Pub. 9 2014-2015 Issue 3

www.nebankers.org 14 Extraordinary Service for Extraordinary Members. A VERY RESPECTED AND TRUSTED elderly couple reported that some old U.S. Currency Silver Certificates were missing from their safe deposit box. They were certain that the Silver Certificates were in their box a month previously. They explained that during their visit the prior month, an employee had helped them take out the safe de- posit box insert. The couple took from their box a yellow envelope containing a stack of Silver Certificates and asked another employee to help them use an internet computer the bank provided for customer use to look up collector values of the Silver Certificates. Most of the Silver Certificates were worth only a few dollars, but a few had collector values of up to $800 each. After they were done looking up val- ues, the couple put the envelope back in the box insert. Another employee then offered to take the box insert back to the vault so the customers did not need to walk all the way back to the vault again. The couple handed the employee the box insert and went into the vault. She brought them back their key and they left. Now, a month later, the couple re- turned to the bank and the envelope was missing. They speculated that the employee who had returned the box to the vault had overheard that some of SECURITY OFFICER’S BY-WORD Safe Deposit Box Procedures Protect Employees Charles M. Towle, President, Kansas Bankers Surety Co. the Silver Certificates were very valuable. They indicated that she may have taken the yellow envelope of Silver Certificates when she took the box insert back to the vault. They reported the matter both to bank management and to law enforce- ment. These were trustworthy and well- respected people. They were certain they put the envelope of Silver Certificates back in the box because they would have never taken all of them home together for fear that someone might rob them. They were convinced that the Silver Cer- tificates had been stolen from their box. The bank had video showing who en- tered and left the vault, but the video did not show what was done while a person was in the vault. The bank president called the cus- tomers and asked them to come in on Saturday morning to discuss the matter with him. He then asked them to again go through their box contents carefully and make sure nothing else was miss- ing. A few minutes later, the customers, appearing embarrassed, told the bank president that they had found the Sil- ver Certificates in a white envelope in the box. They explained that now they remember that the yellow envelope was tattered and they had asked another bank employee for a new envelope. The employee had only good inten- tions when she offered to take the box insert back to the vault for the custom- ers and not make them walk back to the vault again. In doing so, the helpful employee had violated the bank’s proper procedures and unintentionally placed herself in a position of being suspected of theft. In this case, themissing Silver Certifi- cates were still in the box. In other situ- ations, however, a customer may forget they removed an item from a box and may have taken it home or even given it to a relative or friend.