They call it Missouri's largest lost and found.
A half billion dollars in money that belongs to people like me and you. It's being held by the state of Missouri until the rightful owners or heirs claim it.

The account is holding money for one in ten Missourians, and even if you've already checked... it may be time to look again.

Scott Harper is the director of Missouri's Unclaimed Property Division. His staff keeps track of nearly $500-million that Missourians have lost track of.

“It could be life insurance, uncashed payroll checks, utility deposits,” he says. “The fastest growing area of unclaimed property is securtities- mutual funds, stocks, and securities related property.”

The state gets the money after 5 years if a bank or a company hasn't paid you the money it owes you or can’t locate you... the law requires them to hand it over to the state.

Despite the sheer volume it's Monica Boone's job to find some of the two million people on the state's database. She says most people are a little suspicious at first. “I just want people to know it’s legitimate.”

“They're like, okay you work for the state and you expect me to believe that you're going to give me money,” said Harper.

But unclaimed property is more than just money....

Each year the state gets about 800 safe deposit boxes.

Just like money, banks are required to clean out and hand over abandoned safe deposit boxes to unclaimed property. Missouri just received hundreds of envelopes containing the contents of abandoned boxes. They can literally contain anything.

“We had a complete change of clothes, a ski mask and a gun,” Harper said.

To reach as many people as possible, the state created a website, www.showmemoney.com. Click here to view the site.

That way you can check yourself to see if you have any money... and while you're online-- check your friends and family.
“If they spend 15-20 minutes searching names of friends and family,” Harper said. “They're going to find someone they know.”

By law Missouri has pay back unclaimed property for the rightful owner forever... ... no matter how long it's held.
Each year Missouri returns about somewhere around 20 million dollars, but each year they also get millions more.