During a visit to Wyoming County on Friday, May 9, State Treasurer Larry Pack presented the Wyoming County Sheriff’s Office with an unclaimed property check worth more than $8,000 from his Office’s firearms auction held in March.

“It’s always a great day when my Office can return this money to our state and local law enforcement agencies so they can better serve their communities,” Treasurer Pack said. “The Wyoming County Sheriff’s Office sold 66 firearms during our most recent auction in Charleston on March 27. I’m proud this money will help them improve operations.” 

The Wyoming County Sheriff’s Office on Friday received a check valued at $8,355.50 – one of the largest amounts collected from the live onsite firearms auction.

Wyoming County Sheriff Brad Ellison said the funding will be transferred into their special law fund to allow them to purchase new equipment. 

“As we update our sheriff’s department, there’s equipment out there that is not always available because we don’t have the funding in general in the county to do that, so it just helps us if we need other equipment to better equip our officers on the road,” Sheriff Ellison said.

Law enforcement agencies work with the Treasurer’s Office’s Records/Security Division year-round to clear out their inventory. Wyoming County Sheriff’s Captain Tommy Blankenship said it can be a lengthy process.

“Whenever we take guns into evidence once the case is closed out or they’re no longer of any evidentiary value, we try to return them to the rightful owner if we can find a rightful owner that’s legal to possess the guns. If we can’t find the rightful owner, I will submit a request to the Treasurer’s Office for them to be sold at the auction for the Treasurer’s Office,” Captain Blankenship explained.

State and local law enforcement agencies are allowed to turn over any unclaimed, seized or outdated firearms in their possession to the Treasurer’s Office for auction. These include weapons that are older and no longer used by a department, or that have been seized as evidence and sitting in storage rooms for an extended amount of time.

Treasurer Pack recently announced the March firearms auction raised $132,495 to benefit the 18 participating law enforcement agencies, including the Wyoming County Sheriff’s Office. There were 277 lots up for bid consisting of 624 firearms and 700 pounds of ammunition, which made it the largest firearms auction by volume in Office history. The Office has sold a total of $208,160 in firearms including funds generated from two online auctions held in March and April.

Since the fiscal year began on July 1, 2024, the Office’s Unclaimed Property Division has returned more than $35 million to rightful owners, surpassing the $28 million that was returned to rightful owners during Fiscal Year 2024. 

For more information about the unclaimed property program or to find out if the Office is holding any money for you, visit www.WVUnclaimedProperty.gov.