Bank robbers aren't the only ones who
may empty out your safe-deposit box only
on five Julie Watts reports that some
customers are complaining that they were
blindsided when their bank drilled open
their safe-deposit boxes now they're
missing
tens of thousands worth of valuables
it's not replaceable family heirlooms
jewelry she wore on her wedding day gone
forever after Michael and Maggie say
Bank of America drilled and emptied
their safe-deposit box without any
warning so this goes with the missing
jewelry yes I did just took it a single
tag all that was left in there drilled
box after the bank shipped the contents
to a holding center on the East Coast
it's a shipping bus like this all my
jewelry my treasure
the couple s we not reveal their real
names for security but say when the bank
eventually shipped settled their stuff
back seventeen thousand dollars worth of
jewelry was still missing and what they
did get back stuff in here so it takes
us over one hour to untangle several
delicate pieces left damaged or broken
everything was stung Wendy Wu's
experience was strikingly similar
she says her be of a safe deposit box
was also drilled without notice her
mother's jewelry also shipped back via
UPS damaged and in disarray safe-deposit
box that's what the name is for safe and
attorney Chris land says his clients
lost more than jewelry when BFA emptied
their safe-deposit box without notice
Bank of America lost the original deed
to real property in China
he says they may lose the property
regulators say banks may drill a safe
deposit box without permission due to a
court order warrant non-payment or if
the bank is closing a branch
however those reasons didn't apply to
any of the people who came to us they
claimed one of the signers and
inflammation was missing they claimed by
Social Security it's not there they said
that they were missing the date of birth
and address of one of the co renter's of
the Box all information the bank is
required to get before opening an
account under the Federal Bank Secrecy
Act B of a claims it sent letters
requesting the missing information never
got it there's no evidence of any
registered or certified mail and I asked
them to produce the letter e never
it sothank later provided copies of two
of those letters allegedly sent in
November of 2015 the boxes were drilled
ten to fifteen months later meanwhile
our clients were going in and out of the
bank with regular banking I went in at
15 months they never informed me and all
three customers point out they had other
accounts the bank could have
cross-referenced I currently have 17
different safe deposit litigations that
I've been hired as an expert witness on
Dave McGuinn is a well known bank safe
deposit consultant and says the bank
should have flagged all their accounts
to notify them in person of the missing
information federal regulations are
clear banks must provide customers with
adequate notice a notification should be
made either by registered letter or by
certified return receipt letter which be
of a did not do in a statement the bank
said we notify customers by mail in
accordance with law prior to drilling a
box and have protocols to verbally
communicate the matter when the customer
comes into the financial center to
access their box that didn't happen in
these cases most people don't realize
safe deposit boxes are not insured
unless you purchase a separate policy
and the bank's liability is limited
under the rental agreement the FDIC does
not insure boxes jury pool are the safe
deposit insurance corporation says over
the past three years approximately fifty
thousand boxes and 1.3 billion worth of
property has been impacted by things
like theft floods fires and other
natural disasters however we have no way
to track how many boxes have been
drilled the amount of property that's
been taken by banks banks are not
required to report that to regulators
and insurance policies don't cover items
lost when the bank drills your box
instance on my grandmom after we got
involved the bank did agree to reimburse
Michael and Maggie for their loss
jewelry and pay to repair mrs. woo but
as it turns out in at least two of these
cases the missing information wasn't
missing at all the original agreement
for the box so that they had all of that
information so it's just pure key
numbers they are dates of birth is there
everything seventeen thousand dollars
worth of jewelry and a property in China
gone due to missing information the bank
had all along
Isis got robbed from the bank they just
taught myself
now consumers can file a complaint with
the Comptroller of currency which
regulates safe deposit boxes we found
VFA accounts for about 20% of their
recent drilling complaints the agency
tells us it does have broad authority to
take supervisory action however the
agency doesn't generally take
enforcement action on behalf of
consumers so unless your losses are
significant
experts say consumers have little
recourse in these cases in the newsroom
I'm Julie Weiss
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