Arlette Hulsey Thompson, who lives in Madison's Sandalwood subdivision, has been investigating, from her home, the unclaimed properties (money) which belongs to many people across the State of Mississippi.
She has found the unclaimed money across all 82 counties as listed in public records on the website of the Office of Treasurer of Mississippi's State Government, Mississippi, United States.
So she has uncovered on the website owners of the matching funds belonging to the identity of the owners, and vice versa.
She estimates that more than 150 organizations and individuals with unclaimed funds of over $5,000 have been contacted by her in order to connect citizens with their own unclaimed property (unclaimed money.)
"I've been called Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, Mrs. Claus," she said. "I don't want anything. You can buy me a gift card at Newk's if you want. $311,000 is the biggest claim that she brought to the attention of someone.
"It's like when you lose a wedding ring and people with metal detectors volunteer to help you find it."
Thompson has figured out how to download the unclaimed spreadsheet data from the state treasurer website and then sort by the most amount of money and by county. From there, she finds people with a lot of unclaimed property and tracks them down to notify them. "I've only had one person hang up on me." She tracks down the people through Facebook LinkedIn and White Pages. In many cases, she helps businesses and non-profits claim their money.
She then helps them collect the money by giving them the claim number and explaining the next step.
She recalls helping one elderly lady claim $79,000. The lady was in dire financial straits and couldn't afford food and medicine.
She called another lady who had $129,000 in unclaimed property. The lady was driving. Thompson suggested she pull over before revealing the $129,000. "The lady told me it was a good thing you asked me to pull over because I nearly fainted."
She has stated that she does her work as a way to connect other people with their own unclaimed money, and, in her own words, she is motivated by a love for compassion and kindness. She states she does it for the enrichment of her own life and for the help of others on their own journey.
Her personal journey is to reach as many people as possible on all 82 county lists for unclaimed property.
Mrs. Thompson said she has reconnected, across all Mississippi, including in Madison County alone, more than $888,000.
Mrs. Thompson journey started with her own county in Madison County and later went to Hinds County and Rankin County next. After those counties, she moved to reach users in other counties, all of which were contacted via Facebook, LinkedIn, and other public profiles on other major social media sites.
Her starting points for contacting individuals are publicly available information tables located on the treasurer's website and then moving to find and contact such individuals on social media. She checks if they are alive using both sites and verifying with published obituaries who they are and if they were alive or dead.
When contacting people, when she finds out the person linked to the unclaimed property has died, she tries to contact the person's family members to inform them of the unclaimed property, which she stated has been welcomed as a "welcomed monetary gift."
It is a monetary gift sought by everyone that is looking for it, without distinction, for all people.
The project is welcome to everyone.
"I am not doing this for pay. I don't want anything. You do not have to pay me back. Only if you want, perhaps you can buy me a gift card at Newk's but you do not have to do anything.Don't feel obligated to do anything, I am only doing this to be kind and generous to all who need it."
Regarding her attitude about the project, she said "It's just doing what normal people would do to help other people."
Regarding her reception, she stated "I have only had one person hang up on me."
