If you get a letter in the mail or an automated phone message from state Treasurer Shane Osborn in the next few weeks, pay attention.

Open the letter.

Don't hang up.

It likely means you have money coming your way, if you want it, from either unpaid state checks (called warrants) or from the traditional unclaimed property.

About 22,000 letters went out Friday to people who have an uncashed state check of at least $20, according to Alex Kauffman, director of unclaimed property.

Some checks are much bigger.

The largest is $76,000 to the treasurer of Guam. There's also $65,000 to Cisco Systems, $33,000 to Qwest, $24,000 to a Valentine pharmacy, $19,000 to the Nebraska Urban Indian Health Coalition, $17,000 to the FBI, $22,446 to an individual and $15,000 to the Children's Hospital in Omaha, according to Kauffman.

These are often Nebraska state payroll checks, child support payments and tax refunds that have been lost, misplaced, or forgotten by Nebraska residents.

The total - $10 million -has been accumulating since mid-2001, Kauffman said.

The treasurer will also be calling more than 50,000 people with automatic messages telling them they have unclaimed property available through Osborn's office.

The calls - 100 an hour -will begin Tuesday, as a new way to notify people, Kauffman said.

The calls begin with, "The following is an official notification from the state." Then Osborn delivers the message about unclaimed property.

The treasurer's office has always dealt with unclaimed property - generally stocks, bonds, insurance policies, checking and savings accounts, and items left in safe deposit boxes - that private businesses are required to turn over to the state.

Osborn's office offers an online list of potential owners of unclaimed property. That list is also printed in Nebraska newspapers in March.

But until this month the state did not search out and notify people who had uncashed Nebraska state checks.

In fact, only 1,200 checks were reissued in the past decade, Kauffman said.

However, under a new state law, the state treasurer's office can try to locate these people. Nebraska may be the first state to look for the owners of uncashed state warrants, Kauffman said.

"We wanted to be proactive," Osborn said of the search for owners of the uncashed state checks.

The money from uncashed state checks will actually be returned through the state's Risk Management Division.

The letter about state warrants will likely arrive early this week from Osborn's office and will include the form necessary to request the money from the Risk Management Division, Osborn said.

The treasurer's office has used skip tracers, the same companies that track down people for collection agencies, to find accurate addresses and telephone numbers for the check or unclaimed property owners or heirs, Osborn said in a telephone interview.

"Collection agencies try to find people and collect debts. We use the information to find people and give back money," he said.

Using skip tracers is the reason that the treasurer's office has been able to return record amounts of unclaimed property, he said.

About $14.2 million in unclaimed property went back to owners and heirs last year, Kauffman said.

Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com.