Always eager to perform an act of public service, when I read in Monday's Reading Eagle that Berks County Controller Sandy Graffius was having trouble locating people the county owed money to, I sprang into action.
It didn't take long to locate a missing person.
Marie Ketty Antoine, 326 N. Fifth St., is the first name on the controller's list.
I checked court records and found that Antoine has more than 70 different citations for code violations and parking tickets dating back to 2002.
I asked District Judge Wally Scott if he recalled Antoine, and he said he had.
"Sure, I know her," Scott said. "She was in here last week. She's a very nice lady."
Scott said Antoine was in his court for a city codes hearing and that she has another hearing in his court on March 3.
"If the controller wants to come here on March 3, she can give money to Mrs. Antoine then," Scott said.
Other individuals and entities on the controller's list of the elusive include the Ott Funeral Home of Boyertown, the Neversink Fire Company and City Councilwoman Marcia Goodman-Hinnershitz.
The biggest puzzler on the controller's list of the lost was the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The only address the controller has for the Commonwealth is Harrisburg, PA 17120. I did a Google map search, but it dead-ended at the state Capitol.
Next, I located the Rev. John C. Studenroth, former pastor of the Kutztown Bible Fellowship Church, on his cell phone.
I asked Studenroth what country he was in.
"I'm retired, but I'm still right here on Main Street in Kutztown," Studenroth said. "I'm in the phone book."
Not everyone was as easy to find. Sue Ann Sterner's is the last name on the controller's memo on the missing. Actually it's retired Reading Constable Sue Ann Sterner. Up until Dec. 31, she was getting paid by the controller's office.
"My gosh, I can't imagine them not being able to find me," she said.
If the controller still can't find Sterner, here's a hint. She's the wife of City Councilman Dennis Sterner.
He can be found at City Hall on Monday nights around 5 p.m.
