Last month, a Bellevue attorney found money that was missing from King County's pocketbook and reported on the Internet by the people who have it.

Richard Pope, a Republican activist, did what he thought any citizen would do: He notified the county and offered to help recover the "unclaimed property" — or money — that had been collected by the state because the county hadn't touched it in years.

For his services, Pope asked for a one-third finder's fee.

"While this price might seem steep, and might result in very good compensation for myself for relatively little work," Pope wrote June 16 in an e-mail to the county executive, Metropolitan King County Council members, prosecutor and sheriff, "it should hopefully result in King County taxpayers recovering tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars that they would have never otherwise realized."

The county's reply? Thanks, but no thanks.

What Pope found was almost 400 listings of unclaimed property belonging to King County and its various agencies on Washington state's Department of Revenue Web site — money in the form of bank accounts, stocks, bonds or company refunds that the county had never cashed, used or known about.

How this happened is anyone's guess. Bob Cowan, director of the county's Office of Management and Budget, said his staff has looked into the unclaimed-property listings and can't figure out either the total amount or how so many listings ended up there.

Cowan disagreed, though, with Pope's assertion that tens of thousands of dollars or more may be involved.

"The likelihood these are large payments is very remote," Cowan said. And "it certainly wouldn't be money that the county invested" and lost track of, he said.

But neither he nor Department of Revenue spokesman Mike Gowrylow could say how much all the listings add up to.

Under state law, if a bank account, safe-deposit box, utility deposit, stock, bond or uncashed check sits idle for three years, it is considered abandoned by the owner. The state takes it to protect the money from criminals who prey on idle accounts.

The money is put to work in the state's general fund, paying for statewide projects or services like K-12 education, and the Department of Revenue tries to find the rightful owner.

King County's listings on the state's unclaimed-property Web site show many are refunds from mortgage companies, hospitals and utilities, uncashed money orders or payments that the county never received.

"So how did these things never get to us if they had our name on them?" Cowan asked.

The listings include money owed to King County Superior Court and the Department of Youth Services. Many show "over $75" available to claim. Others are in the $25-50 or $50-75 ranges.

Gowrylow said most county and municipal governments in the state have unclaimed property. Money owed to Snohomish and Pierce counties and the city of Seattle also is listed.

He said the Department of Revenue has contacted each government about its listings. But "the flip side is you can't make the people claim the money," Gowrylow said. "Sometimes it's a bigger bookkeeping headache than it's worth."

Cowan said that might be the case with King County. County policies say that if money belongs to a certain division or agency, it cannot be put into a general fund.

"If you had to do all the research [to identify the correct agency] it would cost maybe more than we recover," Cowan said. Despite that, he said the county is working on a way to recover all the money at once rather than filing a claim for each listing.

Pope, who is running for Pat Davis' seat on the Port of Seattle Commission, said the fact that King County had not claimed the money and doesn't know where it came from speaks to a bigger issue. "When you have government losing hundreds of things, that's a big concern," Pope said. "We just had an election where there were hundreds of discrepancies in ballots."

The day after his first e-mail, Pope wrote back to county officials.

"My suggestion of charging the county a 1/3 fee to recover lost property was intended solely as a satirical comment," he wrote. "I have done more research into the unclaimed property issue, and state law doesn't allow a charge of more than five percent. ...

"Somebody really ought to do something about all this unclaimed King County money."

Nick Martin: 206-464-3896 or nmartin@seattletimes.com