I need some help responding to what may be the biggest bank theft in US history.
In March Wachovia drilled my safety deposit box located in its branch on 7901 Wisconsin Ave, Bethesda, MD. The loss was incredible. Worse, about 100 other customers suffered the same fate. The total loss? My ball park estimate: About $50,000, 000 (million) stolen. This loss would be about 10 X the size of the previous largest theft in US history. But even if I am wrong by a factor of 10, it would still be the largest theft in US history.
Why did Wachovia drill my box? Was my rent unpaid? No. What Wachovia said was they did not know who owned the box (!) Apparently they knew when they billed me for the rent but forgot sometime after that.interestingly, when Wachovia inventoried the contents, my name was on the inventory X 4. Presumably, they forgot who rented the box after they wrote that information down X 4. When I came to the bank to sign the log, I discovered that Wachovia had no record of that box or my card in their sign in log. They tried to convince me that I was confused and must have that box at another branch. Then I discovered that my card in the required sign in file mysteriously disappeared, and I am guessing that the same thing probably happened to 100 other customers.
After a lengthy search, Wachovia discovered that my box had been drilled, inventoried, the contents dumped into clear plastic bags and piled into a corner of the basement along with what had been contained in 100 other bank boxes. How do I know that a theft had occurred? What Wachovia put on their inventory did not correspond with what was in the plastic bags on which the inventory was stapled. The contents evaporated after the inventory! Put in simple English, I would surmise that all the 100 boxes, more or less, were drilled and looted. Except for some papers and low value whatnot that the thieves did not want.
Despite my name being prominently written by Wachovia on two plastic bags that held the last vestiges of my possessions, and despite the fact that my name was also written prominently on 4 pages of inventory done by Wachovia, the bank claimed they had no idea who had rented the box" and therefore could not contact me despite their best efforts. But they declined to elaborate on what they did.
Nor, by the way, did they contact me after the unannounced and unauthorized drill when they clearly knew my name.
I discovered the theft approximately 11 months after my box was drilled. Just by coincidence, the other 100 box drill victims had not come in to check their boxes during the intervening 11 months. I happened to be the first.
And so I need your help. Do you know anyone who has a safety deposit box at 7901 Wisconsin Ave, Bethesda, MD? Would you contact them and urge them to check their box? Do YOU have a safety deposit box with Wachovia? When is the last time you checked your box? This may be part of a more general trend with Wachovia"loss of records and unauthorized drilling. Do any of you have contacts in the FBI or the Comptroller of the Currency or the Wall Street Journal who might be interested in this case?
My inference at this point is that there was an inside bank robbery at Wachovia which they appear to be covering up. But perhaps there is something even more sinister.in the interim, I would humbly suggest that you check your safety deposit box... If you still have one... And anything left in it.
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