Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers have found coronavirus infections in pet cats and dogs and in multiple zoo animals, including big cats and gorillas. These infections have even happened when staff were using personal protective equipment.

More disturbing, in December the United States Department of Agriculture confirmed the first case of a wild animal infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Researchers found an infected wild mink in Utah near a mink farm with its own COVID-19 outbreak.

Are humans transmitting this virus to wildlife? If so, what would this mean for wild animals – and people too?

How viruses hop between species

We are two scientists who study viruses in wildlife and are currently running a study investigating the potential for SARS-CoV-2 transmission from humans into domestic and wild animals.

When viruses move from one species into another, scientists call it spillover. Thankfully, spillover doesn’t occur easily.

To infect a new species, a virus must be able to bind to a protein on a cell and enter the cell while dodging an immune system the virus hasn’t encountered before. Then, as a virus works to avoid antibodies and other antiviral attackers, it must replicate at a high enough volume to be transmitted on to the next animal.

This usually means that the more closely related two species are, the more likely they are to share viruses. Chimpanzees, the species most closely related to humans, can catch and get sick from many human viruses. Earlier this month, veterinarians at the San Diego Zoo announced that the zoo’s troop of gorillas was infected with SARS–CoV–2. This indicated it is possible for this virus to jump from humans to our close relatives.

Some viruses tend to stay in a single species or in closely related species, while other viruses seem innately more capable of large species jumps. Influenza, for example, can infect a wide variety of animals, from sparrows to whales. Similarly, coronaviruses are known to regularly jump between species.

The question of how many and which species can be infected by SARS-CoV-2 – and which ones might be able to support continued circulation of the virus – is an important one.

Searching for COVID-19 in wildlife

For human-to-wildlife spillover of SARS-CoV-2 to occur, an animal needs to be exposed to a high-enough viral dose to become infected.

The highest-risk situations are during direct contact with humans, such as a veterinarian’s caring for an injured animal. Contact between a sick person and a pet or farm animal also poses a risk, as the domestic animal could act as an intermediate host, eventually passing the virus to a wild animal.

Another way COVID-19 could spill over from humans into animals is through indirect infection, such as through wastewater. COVID-19 and other pathogens can be detected in waste streams, many of which end up dumped, untreated, into environments where wildlife like marine mammals may be exposed. This is thought to be how elephant seals in California became infected with H1N1 influenza during the swine flu pandemic in 2009.

To study whether spillover of SARS-CoV-2 is happening, our team at Tufts is partnering with veterinarians and licensed wildlife rehabilitators across the U.S. to collect samples from and test animals in their care. Through the project, we have tested nearly 300 wild animals from over 20 species. So far, none – from bats to seals to coyotes – have shown any evidence of COVID-19 by swab or antibody tests.

Other researchers have launched targeted surveillance of wild animals in places where captive animals have been infected. The first confirmed infection in a wild mink was found during surveillance near an infected mink farm. It’s not yet clear how this wild mink got the coronavirus, but the high density of infected minks and potentially infectious particles from them made it a high-risk location.

Bad for animals, bad for humans

When a virus infects a new species, it sometimes mutates, adapting to infect, replicate and transmit more efficiently in a new animal. This is called host adaptation. When a virus jumps to a new host and begins adapting, the results can be unpredictable.

In late 2020, when SARS-CoV-2 jumped into farmed mink in Denmark, it acquired mutations that were uncommon in humans. Some of these mutations occurred in the part of the virus that most vaccines are designed to recognize. And it didn’t just happen once – these mutations independently arose in mink farms multiple times. While it’s not yet clear what impact, if any, these mutations may have on human disease or the vaccine, these are signs of host adaptation that could allow novel variants of the virus to persist and reemerge from animal hosts in the future.

Another risk is that SARS-CoV-2 could cause disease in animals. Ecologists are especially concerned about endangered species like the black-footed ferret, which is closely related to minks and thought to be very susceptible to the virus.

Human-to-wildlife spillover has happened before. In the late 20th century, the Ebola virus jumped from humans into great apes and has resulted in devastating consequences for these endangered animals. More recently, a human respiratory virus has been detected in threatened mountain gorilla populations and has caused deaths as well.

But perhaps the biggest risk to humans is that spillover could result in the coronavirus establishing a reservoir in new animals and regions. This could provide opportunities for reintroduction of COVID-19 into humans in the future. This month researchers published a paper showing that this had already happened on a small scale with human–to–mink–to–human transmission on mink farms in Denmark.

