty.html or call 1-800-222-2046, Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. A member of the Treasury's Return Team can assist with the search and claim process.

Some tips for searching for municipalities, institutions, businesses and individuals:

• Try the search several ways, for instance: "Peters," "Peters Township," "McMurray," "Township of Peters."
• Search for dead relatives.
• Search for yourself under maiden name and/or former addresses.
• If you see your name with a ZIP code that's a digit or two off from yours, check it out. Perhaps the reason that you never got the check is that someone transposed your ZIP numbers.