Treasure hunting isn’t just for pirates.

The State Treasury is also looking for valuables, but unlike those plundering, peg-legged swashbucklers, Treasury officials are looking to return items to their rightful owners.

On Wednesday, State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald presented a check worth over $7,000 to St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids that hospital officials were able to relocate by searching the Great Iowa Treasure Hunt’s website.

The Great Iowa Treasure Hunt was created in 1983 to help Iowans reconnect with valuables they may have lost or forgotten.

“We want to return people’s money,” Fitzgerald said. “That’s our number one priority.”

The treasurer’s office is currently holding over $222 million in unclaimed funds, over 2.3 million shares of stock, and a large amount of personal items left or forgotten in accounts or safety-deposit boxes.

Fitzgerald said people and businesses often overlook money they’re entitled to because they either move, something was lost in the mail, or they simply didn’t know the money was there in the first place.

The largest amount ever returned to a single person was over $1 million in cash returned to a Sioux City resident in 2004.

The treasurer’s office says it usually spends between five and seven years trying to return valuables to individuals. If they are unsuccessful, by law the state must hold regular auctions on personal items. The proceeds from those auctions are placed in the state general fund.