Before leaving California a few years ago, my wife and I moved into a rental home for a while so we could more easily sell our house. After the house sold, we of course sent a mail forwarding request to the post office. Some time later, my insurance company sent me a $500+ refund of some kind to our old address. Here’s what happened after that:

1. The post office failed to forward the letter, and instead returned it to the sender.
2. Rather than spending the two minutes it would take to find us (we kept the same phone number), the insurance company instead sent the money to the California state office for unclaimed property.
3. The state deposited the money into the general fund. They never sent me a letter or otherwise made any attempt to contact me.
4. Almost two years after the fact, I accidentally discovered that the state is holding “unclaimed” property in my name (I think “stolen” would be a better word…).
5. I sent the state all of the requested information — ID, proof of address, etc.
6. A few days ago, I received a letter from them saying that their office has received so many claims lately (300,000+ in the last year), that it will take at least six months before they can even look at mine. If the claim involved securities (which mine doesn’t), they said it would take 8 or 9 months, since the securities will have been sold when they were first received and computing the resulting pay-out takes some extra effort. If all provided information isn’t exactly as required, they will request the additional info only after they’ve reviewed the initial claim in 6+ months.

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Interesting video by Naomi Wolf, on the “End of America.”

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