1337haxor

Hey,
I am not sure where to go about this right now. My entire family is freaking out since we have no idea whats going on.
For the past few years, my mom, my grandmother, my aunt and I have had safe deposit boxes to keep various things, including emergency cash. Our boxes are at different banks though.

Last week my grandmother went to her box to bring home some things from my dad's collection that he had left her before moving oversees. To her astonishment, she felt that something was missing. She paniced and brought everything from the box home. My aunt just thought she was wrong since my grandmother is getting old and it's possible she just forgot. After they talked to my mom, my mom agreed that it's a possibility that something was missing since she remembered a particular item from that collection that wasn't accounted for. Since my dad is hard to get in contact with, it may a few days from now before they get a confirmation. My dad spent most of his life to be able to acquire these timepeices and it's really freaking us out.

Afew days ago, my mom went to her safe deposit box, in another bank, to get her passport to prepare for summer. She had an emergency stash of money in there that she kept track of on little notes at home. When she opened the box to get her stuff, she also checked on the money. About 20% of it was missing from an envolope which had a very easy to remember amount (for our family anyways). Also the money was not the way she had remembered. Her system for storing cashed included a special way they are stored in the envolope and it wasn't there. She thought that it was funny, but also thought that maybe she had removed some for use awhile ago and forgot to note it and put it back in her special way.

Well, today I went to my box with my mom to put some paperwork into it and to check on my stash. Everything looked fine, until we got home to check on the notes. There were suppose to be two envolopes of money in my box, not one. Also there was suppose to be an inventory list in one of the envolopes.

My aunt hasn't checked her box recently, but we are going to check it ASAP to see if anything is wrong there aswell. Infact, she may have checked it already while I am typing this.

All of our boxes are at different banks. My mom and I haven't touched our box for almost 6 months and my grandmother hasn't touched her's for a year. When ever we enter to box, we check to make sure that it's our signatures for the previous entries. I have very distinct and a hard to reproduce signature. All the keys to our boxes have been accounted for so no missing keys.

We haven't gone straight to the bank yet since we have no idea if we should go to the branches where the boxes are at or go higher up. Also my box and my mom's box had a policy against keeping cash in to so we are not sure if they may try to get us on that. Though I assume that if anything is missing from our boxes, its a bigger issue then keeping cash in it.

This is just all too weird. Three boxes with missing items and they are all owned by members of the same family? Has anything like this every happened before? Could the bank employees be in on it? We don't have enemies with this capability or any enemies at all.
Sounds crazy, but could the Feds be doing this? They are the only ones I can see with this power.

My grandmother almost had a heartattack and my aunt, my mom and I are confused and freaked out!

Thanks,
Robert

Cynthetiq

could someone from the family have somehow gained access?

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Bill O'Rights

Hmmmm. If it were just one branch, I might be a little more inclined to accept some employee shenanigans...but not multiple branches. No, I've got a hard time swallowing that.

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1337haxor

Not without signing in and we always look at the signatures for previous entries.
Also everyone in the family is trusted. If there were anyone not trusted, they wouldn't know the contents of the boxes or know where the keys are kept or what box number and bank or be able to spend / hide the money without suspicion.
Also we dont broadcast all this info to family members just because they are trusted.

-Robert

mingusfingers

Lame. Bury a box with your stuff in it. Then box the ground that holds the box. Then put the box in a rocket and have it orbit a small moon of jupiter.

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1337haxor

If we can't figure or resolve this sh@t out we may have to do that

Seriously, could the feds have this power? especially with todays world, they can just say they have a suspicion and probably do as they wish.

-Robert

maleficent

The bank should keep records of who signed in and out--

track backwards -- from when you know the stuff was there - -til now --

Inform the banks that you believe stuff to be missing, they should launch their own investigation.

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phredgreen

i know you've ruled the possibility of someone in the family out yourself, but the coincidence levels are just too high. I just can't beleive that a bank would do that, and the possibility that three branches of differnet banks all pilfered from your boxes is too astronomical. as difficult as it may be to accept, this may have been an inside job.

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splck

Sounds like an inside job to me. Banks just don't allow that kind of shit to happen.

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Cynthetiq

The more my mind ponders this the more improbable it is that different banks and branches had different thieves come in and randomly take small one or two items from a safe deposit box.

Occam's razor: the simplest theory that fits the facts of a problem is the one that should be selected

iamnormal

Put in a safe at home. A good safe from a dealer (locksmith, security)

nash

I don't see why "the feds" would take 20% of your cash. I'm pretty sure the feds could search it if they had a warrant or something, but they wouldn't take your money. And they would probably notify you. I don't know anything about their procedures, so basically I'm just talking out of my butt. (But it makes sense to me!)

MSD

Feds would leave no trace, including a warrant (no longer required to be presented) and employees would have to keep quiet or face a long time in jail. This is unlikely, as the feds would not leave such a dead giveaway as taking money. Chances are, someone took a pressing of the keys, or had them copied, and are not as trustworthy as you thought. File a police report, they should dust for prints, and nobody's other than your family's will be found.

It's sad, you just can't trust anyone.

water_boy1999

Too many coincidences to think anything other than foul play. I seriously doubt the Feds had anything to do with it. If it were just your grandmother's box that had something gone, I would assume she forgot the last time she was in there. Since there are several family members that have had this happen, I lean towards an inside scam. Sorry bro.

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Shokan

If you can definately prove the items were there, just take it to the bank managers. They should be able to do something, other wise try taking to a lawyer to see what your options are.

In the future, I would recommend taking pictures of your safe deposit box items, just to be safe. I don't know how something only you verified would work in court, it probaly wouldn't....but, it wouldn't hurt.

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NoSoup

As a former bank employee, I think I may be able to help with some of the procedures that are required by law, at least here in Wisconsin, but I'd imagine all over...

First of all, keeping cash in safety deposit boxes is against federal laws, not just bank policy. I believe it is illegal to take currency out of circulation for one reason or another...

Secondly, finding out who the perpetrator is should be extremely simple. Banks generally keep a file for each box, and to be allowed into a box there is a law that requires that photo identification is checked to get into a box, as well as signatures. So, basically, just go to the banks and ask to see the logs on the boxes. Even if they have a key to get in, they won't be allowed to unless they are on the list that states they have permission.

As far as "The Feds" gaining access, true - they certainly could have taken a peek in your safety deposit boxes, as long as they had valid reasons to do so, but they cannot remove anything without your knowledge.

Finally, I highly doubt it is a bank employee because each box requires at least 2 different keys, the bank has one that fits all the boxes, the customers are usually given 2 keys also for the other lock. The only ways to open a safety deposit box are to have both keys, and unless a bank employee somehow managed to steal one from you or get a copy made of your keys, the only other option would be to drill out the lock. You would have noticed this, of course, because your key no longer would have worked.

I would just check to see who has access to all of the deposit boxes, and then run through the log with the bank manager (if they really did have access, it isn't the banks fault if they stole your stuff) to see who visited all those boxes.

If someone doesn't specifically have access, you would want to also take note of any power of attorney papers out there and the like, that allows someone to act as another