While our team has found no evidence of COVID-19 in wild animals in the U.S. at this time, we have seen convincing evidence of regular spillover into dogs and cats and some zoo animals. The discovery of the infected wild mink confirmed our fears. Seeing the first wild animal with natural COVID-19 is alarming, but sadly, not surprising.

Jonathan Runstadler, Professor of Infectious Disease and Global Health, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Tufts University and Kaitlin Sawatzki, Postdoctoral Infectious Disease Researcher, Tufts University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has many more new dogs this week ready for adoption.

Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Belgian Malinois, German Shepherd, husky, Labrador Retriever, mastiff, pit bull and Rottweiler.

Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.

The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).

Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm for information on visiting or adopting.

Male Rottweiler

This male Rottweiler has a short black and brown coat.

He has been neutered.

He is in kennel No. 10, ID No. 14315.

Male pit bull terrier

This male pit bull terrier has a short blue and white coat.

He is in kennel No. 11, ID No. 14314.

German Shepherd-husky mix

This male German Shepherd-husky mix has a medium-length coat.

He is in kennel No. 16, ID No. 14309.

Female pit bull terrier

This young female pit bull terrier has a short tan coat.

She is in kennel No. 18, ID No. 14306.

Male pit bull terrier-hound

This young male pit bull terrier-hound mix has a medium-length brown coat.

He is in kennel No. 19, ID No. 14276.

Male pit bull terrier

This male pit bull terrier has a short black and white coat.

He is in kennel No. 20, ID No. 14295.

Female pit bull terrier

This female pit bull terrier has a short brown and black coat.

She is in kennel No. 21, ID No. 14310.

Female German Shepherd

This female German Shepherd has a medium-length black and tan coat.

She is in kennel No. 22, ID No. 14316.

Female pit bull terrier

This female pit bull terrier puppy has a short black and white coat.

She is in kennel No. 23, ID No. 14305.

Female pit bull terrier

This senior female pit bull terrier has a short blue and white coat.

She is in kennel No. 24, ID No. 14299.

Pit bull-mastiff mix

This male pit bull-mastiff mix has a short chocolate coat.

He is in kennel No. 26, ID No. 14287.

Male German Shepherd-husky mix

This male German Shepherd-husky mix has a medium-length black and tan coat.

He has been neutered.

He’s in kennel No. 28, ID No. 14307.

Male Belgian Malinois

This young male Belgian Malinois has a medium-length red and black coat.

He is in kennel No. 29, ID No. 14269.

Male pit bull terrier

This male pit bull terrier has a short gray coat.

He has been neutered.

He is in kennel No. 32, ID No. 14271.

Female German Shepherd-husky mix

This young female German Shepherd-husky mix has a short black and tan coat.

She is in kennel No. 34, ID No. 14308.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

BERKELEY, Calif. – Apart from black holes, magnetars may be the most extreme stars in the universe.

With a diameter less than the length of Manhattan, they pack more mass than that of our sun, wield the largest magnetic field of any known object — more than 10 trillion times stronger than a refrigerator magnet — and spin on their axes every few seconds.

A type of neutron star — the remnant of a supernova explosion — magnetars are so highly magnetized that even modest disturbances in the magnetic field can cause bursts of X-rays that last sporadically for weeks or months.

These exotic, compact stars are also thought to be the source of some types of short gamma ray bursts (GRBs): bright flashes of highly energetic radiation that have puzzled astronomers since they were first detected in the 1970s. Several of these giant magnetar flares have been detected within the Milky Way Galaxy.

But because they are so intense that they saturate detectors, and observations within the galaxy are obscured by dust, space scientist Kevin Hurley at the University of California, Berkeley, and an international team of astronomers have been looking for these same flares in galaxies outside our own for a clearer view.

That 45-year effort is paying off. A short gamma ray burst detected last April 15 from a galaxy 11.4 million light years away shows a clear signature that Hurley thinks could help astronomers find magnetar bursts more easily and finally gather the data needed to check the many theories that explain magnetars and their gamma ray flares.

“We have got what we believe are four solid detections since 1979 of extragalactic giant magnetar flares, two of them almost identical bursts from different galaxies,” said Hurley, a senior space fellow with UC Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory. “It leads us to believe that there may be kind of a template emerging that is going to help us identify them more quickly in the future. My hope is that the pace will now accelerate because we know a lot better what we are looking for.”

