Do you have unclaimed cash?

Grand Rapids - Everybody is looking for more money, including many city and county governments and schools. As agencies across the state trim budgets, we surprised some officials with cash they didn't even know they had.

Kent County projects it will be $3 million in the red next year. That's why WZZM 13 went searching for green, and we found it online.

Online databases for unclaimed cash are frequently used by individuals hoping to get their hands on unclaimed money, but governments, businesses and even schools are listed there too.

We took the results of our search to the county treasurer. "Certainly when you have two amounts that are for $4,000 and $18,000 those are worth investigating," said Kenneth Parrish Kent County Treasurer.

The figures are part of a long list totaling more than $24,000 due to Kent County. We also found $2,000 owed to Muskegon Heights Public Schools, and $7,000 owed to the city of Muskegon, and much, much more to government agencies, businesses, even hospitals, all of it unclaimed.

"Checks get misplaced people die and leave assets where their family members are unaware of those assets," explained Gonzalo Llano, who heads up the Unclaimed Property Division of Michigan's State Treasury.

Money, safe deposit boxes, stocks even gift certificates haven't been touched for at least five years. Only a small fraction of it is being claimed.

"We received about $195 million and paid out about $35 million," said Llano. Llano notifies potential owners by publishing their names on an unclaimed property list online. Anyone can search for missing money. If you get a hit, you must fill out and file a form.

As far as Kent County, the $24,000 dollars we found could be used to buy 24 computers or nine life-saving defibrillators. It could pay a part-time Kent County Sheriff's deputy's salary for a year, purchase one patrol car, or fill the tanks of 574 others. Kent County administrator Daryl Delabbio helped us do the math, but he says most likely the money will go into the general fund to help offset the deficit.

"While $24,000 is a fair amount of money, in a $330 million dollar budget it's a very small, small, small percentage," said Delabbio.

But Parrish says in the future he won't overlook the unclaimed cash.

"Probably the one thing that will come out of this is we'll probably establish a regular schedule for checking the website."

As with any abandoned property, Kent County will have to provide proof the money belongs to them. It is possible it could turn out belong to someone or some business that has the same name.

The state says it expects to set a record and return more than $40 million worth of property this year. If you'd like to see if your name, business, or county government is on the list, click on the links on the right-hand side of this page.