The Mississippi State is home to some of my favorite things- catfish, sweet potatoes, and rootbeer (invented in Biloxi in 1898). Mississippi’s Treasury Department has also become home to something that’s on top of my list and probably yours as well – money. Mississippi unclaimed money, to be exact. “Nearly 1 in 5 Mississippians have money representing over $38 million that needs to be claimed,” stated Mississippi State Treasurer Tate Reeves in a recent press release. This is certainly good news for the numerous families that suffered hurricane losses in recent years, and are now dealing with serious setbacks in their budgets.

According to a recent report by NBC’s Dateline, a number of lucky Mississippians were recently reunited with their lost funds and it was actually a pleasant shock for most of them. A Biloxi, MS resident found out he had $30,000 from an investment his deceased father didn’t tell him about. A couple who had lost everything to the recent hurricane received $250,000 from Mississippi unclaimed property. Another woman who was struggling to rebuild homes for her mother and herself received $100,000. Gordon White, was in the middle of building his dream home when Katrina hit and was forced to live in a trailer had $200,000 from bank stock shares his father had kept secret. One of the biggest claims given-out yet was to a Vietnam veteran who was forced to retire from his job as a company supervisor due to post-traumatic stress. Turns-out he was owed almost a million dollars from old company stocks he had forgotten about after retiring from said company.