Hurley and three colleagues will report the GRB discovery by various U.S. and European satellites and its implications at a media briefing on Wednesday, Jan. 13, at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society and in three papers appearing simultaneously in the journals Nature and Nature Astronomy.

Giant magnetar bursts

GRBs, the most powerful explosions in the cosmos, can be detected across billions of light-years. Most of those lasting less than about two seconds, called short GRBs, occur when a pair of orbiting neutron stars spiral into each other and merge.

Astronomers confirmed this scenario for at least some short GRBs in 2017, when a burst followed the arrival of gravitational waves — ripples in space-time — produced when neutron stars merged 130 million light-years away.

But not all short GRBs fit the neutron star merger profile, Hurley said. Specifically, of the 29 magnetars within our Milky Way Galaxy known to exhibit occasional X-ray activity, two have produced giant flares that are different from the bursts from these mergers.

The most recent of these detections was on Dec. 27, 2004, an event that produced measurable changes in Earth’s upper atmosphere, despite erupting from a magnetar located about 28,000 light years away.

Since the late 1970s, Hurley has operated the InterPlanetary Network (IPN), a 24/7 effort to plow through data from many spacecraft — currently five, capturing some 325 gamma bursts per year — in hopes of finding more giant magnetar flares. That network was key to capturing the April 15, 2020, flare.

Shortly before 4:42 a.m. EDT on that Wednesday, a brief, powerful burst of X-rays and gamma rays swept past Mars, triggering the Russian High Energy Neutron Detector aboard NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft, which has been orbiting the planet since 2001.

About 6.6 minutes later, the burst triggered the Russian Konus instrument aboard NASA’s Wind satellite, which orbits a point between Earth and the sun located about 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) away. After another 4.5 seconds, the radiation passed Earth, triggering instruments on NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and the European Space Agency’s INTEGRAL satellite.

Analysis of data from the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) on NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory provided additional insight into the event.

These data showed that the pulse of radiation lasted just 140 milliseconds, the blink of an eye.

Hurley and Dmitry Svinkin of Russia’s Ioffe Institute, a member of the IPN team, used the arrival times measured by the Fermi, Swift, Wind, Mars Odyssey and INTEGRAL missions to pinpoint the location of the April 15 burst, called GRB 200415A, squarely in the central region of NGC 253, a bright spiral galaxy located about 11.4 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor. This is the most precise sky position yet determined for a magnetar located beyond the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite of our galaxy and host in 1979 to the first giant flare ever detected.

“This was the most accurately localized magnetar outside of our galaxy so far, and we’ve really pinned it down now, not just to a galaxy, but a part of a galaxy where we expect star formation is going on, and stars are exploding. That is where the supernovas should be and the magnetars, too,” Hurley said. “The April 15 event is a game changer.”

Flashes from a lighthouse

The giant flares seen within the Milky Way look a bit different from those from nearby galaxies because of distance. Astronomers have documented that giant flares from magnetars in the Milky Way and its satellites evolve in a distinct way, with a rapid rise to peak brightness followed by a more gradual tail of fluctuating emission. These variations result from the magnetar’s rotation, which repeatedly brings the flare location in and out of view from Earth, much like a lighthouse.

Observing this fluctuating tail is conclusive evidence of a giant flare — a smoking gun, Hurley said. For magnetar flares millions of light-years away, however, this emission is too dim to detect with today’s instruments. For this reason, giant flares in our galactic neighborhood may be confused with more distant and powerful merger-type GRBs.

The new observations reveal multiple pulses, with the first one appearing in just 77 microseconds — about 13 times the speed of a camera flash and nearly 100 times faster than the rise of the fastest GRBs produced by mergers.

“The combination of the rise time and decay time, we think, may be showing us a template, because we have seen it before — we saw it back in 2005, with another event, almost the carbon copy. And the energy spectrum of the two were also similar,” Hurley said.

Fermi’s Gamma-ray Burst Monitor also detected rapid variations in energy over the course of the flare that have never been observed before.

“Giant flares within our galaxy are so brilliant that they overwhelm our instruments, leaving them to hang onto their secrets,” said Oliver Roberts, an associate scientist at Universities Space Research Association’s Science and Technology Institute in Huntsville, Alabama, who led the study of Fermi data. “For the first time, GRB 200415A and distant flares like it allow our instruments to capture every feature and explore these powerful eruptions in unparalleled depth.”

