Rare coins, jewelry and keepsakes taken from safe deposit boxes of about 2,000 "lost" Californians will be auctioned today and Friday, but a random check by The Times has raised questions about the adequacy of efforts to find the owners.
In a 24-hour period immediately before the massive sale, The Times was able to find and contact one-quarter of the owners of so-called abandoned property from a sample list of 24 individuals supplied by the state controller's office.
If the sampling is representative, The Times' investigation shows that perhaps hundreds of these owners of so-called abandoned property could be found through routine computer checks. But California law prohibits the controller's office from making such efforts to search for the 6 million individuals--or their heirs--who have $2.4 billion in unclaimed property held by the state.
The controller's office says it's up to financial institutions to find the rightful owners of abandoned safe deposit boxes. For their part, bank representatives say the banks do everything required by law to contact rightful owners.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, after questions from a Times reporter, state officials pulled two Purple Hearts from the auction and asked the California Legislature to exempt military medals from future auctions.
State law requires banks to hand over the contents of boxes or other bank accounts that are inactive for three years, but the banks are first supposed to make an effort to contact the owners. However, only one of the six individuals reached by The Times said such notification had been received.
Three said they were shocked that their property had been turned over to the state, or escheated, and say there could have been no effort made to notify them because none of them had changed residences in decades. Two of the three said they maintain active checking accounts with the same bank that turned over the contents of their safe deposit boxes as "abandoned" property.
"I thought the jewelry was in my [safe deposit] box," said Alice Rabinovitch, 88, of Beverly Hills when contacted by a reporter about the pending auction of her jewelry Wednesday morning. "I have the key."
The controller's office said its last attempt to contact any of these individuals was by a form letter mailed more than three years ago. To send a follow-up would be a violation of state law, says Julie Bornstein, chief deputy controller of external affairs.
