State Treasurer Riley Moore announced that his Office presented Jackson County Schools officials with a donation of approximately $10,000 worth of tools to the county’s Vo-Tech schools – tools provided by the West Virginia State Police and turned over through the state’s Unclaimed Property program.

“I’d like to thank the West Virginia State Police for working with our Office’s Unclaimed Property Division to turn over these tools,” Treasurer Moore said. “This is a good example of how we can use our Unclaimed Property laws to take items that were once used for criminal purposes and instead put them to good use to benefit our communities.”

Treasury staff presented the tools to Jackson County Schools administrators and Ripley High School students Monday afternoon. The tools will be used by students at the Roane-Jackson Technical Center and vocational programs offered by Ripley High School and Ravenswood High School.

“It’s an honor and a privilege to receive these tools from the State Treasurer’s Office,” Jackson County Schools Superintendent Will Hosaflook said. “This donation will allow Jackson County Schools to invest more funds into our vocational programs now that we can save money on purchasing much-needed equipment and tools.”

The tools donation is made possible through the state’s unclaimed property laws, which authorize the State Treasurer and local law enforcement agencies to donate any unclaimed stolen property in police possession – excluding firearms and ammunition – to nonprofit organizations.

The tools in this case were recovered by the West Virginia State Police as part of an investigation into a stolen property ring. While the rightful owners were identified for many of the items belonging to victims of this ring, they were unable to track down the owners of many of the used tools recovered in the suspects’ possession during the investigation.

According to the law, after the stolen property has been determined to have no evidentiary value and has been held by a law enforcement agency for six months, if the rightful owner has either not come forward or the agency determines there is no likelihood it can be returned to a rightful owner, the Treasurer may authorize the donation of the property to a nonprofit organization that can make use of it.

Last September, the State Treasurer’s Office worked with the Charleston Metro Drug Unit to donate more than $10,000 worth of tools to Kanawha County Schools.

The tools donation to the local vocational programs also had special meaning for Treasurer Moore, who launched the Jumpstart Savings Program last July to help students pursuing a career in skilled vocations and trades to save for future jobs.

“We’re proud to be able to help our local vocational training programs because vocational jobs and trades are an important part to our economic future,” Treasurer Moore said. “These are good-paying careers that are desperately needed to rejuvenate our manufacturing base and improve our blue-collar economy here at home.”