Starquakes and magnetic field reconnection

Giant flares are poorly understood, but astronomers think they result from a sudden rearrangement of the magnetar’s magnetic field. One possibility is that the field high above the surface may become too twisted, suddenly releasing energy as it settles into a more stable configuration. A mechanical failure of the magnetar’s crust — a starquake — may trigger the sudden reconfiguration.

“The idea is that you have this superstrong magnetic field coming out of the star, but anchored to the crust, and the magnetic field can twist, exerting pressure on the crust. The crust has an elastic limit, and after you exceed that elastic limit, it cracks. Then, that crack sends out waves into the magnetic field, and those waves disrupt the field, and you can get reconnection and energy release and gamma rays,” Hurley said.

Roberts and his colleagues say that the data show some evidence of seismic vibrations during the eruption. The researchers say this emission arose from a cloud of ejected electrons and positrons moving at about 99% the speed of light.

The short duration of the emission and its changing brightness and energy reflect the magnetar’s rotation, ramping up and down like the headlights of a car making a turn.

Roberts describes it as starting off as an opaque blob — he pictures it resembling a photon torpedo from the “Star Trek” franchise — that expands and diffuses as it travels.

The torpedo also factors into one of the event’s biggest surprises. The highest-energy X-rays recorded by the Gamma-Burst Monitor reached 3 million electron volts (MeV), or about 1 million times the energy of blue light.

The satellite’s main instrument, the Large Area Telescope, or LAT, also detected three gamma rays with energies of 480 MeV, 1.3 billion electron volts, or GeV and 1.7 GeV — the highest-energy light ever detected from a magnetar giant flare. What’s surprising is that all of these gamma rays appeared long after the flare had diminished in other instruments.

Nicola Omodei, a senior research scientist at Stanford University, led the LAT team investigating these gamma rays, which arrived between 19 seconds and 4.7 minutes after the main event. The scientists concluded that this signal most likely also came from the magnetar flare.

A magnetar produces a steady outflow of fast-moving particles. As these particles move through space, they plow into, slow and divert interstellar gas. The gas piles up, becomes heated and compressed, and forms a type of shock wave called a bow shock, like the ripples in front of a moving boat.

In the model proposed by the LAT team, the flare’s initial pulse of gamma rays travels outward at the speed of light, followed by the cloud of ejected matter, which is moving nearly as fast. After several days, they both reach the bow shock. The gamma rays pass through.

Seconds later, the cloud of particles — now expanded into a vast, thin shell — collides with accumulated gas at the bow shock. This interaction creates shock waves that accelerate particles, producing the highest-energy gamma rays after the main burst.

The April 15 flare proves that the 2020 and 2004 events constitute their own class of GRBs, Hurley said.

“A few percent of short GRBs may really be magnetar giant flares,” said Eric Burns, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge who led a study that identified additional extragalactic magnetar suspects. “In fact, they may be the most common high-energy outbursts we’ve detected so far beyond our galaxy — about five times more frequent than supernovae.”

While bursts near the galaxy M81 in 2005 and the Andromeda galaxy (M31) in 2007 had already been suggested to be giant flares, his team identified a newly reported flare in M83, also seen in 2007. Add to these the giant flare from 1979 and those observed in our Milky Way in 1998 and 2004.

“It’s a small sample, but we now have a better idea of their true energies, and how far we can detect them,” said Burns, whose study will appear later this year in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Robert Sanders writes for the UC Berkeley News Center.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County’s Public Health officer said Friday that COVID-19 cases continue to surge and there is a huge demand for the vaccine locally.

In a Friday update, Dr. Gary Pace reported, “We continue to see a huge surge of cases in Lake County, our highest rate ever. The hospitals are feeling the stress, but keeping patient flow moving and maintaining a high standard of care.”

He added, “This is probably the worst phase of the pandemic, and we don't know how long it will last.”

As of Friday, Lake County had 2,656 total COVID-19 cases and 32 deaths.

Pace urged county residents to stay home as much as possible, wear masks and stay distant. “This is the most crucial time to take extra precautions.”

To date, more than 2,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Lake County, Pace said.

