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Well go with me here...

ALL states have an abandoned property law and any accountant can tell you about it.

There are lots of things considered abandoned property and some of them would surprise you.

First, the abandoned property law was at first targeted to banks. Indeed, money left in the bank and unclaimed must go to the state.

Second, did you know that if a vendor goes out of business and another business owes them money, that this money goes to the state also? Not that anyone does it or anything, but if Jane Doe hospital owes Jim Doe medical supply, and the vendor check CANNOT be properly delivered, the money owed the vendor should be turned over to the state.

I consult of a mobile home park and if an owner abandons a mobile home, it goes to the STATE, not the park owner.

The logic is, and there's some small amount of sense to it, that why the hell should the BANK get to keep the money? Why the hell should money owed to a vendor but unpaid for some reason, but why should this money remain with the debtor?

Based on an assumption that EVERYONE benefits in some fashion when unclaimed bank funds, for instance, is turned over to the taxpayers instead of the rich bank keeping it.

I'm not saying I agree with it or anything but just so you know there is a logic to it all. And every year big bucks go unclaimed.

I've filled a gazillion unclaimed property forms and I've always been pretty honest about it. Even that mobile home park, hey I figger let Delaware come and get that abandoned home, more power to them.

As for gift cards, well I dunno. But using the same logic as was used to set up an unclaimed property system in a state, well it would follow that this money maybe should go to the state.

But I dunno. When gubment gets money it usually goes to help political friends so I'm not sure I buy the original assumption.

But unclaimed property is a big deal and it's certainly not new.

The logic is, and there's some small amount of sense to it, that why the hell should the BANK get to keep the money?

It's very simple. Because the Bank was the one who put itself at risk to 'store' the money in the first place.

Do you think the state would come in and make the 'storee' (the person who stored the moeny at the bank) whole if the money wasn't there when he showed up to claim it? Of course not, that transaction wwould be completed by an instituion the bank hired to insure the stored money, probably the FDIC.

The logic you put forth assume the everyting belongs to the state in the first place, and we are only using it by their good graces. A very liberal position.

I went out to the farm one weekend and found 20 head of cattle and a mule eating my grass, drinking my water, and contained by my electric fence. I called the sheriff and asked what I could do. He said if I didn't find the owner and wanted them off the land, they (the sheriff's department) would get them and sell them off with the money going to the state children's home.

I asked if I could keep one as reimbursement for the grass, water, and electricity. Nope, if I took one of the cows, that would be "rustling" and they WOULD charge me.