Florida Woman Finds Unclaimed Insurance Check from 1978

An 85-year-old South Florida woman who went looking for a photo of her ex-husband says she found a $17,500 insurance claim check from 1978 instead.

Barbara Cosgrove found the check, dated Jan. 23, 1978, in an unopened envelope inside a nightstand drawer at her Lauderhill home. She says she doesn’t know why she hadn’t found the check sooner and had looked inside the drawer “a thousand times” before the discovery.

Cosgrove says the check stems from an accident that occurred under the Brooklyn Bridge in 1976. A tarp filled with rainwater fell 200 feet onto her car, damaging the vehicle.

It’s unclear if Cosgrove can claim the money from the check, which was issued by an insurance company that has been declared insolvent and liquidated.