ORLANDO, Fla. – Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis today announced that the second 2017 unclaimed property auction, hosted Saturday in Orlando, earned $1.186M.  Nearly 60,000 individual items went up for auction, and every item sold. The highest individual grossing item was a pair of 17.6-carat diamond and platinum earrings with a starting reserve value of $19,000 that sold for $75,000. The pair features two 5.78-carat diamonds, flanked by a total of 112 diamonds.

 

Unclaimed property auctions feature items from safe deposit boxes that have gone unclaimed for years despite exhaustive efforts to return them to their owners. Proceeds from the auction are deposited into the state’s education fund where they work to support Florida’s public school system. However, if a property owner discovers that he or she owned an item that was auctioned, the proceeds from the sale can be claimed any time at no cost.

 

Tangible items from safe deposit boxes make up a small portion of Florida’s total unclaimed property program. Most accounts are intangible financial accounts, such as uncashed payroll checks, life insurance benefits, refunds or credit balances and cable or utility company deposits.

 

Roughly 1-in-5 Floridians has an unclaimed account in their name. During the 2016-17 fiscal year, more than $313 million was returned to Florida residents and businesses. More than $4 billion has been returned since the program’s inception in 1961. To search for or claim an account, visit www.FLTreasureHunt.gov, or call 1-88-VALUABLE or 850-413-5555.