Perdue presents unclaimed property checks 
Released 6-16-04

     MARTINSBURG – State Treasurer John Perdue presented unclaimed property checks Wednesday worth $165,000 to three Eastern Panhandle families, during a ceremony at a Martinsburg assisted living complex.
     Francisco Sabado, a Martinsburg physician, received unclaimed securities checks totaling $82,000. The treasurer presented the estate of Keyser’s Mary Staggers with an $81,000 check and Ralph and Nell Hesse with $2,000 as the proceeds from a life insurance policy.
     In addition to presentation of the checks, the treasurer supplied local media on hand a list of Eastern Panhandle residents who have unclaimed property coming to them. The list included residents in Jefferson, Berkeley, Mineral, Morgan and Hampshire counties.
     Mrs. Hesse’s mother took out the policy, payable upon her death. As it turns out, Nell had to wait awhile – her mother lived to be 98. She died seven years ago. The insurance company turned the money over to the state treasury when the Hesses didn’t immediately claim it.
     The Hesses are both 80 and live at Lookout Pointe, an assisted living complex. Perdue presented all three checks there.
     Unclaimed property is any personal asset due an individual. By law, holders of unclaimed property must report those assets to the treasury during a certain time period.
     The treasurer’s staff then sets about locating the actual owners of the property, through the publication of newspaper inserts, the work of field representatives and other public relations efforts.
     “We are thrilled to reunite these people with their property,” Perdue said. “That’s why our unclaimed property division exists and why we are returning unclaimed property at a record rate.”
     West Virginia led the nation last year in returning 70 percent of the property it took in. The state is exceeding that pace this year, having returned $6.9 million of $8.4 million, an 82 percent rate.