It was a long time ago but my best guess is the guy was just full of crap.
It’s funny that this thread was resurrected organically because I recently had a post script to the story and thought about resurrecting it myself:
A few months ago I did a search of NJ’s unclaimed property site (I suggest everybody do this if your state has one) and what do you know, I got a hit. A slightly long story short my unclaimed property was the check I never cashed in the OP all those years ago. It seemed the Universe really wanted me to have that money so I went through the process and the state of NJ sent me a check so I guess alls well that ends well?