UPDATE: As of 3 p.m. Wednesday, WINK News Call for Action has recovered $284,514.12 for Southwest Floridians.

It's your money that you've left behind somewhere, and the state has been holding onto it.

Between 5 and 7:30 p.m., we turned our newsroom into a phone bank -- volunteers searching through the state's unclaimed property to see if any of it belongs to our viewers. 1,605 people found money they forgot they had!

As fast as a volunteer could hang up the phone, it was ringing again with WINK News viewers hoping to find a little cash they had forgotten.

"It's cash accounts, bank accounts, utility deposits, paychecks, insurance refunds and things of that nature," Rick Sweet, Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Unclaimed Property, says.

All -- totaling $1.5 Billion of your unclaimed money.

Watching from home with her granddaughter, Tina Saunders called WINK News to check for herself.

"I got two claims, and I'm like ohmygod, I couldn't believe it!," Saunders says.

She's now $500 richer and plans to use it to take her granddaughter on a trip for her birthday.

"It's like winning the lottery for me," Saunders says. "Five-hundred dollars isn't much, but it is to me."

Saunders says the money came from an aunt that had put it in a bank account for her as a kid and from a paycheck owed to her from an old job in Miami. Both are common reasons for missing out on your money.

"Know where your money is for sure, and if you move, make sure the companies you're doing business with know your new address," Sweet advises.

Otherwise it will just in state coffers forever.

"It is their money," Sweet says. "It doesn't belong to us, and our entire mission is to reunite people with assets they forgot about."

And it's not just cash. Safe deposit boxes left behind for more than five years will be auctioned off.

"If it's sold before you claim it, you won't get your watch or ring back, but whatever money is generated at the sale, claim that and that money is there forever for you or your heirs to claim," Sweet says.

There is an auction in Fort Lauderdale this Friday and Saturday. Registration starts at 8 a.m. and the auction begins at 10 a.m. The state auction will be held at Embassy Suites at 1100 SE 17th Street.

You can still check for your unclaimed property by logging on to www.fltreasurehunt.org. Click on the sun that says "Search For Unclaimed Property," then type in any variation of your name to see if you have any luck!