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To: Tommaso who wrote (223798)	10/6/2009 1:00:06 PM
From: Smiling Bob	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 306849

Not-So-Safe Deposit Boxes Some states seize property they should be protecting -- and spending the money. abcnews.go.com Retired dentist sues bank over 'missing' gold By Neal Hall, Vancouver SunSeptember 30, 2009 VANCOUVER — A retired Vancouver dentist is suing the Royal Bank, claiming financial officials gave someone access to his safety deposit box and more than $100,000 worth of gold went missing. "It seems like a big screw-up," Jerry Sandbrand, 69, said in an interview Wednesday. After years of using his safety deposit box, the bank told him in October 2008 that he was not the registered owner. He was then denied access to his funds, he said. At the time, he said he told the bank employee that he was leaving on a pre-arranged holiday but asked the bank to send him an e-mail, explaining the problem and how it would be resolved. He said the bank never sent him an e-mail. Instead, he returned to the bank the next month to try to access his safety deposit box again. He used his key to remove the box and began opening it — "I could see the gold inside" — when another bank employee intervened, saying the box had to be closed because Sandbrand did not own it. "I asked them to freeze the box," Sandbrand said. He said he told them he has been a Royal Bank customer for almost 40 years and leased the safety deposit box in 1996. Over the years, Sandbrand said he collected more than $100,000 worth of gold and kept it in his box, including 25 ounces of gold dental castings and four ounces of scrap gold dental fillings and crowns. In his lawsuit filed this week in B.C. Supreme Court, Sandbrand claimed he returned to the bank with his wife and lawyer on Feb. 5. He said box 493 — the box the bank claimed was his, not box 1251, which he had been using for years — was drilled open and found to be empty. The bank then provided Sandbrand with a list of the contents of box 1251. By that time, all the gold was gone but his documents were still inside, proving it was his safety deposit box, he said. He said the bank manager initially sent a letter admitting the mistake but officials have refused to admit liability for the missing gold, so he filed a lawsuit.