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Unclaimed Property Booth Planned For State Fair

Ervins Strauhmanis, flickr Creative Commons

The Kansas State Fair begins Friday in Hutchinson, and visitors to one booth might come away with money.

The state has more than $300 million of unclaimed assets that need to go back to the rightful owners or their heirs.

So to help track down people with missing money, State Treasurer Ron Estes is setting up an Unclaimed Property Booth at the State Fair.

Estes says last year they matched more than $750,000 to respective owners.

"It's about 1 out of 3 or 1 out of 4 folks that come up to the booth," he says. "If they don't have money, maybe a child does or maybe a brother, sister, aunt, uncle or parent does, and so there's actually a lot of money found that way."

According to Estes, they have returned more than $13 million to Kansans, so far this year.

Unclaimed property comes from forgotten bank accounts, insurance premium overpayments, refunds, abandoned safe-deposit boxes and other property.

The booth will offer access to a computerized database so fair attendees can search for and claim property.

The State Treasurer’s Unclaimed Property booth will be located in the Meadowlark Building. The State Fair runs through September 20.

Kansans are encouraged to continue searching for unclaimed property throughout the year by visiting www.KansasCash.com or calling 1-800-432-0386.

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Follow Deborah Shaar on Twitter @deborahshaar.

To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.

Deborah joined the news team at KMUW in September 2014 as a news reporter. She spent more than a dozen years working in news at both public and commercial radio and television stations in Ohio, West Virginia and Detroit, Michigan. Before relocating to Wichita in 2013, Deborah taught news and broadcasting classes at Tarrant County College in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area.