My Safety Deposit Box - Drilled - Contents Taken ?

.......well........?......
.
"Timing is everything !"
.
I have a bank safety deposit box w/ ALOT of $$$ in it.
I use it regularly for the last 14 years.
Through my dilinquency of box rental payments +
with several different address changes in that time
I haven't paid for the box in several years.
.
Friday night :
My brother comes over to my house to see his 1 yr old nephew.
My brother hands me some mail that was sent to my parents
address.
He NEVER brings me mail like this.(?)
I see a Certified Letter = open it immediately.
It's from the bank where my safety box is located.
It says if I don't pay my late bill by AUGUST 21st, 2012 -
The box will be drilled open + contents handed over to
New York State for Lost + Found Property.......blah...blah...blah
I'm freakin' !...cos it's January 4th 2013 !!!!! HOLY SH*T !
6 mos ago !
The bank is closed at this moment.
I don't sleep.........I have lost most of my life's earnings !
.
I get to the bank ( Saturday ) w/ my box key.
I have to sign a card before the bank person opens the box.
I see the box is still there........but is it mine, still ?
The woman says to me .."I can't find your card.....the bank auditor
was here yesterday ( Friday ! ) and took some people's cards -
cos they're going to drill some boxes open on MONDAY."
HOLY SH*T !!!
I tell her my story.
She looks up my name on the computer page...."Status rill "
She shows me.
However, I settle my late payments ....which was alot less
than what it REALLY should have been.
I think they only had the last 4 years on the record.
.
I open my box and TAKE EVERYTHING OUT !!!
One bank day later + it all would have been gone.
.
Man, was I lucky ....in so many ways !
If my brother hadn't brought that letter..........
my life's savings would have been tied up w/ NYS bullsh*t taking
a cut for themselves + all the hassle/money fees/lawyer ? to get it back...
...if
all that $$$ ended up where it was suppose to ?
.
I was so damn relieved.
I won't be putting anything back in the box -- until this
is all settled.
The bank person didn't know what the proceedure was to change
my "Status : Drill"......her phone call for help was of no use, either.
So.......I ain't going near that box until it's definietly settled.

 

Seriously.... If you're going to have a ton of cash in a bank anyway, open an account. Why pay them to hold your money in a box?

 

Joe, if you're keeping your life's earnings in a safety deposit box, you need some professional investment advise.

 

Wow – that's scary, but glad it worked out for you … by a day! Nonetheless, what's the bank to do if you haven't kept your address updated and or made the payments? Thanks for sharing.

 

Seems like a lot of lucky things happened that enabled you to rescue that cash.
You know what that means.

LUCKY CASH FOR VEGAS BABY!!!!!!

 

you put your lifes savings in there and then didnt pay the rental fee for it.

 

Unless the money in there is from an illegal revenue stream, you may want to
re-evaluate your banking procedures.
Glad things worked out for you though. I have had a couple of instances where I had to deal with NYS Comptrollers Office for funds that were turned over to the state,a lot of hoops to jump thru.

 

I had a second job for MANY years that was
all cash.
That's all I'm gonna say about that.
.
To follow up :
About an hour ago -
I was telling a co-worker this story and as I finished
the story --- her phone rings -
she picks up and hands it to me -
it's the woman from the bank !
She says my "Status : Drill" has been changed.
I asked "Are the guys drilling ?"
She said, "Yes, they're here now drilling."
I replied, "I'll wait til they're finished + long gone to
return anything to my box."
.
.
No, I paid the rental fee for a year or two --
the bank changed hands about 3 or 4 times
I moved several times + had several different P.O boxes
Then, forgot about paying for the box ---
when I did remember.... "Oh, they'll send me a notice."
.
And yes.....I need financial planning help.

 

Joe,
Glad things worked out well for you but that's cutting it a bit too close for comfort! I'd take yoru brother out for lunch tho!!! Now, if I had my life saavings in my bank safety deposit box it wouldn't be worth the gas to drive down to the bank (and I'm a quarter of a mile away)!!!lol

Jimbo338

 

Did they charge you the drill fee too?

Theres a free website(I forget the name) that you can go on to check if you have any unclaimed funds laying around. Years back my daughter found out about this and told us we had $800 from an insurance policy sitting with the state.I'm sure someone here knows the link,or you could google it. It was fairly easy to get the money,some forms and we got it.
Just hope theres not a lady in your life that just found out about the cash.

 

you are very lucky indeed. Many banks now have a policy, if you don't have any activity for a year they flag your account as inactive and after a few years they automatically revert your $$ to the state.

I usually try to have some activity on my accounts (esp the ones with my safety deposit boxes) every 11 months (before they flag the accounts). But as everyone mentioned, I am not sure why you don't go down every year around the same time to renew your safety depoit box anyway. If you have valuables or $$ I'm not sure why you don't just do it automatically, no sense in losing some $$ or valuables when you could have just renewed your box. There is no way that I would go delinquent with my box if I had valuables in it.

I'm not sure about the policy when they have to open your box and remove the contents due to nonpayment but I probably wouldn't let it get that far. Plus I would be afraid of IRS or others who would want to know where I got what was in the safety deposit box (esp $$).

 

Glad it all worked out but never keep all your eggs in the same basket!

 

It's a good thing you didn't rent a locker.....LOL...then you would of been on Storage Wars...

 

Wow!!!!
Glad it worked out for you.
You are definitely lucky and should probably take a small portion and head to Vegas!!!!!

 

It's called a Safe Deposit Box - not Safety

I was going to write a bunch of stuff here but instead I'll just say I'm glad it worked out for you and I hope you've learned something from your ordeal.

 

Thanks for holding back.

 

I have no idea why anyone is calling you lucky. You put a lot of money in a rented box and deliberately avoided paying rent on it for four years. What exactly did you think would end up happening?

 

That they'd send me a bill and I'd pay it.

 

Wait a minute... Stop The Press... Hold the phone!!! Since when does a Bank bill anyone? They just deduct the amount from your account right?
I keep Estate Planning documents in my Safe Deposit Box but I don't pay for it. It's free for keeping a large balance and being a long time customer.

 

Not ours. The box is billed separately from other accounts. Now, the amount of our bill is $0 every year (I think we were supposed to get 3 yrs free as a promo but it's been 15 yrs now?) and it might be that we get the box for free because my husband has other accounts at that bank, but still - we get an invoice that is separate from those other accounts.....