He said vaccine distribution around California is managed by the State Department of Public Health, with the small amount coming into California is allocated to each county, based on population.

“We have been getting about 400 doses per week over the last month,” Pace said.

Given the strong interest in vaccination, the state set up priority phases so the most vulnerable, and those working with the vulnerable, could get the vaccine first, Pace explained.

Pace said Phase 1a – mainly healthcare and emergency workers – has been generally completed in Lake County.

“In early Phase 1b, we have been focusing on vulnerable elders – the people most likely to die if they get infected – and teachers and school staff so as we open the schools, they can be protected,” Pace said.

Pace said vaccinations are provided through the community medical providers, especially Adventist and Sutter Clinics, which have their own supplies of vaccine, along with other local clinics.

Safeway Pharmacy in Lakeport also received some doses of the Moderna vaccine this week. Pace said they are offering appointments for those eligible Monday through Friday, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and 2 to 5 p.m., starting Monday, Jan. 25. Make an appointment here.

Public Health has begun new vaccine sites. Pace said they are held on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in Lakeport at the Lake County Fairgrounds, 401 Martin St., and Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays at the Clearlake Senior Center, 3245 Bowers Ave.

The clinics are by appointment only, so Pace asked that no one show up without an appointment. He said there are still no appointments generally available to the public.

School personnel will be contacted by their school district when their name comes up on the list. Seniors will be contacted by the senior centers and others helping to contact the most vulnerable.

People from the Phase 1a that did not previously get vaccinated can contact the Health Department to be placed on a list.

“Remember, there is not nearly enough vaccine for everyone that wants it, so patience is important at this time,” Pace said.

He also asked people not to call the senior centers or the school districts, as they have been getting an overwhelming number of calls. “They will reach out as they work through their lists,” Pace said.

“We hope to keep moving forward with getting as much of the community vaccinated as quickly as possible, and are ordering as much supply as we are able,” Pace said. “Hopefully, the supply will improve in the coming weeks. New doses are ordered weekly, and we aim to get vaccine doses out within a week of when we receive them. Getting the most vulnerable people at the front of the line is important. Be patient, we are trying to get the vulnerable elders and specific groups of workers taken care of first.”

With more free time on their hands, a growing interest in securing their own food, coupled with the needs for physical outlets and mental relief as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, more Californians turned to fishing and hunting last year.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife issued nearly two million sport fishing licenses in 2020, an 11 percent increase from 2019.

Of those, 1,201,237 were annual resident sport fishing licenses, a 19 percent increase over 2019. Not since 2008 has CDFW issued as many sport fishing licenses as it did last year.

California hunter numbers also spiked. CDFW issued nearly 300,000 California hunting licenses in 2020, a nine percent increase from the previous year. Of those, 244,040 were annual resident hunting licenses – an 11 percent increase from the previous year.

About 16 percent of the annual resident hunting licenses issued last year – 43,450 – went to first-time license holders.

Another 12 percent of those hunting licenses – 31,835 – went to reactivated hunters, meaning residents who didn’t purchase a California hunting license in 2019, but held one in a prior year.

“We recognize it’s important to provide an outlet for recreation, mental and physical health during these difficult times, and we’ve worked hard as a department to keep hunting and fishing opportunities open, available and safe as much as possible,” said CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham. “We’re especially excited to welcome so many new hunters and new anglers of all ages and all backgrounds. A California fishing or hunting license is a passport to outdoor adventure and a gateway to healthy living, environmental stewardship, good times and lifetime learning.”

Hunters and anglers play a crucial role in managing natural resources by regulating wildlife populations to maintain ecological and biological diversity, participating in surveys for scientific data collection and reporting wildlife crimes.

Hunters and anglers also help sustain a multibillion-dollar outdoor recreation industry and provide a significant funding source for fish and wildlife conservation in California.

Amid the global pandemic in 2020, CDFW created new virtual learning resources for hunters and anglers while instituting COVID-19 safeguards and precautions on the ground to keep hunting and fishing opportunities open and safe for both staff and participants.

Among those efforts:

– The Harvest Huddle Hour, or R3H3, debuted. Part of CDFW’s R3 initiative to recruit, retain, and reactivate hunters and anglers in California, the virtual seminar series for beginning adult audiences is intended to increase knowledge and confidence around skillsets required to harvest wild food in California. The seminars, archived online at the CDFW website, included “Intro to California Inland Fishing,” “Bag and Possession Limits and Gifting Your Take,” “Intro to Foraging,” “Tackle Box Basics” and “Intro to Turkey Hunting.” More topics in hunting, fishing, foraging and the shooting sports are planned for 2021.

