Exclusive: $4 Billion In Valuables, Priceless Artifacts Among Unclaimed Property Stored In Harrisburg Vault
HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBS) -- $4 billion. That's the amount of cash, gold, and other unclaimed property stored in a big vault in Harrisburg that might belong to you.
The vault is deep under the Pennsylvania treasurer's office in Harrisburg. It holds a lot of high-value items like jewelry and some things that are priceless.
"This is the bronze star we're going to be returning. Every medal, every ribbon, it tells a unique story," Pennsylvania state treasurer Stacy Garrity said.
For Garrity, it's a priority to return these military medals to the families of Pennsylvania veterans.
"They're especially near and dear to my heart because I am a veteran, an Army veteran," Garrity said. "It's a way for us to say thank you for their selfless service to our nation."
The unclaimed medals are among so many items stored in the treasurer's vault, like letters, old revolvers and plenty of jewelry.
"Here is a note from Albert Einstein. There are some diamond watches. We have some very nice diamond rings. You'll see these diamond-encrusted opera glasses," Garrity said.
All this stuff mostly comes from abandoned safety deposit boxes and police evidence rooms.
"If the property was dormant for three years it ends up at treasury," Garrity said.
The owners of all this are all a mystery. That includes whoever these pieces of silver belong to.
"This would be the same owner, presumably in the Philadelphia area, and these are just more pieces of silver," Garrity said.
The treasury also keeps track of unclaimed cash.
Here's a breakdown by counties in our area of unclaimed money.
People in Delaware, Chester and Bucks Counties each have more than $100 million unclaimed; Montgomery has more than $230 million; Philly has almost $640 million in unclaimed cash.
"It's not the state's money. We really need to return it to our hardworking Pennsylvania families and a lot of them could use it," Garrity said.
After three years inside the vault, most of the items are auctioned off. But people can check if they have any property here on the treasurer's website.
