Millions of dollars collecting virtual dust in state’s coffers

You may have money – your own money – sitting in the state’s coffers, collecting virtual dust, waiting for you to claim it. All you have to do is go online and get it.

Seattleite Cari Culver is the recent recipient of about $350. Now that she knows about claimyourcash.org, the state website, she tells all her friends.

“Just check and see if you have money under your couch. It’s kinda like that,” she said when I spoke to her about her find.

Related: Seattle bookstores see resurgence in foot traffic

The state has about $1 billion in unclaimed cash: such as uncashed paychecks, utility deposits, insurance payments.

Culver explains how she found out about hers. It’s through someone I know as well, our mutual friend, Lynne Hogan.

“She was just telling me, ‘hey I’m not trying to be creepy but I was just checking my close friends to help them out,'” she said. “Because you know Lynne, she’s an accountant and she looks out for us, and she told me about the site and she said it looks like $100 and so I logged on and it turns out it was about $350.”

Companies are obligated to send unclaimed money to the state Department of Revenue after it’s left untouched for three years. And it’s a lot: about $100 million comes into the state every year.

Lynne Hogan works as a controller, i.e., she manages a company’s accounting. She’s the one who sends the money into the state. That means she’s also in the position of first trying to track down employees and give them their money.

“I had a guy who just didn’t cash his checks from employee reimbursements,” she said. “And you try to chase him down and he doesn’t cash the check and maybe send him a couple checks and then eventually two years later you still have this outstanding check for 360 bucks and by law, you have to send it in.”

It bugs her that so many people don’t realize they have money out there, so she goes through her Facebook friends and looks them up on the state site every year.

“So, maybe I look up a hundred of my closer friends, people who I actually text or talk to on a regular basis,” she said.

She’s the unclaimed property fairy.

Hogan’s stepmom was the recipient with the most ‘winnings.’

“I got her $8,000. That came from escrow when she sold a house in 1974 here in King County,” Hogan explains. “The next biggest would be me, $5,000. The next biggest would be my friend, Lori, also my friend, Jim, $1300.”

When she was a kid in the ’70s, her grandparents bought her oil shares. They were cashed out but she never got the check, not until 30-some years later.

The site is very easy to navigate, but you do have to prove a connection to the address associated with the money.

You very well could be among the 3 million residents in Washington with buried treasure out there.

Seriously, you should check.