BATON ROUGE, La (BRPROUD) – It’s like winning the lottery without having to buy a ticket.
Millions of dollars are being sent out to thousands of people in Louisiana and they are coming from the state treasurer’s office.
“This is lost money. This is your money,” said John Schroder, Louisiana’s State Treasurer.
His office is able to compare unclaimed property records to revenue records, update addresses and send out automatic checks without you having to search and do claim forms. That means 35,000 checks are being sent out across the state equaling more than $4 million dollars.
The money comes from a variety of things ranging from utility or apartment deposits, lost checking accounts, and even unused gift cards. The challenge, Schroder said, is getting the money back to its rightful owner.
“If you don’t get a check, you can still, doesn’t mean you don’t have money in our system. We have 900 million dollars. These checks are going to people that we have found. It’s a daily work in progress where we’re out searching trying to find people,” said Schroder.
You can see if you have unclaimed property by clicking here.