Each year in the United States, hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of unclaimed property - especially stock certificates, jewelry left in safe-deposit boxes, and seemingly forgotten money in checking accounts - are turned over to state governments by banks and companies that cannot locate the owners. The states, in turn, try to find these people.
在美国，每年都有价值数千万美元的私人财产无人认领，其中包括股票证券、银行保险箱里的珠宝首饰，以及在银行活期存款帐号上显然已经被遗忘的钱。由于找不到主人，银行或者公司不得不把这些东西和钱上交给州政府，由州政府负责去寻找主人。
The mid-South state of Arkansas even makes a game of it. It calls it "The Great Arkansas Treasure Hunt."
美国中南部的阿肯色州甚至把这种“失物招领”变成一个游戏，叫做“大阿肯色州寻宝行动”。
Each October, every newspaper in the state publishes a special section. There are no stories in it. No photographs. No advertisements. Nothing but page after boring page of names and people’s last known addresses. State auditor Charlie Daniels and his staff hope that people identified in that list will contact them and claim their cash and personal property.
每年10月，州里的每份报纸都会推出一个专版，上面没有报导，没有照片，没有广告，有的只是非常单调的人名名单以及这些人最后为人所知的地址。阿肯色州审计员查利·丹尼尔斯和他的同事们希望相关人士看到那个名单后，能够和他们联系，找回属于自己的个人财产。
Last year, that unclaimed treasure trove of everything from cash to diamonds and guns was valued at $22 million.
去年，包括现金、钻石和枪支在内的无人认领物品总价值达到2千200万美元。
Charlie Daniels’ office puts the cash in the bank and the valuables in two big safes in the capital of Little Rock. It even holds onto some items that have only sentimental value, like World War Two medals, that are starting to turn up regularly, now that so many veterans of that war are dying. The state has even been known to hold onto false teeth and urns of cremated human remains.
审计员丹尼尔斯和同事们把无人认领的现金存在银行，把其它贵重物品放在首府小石城的两个大保险箱里。他们保存了一些只有情感价值的东西，比如二战勋章。这种无人认领的勋章现在慢慢多起来了，因为越来越多二战退伍军人离开人世。阿肯色州政府甚至会保存假牙，以及骨灰盒。
The right of the owner - or that person’s lawful heir - to claim this property or money never expires. Each year in Arkansas alone, about 15,000 families who join in the treasure hunt discover that they have inherited valuables they never knew existed. No lottery ticket anywhere can match the Great Arkansas Treasure Hunt’s decent odds of paying off - sometimes quite handsomely.
不管是物品的主人还是法定继承人，他们认领这些物品的时间没有期限。每年，仅仅在阿肯色州一个州，大约就有1万5千个参加寻宝行动的家庭会发现，他们居然能够继承到一些价值不菲而且他们以前从来不知晓其存在的物品。没有哪个州的彩票可以和大阿肯色州寻宝行动相比，因为寻宝行动常常会给人带来有时是相当可观的一笔财富呢。 |