State Treasurer Roby Smith is highlighting some sports memorabilia from unclaimed bank safety deposit boxes that has been turned over to the state.
A baseball signed by Pete Rose and other Cincinnati Reds players was in a box rented by Jonathan Pederson of Mason City. The treasurer is seeking the public’s help in tracking down Pederson’s family so the baseball can be turned over to them. “Whenever you have something that is signed by a number of people, especially a very good team in the ’70s like ‘The Big Red Machine,’ there are some very valuable signatures there,” Smith said this morning.
After the owner of a safe deposit box has not paid rent, banks keep the box, including the one rented by the Mason City resident, for at least three years before turning it over to the State Treasurer’s office. “Chances are on this occasion, he’s probably passed away, so we’re looking for the heirs so we can give it back to them,” Smith said.
During a news conference today, Smith displayed the baseball signed by the Cincinnati Reds along with baseball cards and other sports memorabilia banks have turned over to the treasurer’s office. “These items belong to real Iowans and their heirs and we’ve commited to finding the rightful owners and returning these one-of-a-kind keepsakes,” Smith said.
A Michael Jordan card is among the items and while it’s not a rookie card, the most valuable Jordan card on the market, Smith believes it’s from a 1998 Gatorade promotion. The state treasurer said they’re hoping to track down Scott Myers of Des Moines, Russell Wirth of Manilla and Jeremy O’Connor of Granger or their relatives to claim sports-related keepsakes that are in the state treasurer’s vault.
Smith said over the past 12 months his office helped return a record amount of unclaimed cash and property to Iowans that banks had turned over to the state treasurer’s office. There’s a state website that lists all the unclaimed cash, bonds, utility refunds, or other items that have been turned over to the state. “I encourage every Iowan to just take a few minutes to visit Great Iowa Treasure Hunt to search their name,” Smith says. “You never know what you might find.”
Smith’s office processed over 53,000 claims during the past 12 months, returning nearly $36 million in cash and another $2.4 million dollars’ worth of property abandoned in Iowa banks.
