Jul 3, 2009 8:36 pm US/Pacific
Call Kurtis: Aged Unclaimed Property
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ―
Hans "Dutch Gravert came to the U.S. from Germany in 1924. Last year his daughter-in-law Sharon Gravert was checking the State Unclaimed Property site and she found something for him. Sharon says;
"It was shares and I thought he passed away so many years ago. I don't have any records."
The folks with the Unclaimed Property program told her it was seventy-seven shares of American Balanced Fund.
"If I do this I've got to go back and find the death certificates, the marriage license, and all of this. Is it really going to be worth it? They s aid oh no you really need to do this."
Dutch died in a car accident in 1959. Sharon's husband Robert was his only child. Sharon needed vital statistic records and addresses to tie it all together. She submitted the paperwork a year ago this month. Unclaimed Property told her to wait six months. She did, but nothing happened. So Sharon called them.
"This is ridicules. We have to wait, you said six months. I waited and now you say it hasn't even been assigned yet."
Soon after that conversation she got a letter asking for more information. Finally on May 29th the claim was approved, but still no money. It was going to be another eight to twelve weeks, but she still had no idea how much she'd be getting.
"It's like they have it and they're going to keep it."
As we reported in our prior investigations, the Controllers Office sells what they consider unclaimed stocks not long after they take them over.
Only after we called the State, the controllers Office finally pinpointed the date as November 13, 1992 when the s tock was sold. They said the Gravert's were owed $1041.33, but because there is no budget, it will be mailed out next week in the form of an IOU.
"They need to change the procedure if this is the normal routine, and I think it is the normal routine."
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