I don't know about you, but if I received a check from an insurance company in the amount of $17,500, it's highly unlikely that I would forget about it.  But, that's exactly what happened to a Florida woman, according to a story in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. 

Eighty-five year old Barbara Cosgrove was looking for a photo of her ex-husband in a drawer of her nightstand when she came across the insurance claim check, dated January 23, 1978, in an unopened envelope!  She said she doesn't know why she hadn't found the check sooner and had looked inside the drawer a thousand times before the discovery.  Never mind that - how in the world do you ever forget about a check that big??  We're not talking about a ten-dollar check that was stuck inside a birthday card - it's in the amount of $17,500!

Cosgrove even remembers what it was from.  She said it stems from an accident that occurred under the Brooklyn Bridge in 1976 when a tarp filled wiwth rainwater fell 200 feet onto her car, damaging the vehicle. 

Okay, so your vehicle was totalled, you get a check to replace the car, and instead of using it to buy a car, you decide to stick it in a drawer and forget about it?  When you decided to purchase your next car, and it came time to pay for it, it never crossed your mind that your insurance company had given you the money?  And wouldn't you think that at some point, the insurance company would give her a call to inquire why the check was never cashed?

By the way, it's not clear if Cosgrove can now claim the money from the check, since it was issued by an insurance company that has been declared insolvent and liquidated.