08/27/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 08/27/2024 09:21
NOTE TO MEMBERS OF THE MEDIA: Photos of the event are available on Google Drive.
Pittsburgh, PA - Treasurer Stacy Garrity and ABC News' Good Morning America (GMA) teamed up to return more than $17,000 in unclaimed property to parents, students, and employees on freshman move-in day at the University of Pittsburgh on Sunday, August 18.
"We had an incredible day at Pitt connecting so many people with unclaimed property that they had no idea was waiting for them. Everyone's still getting hit by inflation, so we're working harder than ever to get this money back where it belongs - in the pockets of hardworking Pennsylvanians. DeMarco Morgan and the entire GMA team are incredible to work with, and they do an amazing job of encouraging people across the country to search for unclaimed property. Huge thanks to GMA and Pitt for an amazing event!"
Treasurer Garrity, her staff and GMA anchor DeMarco Morgan returned $17,159.94 worth of unclaimed property to more than 30 people. Members of the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity were surprised to learn that their chapter had $10,912.64 waiting to be claimed. Other returns included more than $1,500 that a student found for his father, and thousands of dollars for other parents who were on campus to help their children move into Pitt's dorms.
Pennsylvania Treasury has teamed up with GMA to return unclaimed property at two other events, returning more than $8,000 to fans at Pocono Raceway in July 2024 and over $255,000 to football fans of Spring-Ford Area School District in November 2023, which included $231,000 owed to the district itself.
Unclaimed property includes things like dormant bank accounts, uncashed checks, insurance policies, contents of forgotten safe deposit boxes and more. State law requires businesses to report unclaimed property to Treasury after three years of dormancy.
Treasury is working to return more than $4.5 billion in unclaimed property to its rightful owners. More than one in ten Pennsylvanians is owed unclaimed property, and the average claim is worth about $1,600.
To learn more about unclaimed property and to search Treasury's database, visit patreasury.gov/unclaimed-property.