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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; A tip passed on to Darren Snyder paid off with him finding $29,064 in unclaimed property for the city.</p><p>On Monday, Snyder, the city controller, sent out notarized forms signed by Mayor Tony George to the Pennsylvania Treasury Department to cash in on checks, rebates, dividends and refunds dating back decades.</p><p>Snyder on Tuesday said he&#8217;s expecting the city to receive a check for the total amount once the paperwork is processed.</p><p>But Snyder won&#8217;t claim all the credit for his discovery.</p><p>It started with &#8220;a guy from California&#8221; who was on the Treasury Department&#8217;s website and searching the <a href="https://www.patreasury.gov/unclaimed-property/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">unclaimed property database</a>, Snyder said.</p><p>&#8220;He mentioned he saw some items for the city,&#8221; Snyder said.</p><p>Retracing the route of the tip that ended up with him, Snyder identified the source as Thomas Kanarr, a 1970 graduate of King&#8217;s College living in Palms Springs.</p><p>Kanarr, who retired as treasurer and finance director of Palm Springs, said he while he was still on the job he scoured California&#8217;s unclaimed property website. He estimated he found $100,000 for Palm Springs.</p><p>&#8220;Just a couple of years ago I started searching in Pennsylvania,&#8221; he said, limiting it to family who still live in Northeastern Pennsylvania.</p><p>Kanarr discovered a few for King&#8217;s when Elizabeth Brando, who is in charge of Major and Planned Giving in the school&#8217;s Office of Institutional Advancement, visited earlier this year.</p><p>&#8220;After she left I thought, &#8216;I wonder if the city of Wilkes-Barre has anything,&#8217;&#8221; Kanarr said. He found some, but couldn&#8217;t find a good contact in the city to pass it along. So he reached out to Brando.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s kind of like a hobby for him,&#8221; Brando said of the Kanarr&#8217;s web search.</p><p>&#8220;He was the treasurer of the city of Palm Springs for 30 years,&#8221; she added.</p><p>Brando said she passed on the information from Kanarr to the school&#8217;s controller and to Snyder&#8217;s wife, Kelly, who also works in the Office of Institutional Advancement.</p><p>Snyder said his wife told him to look at the Treasury&#8217;s website. He found 18 entries in his initial search and received a claim letter on June 6. A follow-up inquiry located another 13 items that he asked to be added to his claim.</p><p>Snyder provided the Times Leader a list of the items. The earliest was a $60 expense check dated Dec. 31, 1983, from King&#8217;s College.</p><p>Other items included:</p><p>&#8226; $1.36 check from United Parcel Service Inc. dated Sept. 6, 2008 to the city.</p><p>&#8226; $62.88 in dividends dated Jan. 25, 2000 from Scudder High Income Fund A to the Wilkes-Barre Police Death Benefit Fund.</p><p>&#8226; $1,000 check dated Sept. 18, 2001 from Pfizer Inc. to the Wilkes-Barre Health Department.</p><p>&#8226; $7,289.10 in credit balances dated May 13, 2013 from Dell USA LP to the city.</p><p>&#8226; $8,016.47 claims payment check dated Feb. 25, 2000 from Hospital Services (sic) Association of Northeastern PA (formerly Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania) to the city.</p><p>City Administrator Rick Gazenski credited Snyder for his efforts.</p><p>&#8220;We were thrilled to find that out,&#8221; Gazenski said. &#8220;It&#8217;s pretty exciting to find that kind of money.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Wilkes-Barre City Controller Darren Snyder</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/web1_Darren-Snyder.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wilkes-Barre City Controller Darren Snyder</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jerry Lynott</p><p>jlynott@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

With some help Wilkes-Barre controller finds $29K in unclaimed property for city