– Beginning in May, CDFW’s Hunter Education Program allowed aspiring hunters to complete their hunter education requirements entirely online. Prior to COVID-19, California offered a traditional in-person course or a hybrid online/in-person class with a certified Hunter Education Instructor.

– CDFW’s Hunter Education Program also moved its Advanced Hunter Education Clinics – focused on the how-to of hunting – to an online, webinar format in 2020. The webinars, archived online at the CDFW website, included “Waterfowl Reservation System and Refuge Operations,” “Waterfowl Wednesday,” “Upland Opportunities” and “Band-tailed Pigeons – What They Are and How to Hunt Them.” More topics are planned for 2021.

– CDFW’s Fishing in the City Program, which provides angling opportunities for city dwellers and suburban residents, continued with trout and catfish plants in neighborhood park ponds and suburban lakes even though it had to suspend in-person fishing clinics. Fishing in the City created a series of “learn to fish” videos to help newcomers get started in fishing – and help parents get their kids started in fishing.

– CDFW instituted COVID-19-related safeguards and operational changes at all state-operated wildlife areas and refuges — popular with hunters, anglers, wildlife watchers, hikers, and others — to keep these areas open and accessible throughout 2020 and into 2021.

Editor’s note: This is an updated and corrected version of an article that originally was published on Jan. 23.

Anyone settling a decedent’s estate should investigate the possibility that property belonging to the decedent’s estate, or an inheritance to which the decedent has a claim, escheated to the state.

Escheat is the legal process by which a person or institution with custody of a property belonging to another deposits the property with the state. Escheat is done for safekeeping the property to be returned to the rightful owner.

Under California law, generally speaking, tangible or intangible property that is abandoned or unclaimed for a period of over three years by an owner, whose last known address is in California, escheats to the state. Unclaimed property that escheats to California is transferred by the holder of the property to the state controller.

The escheat rules regarding when property must be transferred from a holder to the controller vary depending on the asset type, such as: (1) An inactive deposit bank account where the owner has left the account dormant (no activity), has not corresponded with the bank electronically or in writing, and has not otherwise indicated an interest in the deposit escheats to the State after a period of 3 years of dormancy; (2) a safe deposit box that is unclaimed by the owner from more than 3 years from the date on which the lease or rental period, or date of termination, on the box expired; and (3) for stocks and bonds, when any dividend, profit, distribution, interest or payment on principal is made but goes unclaimed by the owner.

Prior to escheating the holder of the property must notify the owner that the unclaimed property may be transferred to the State if the owner does not contact the holder. With an incapacitated person the agent under a durable power of attorney (or successor trustee in the case of trust assets) could take action to prevent the escheat. With a deceased owner, the personal representative of the decedent’s probate estate, the successor trustee of the decedent’s trust, or a surviving heir with a small estate claim could take action.

Once deposited with the state controller, the person entitled to the property has five years to claim the property. California, and other states, allow anyone to search their online records of unclaimed property using the owner’s name. Just Google, “California unclaimed property search” to pull up the controller’s website.

When the property of a deceased person escheats, the Attorney General has two years after the owner’s death to petition the Superior Court in Sacramento County to determine that California is entitled to the escheated property. Upon filing the petition the court will issue an order requiring all persons interested in the estate to appear and show cause within 60 days of the order why the estate should not vest in the state. If legal proceedings to administer the estate have been instituted, such as a probate, a copy of the order must be filed in those proceedings.

If a resident of California dies without a will and without any heirs – or dies with heirs who cannot be contacted — and a probate is instituted then any assets remaining after paying the decedent’s creditors and taxes escheats to the state. The probate court will order distribution to the controller who keeps the property for 5 years from the distribution order. After 5 years the property escheats to the state.

Fortunately, as of 2015 California Escheat law provides that property rarely permanently escheats to the state. That is, the property can still be claimed years later. That fact makes it more worthwhile searching California’s unclaimed property records to claim escheated property.

Dennis A. Fordham, attorney, is a State Bar-Certified Specialist in estate planning, probate and trust law. His office is at 870 S. Main St., Lakeport, Calif. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and 707-263-3235.