Cashing in: Hundreds find unclaimed money during Friday event

ROANOKE (WSLS 10) - More than 22,000 people called in to the WSLS 10 unclaimed property phone bank on Thursday, claiming nearly $60,000.

For those who couldn't get through, the opportunity was there to meet face-to-face with the State Department of Treasury on Friday at two locations in downtown Roanoke to check to see if they had any unclaimed cash and some of them cashed in big.

Lyn Day, of Roanoke, said finding $1,500 made her day. "Absolutely, my day, my week my year. I now can celebrate a great Christmas thanks to this," Day said.

The $2,000 was a complete surprise for Joan Jackson.

"It feels great to find money that is owed to you. It feels great," Jackson said.

After years of looking, Peggy and George Jones finally found where their money was.

"I'd been trying to find the money, but didn't know where it was," said Peggy Jones said.

The Jones' were finally able to get the more than $2,500 their insurance company owed them.

"Happy to find it. We paid on it for 20-years in precious dollars and it's coming back in wheat dollars," said George while laughing.

But the big payout of the day; more than $4,000 that couldn't have come at a better time for John and Teresa Whitmore.

"It was exactly what we needed. We needed help," Teresa said. She said they knew they had money, but didn't know where to look.

The Whitmore's have had major life changes recently and feared their money was lost forever.

"It was a godsend. It was a godsend for us, because things had just gotten out of hand. This helps us," Whitemore said.

For a free check that only took a few minutes, they say it was well worth the reward.

Finding out if you have a stack of cash waiting for you is only a click away.

You can go to the state's website to see if you have unclaimed property.


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