CBS 5 Investigates With Anna Werner

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ― Christine Riedell has banked with Wells Fargo for 20 years. In addition to checking, savings and business accounts, she maintained a safe deposit box at the bank's El Cerrito branch.

Riedell said she used the box to protect important documents and valuable items of jewelry, including pieces inherited from her mother.

Riedell stashed 3 rings there, with "a total of about seven or eight carats of diamonds", she said. Even her wedding ring was in the box as of earlier this year. Or so she thought.

In February she went back to the bank to pick up some items. But as she headed to the box that had held her goods, accompanied by a bank employee, she discovered the box was missing.

"I just was in disbelief, I said…I said there's nothing there," she said.

The bank employee asked if that was the correct location of the box. "She said are you sure your box was down here?" Riedell recalled. "And I said 'Oh yes, my box has been here for twenty years.'"

Riedell said someone had drilled out the locks and taken her valuables.

Banks can arrange for a safe deposit box to be drilled open in certain circumstances; for instance, if keys are lost, or a client dies. But Riedell said Wells Fargo couldn't tell her what had happened to her box.

"I was literally in shock," she said.

After several weeks, she said an employee of Wells Fargo's legal department called to update the progress of the bank's investigation. The news wasn't good.

"She says, 'We really don't know anything at this point,'" Riedell said
The one thing the employee did know was something Riedell said wasn't news to her.

"She said your box is gone, we can't find it", Riedell said.

Precious items vanishing from your safe deposit box, can that even happen? It might surprise you to learn that it can, and it does. There have been numerous documented cases over the years, around the country, of valuables disappearing from customers' boxes.

So, just how safe is your safe deposit box?

"The thinking as far as the consumer is when I put it in that box its safe," said David McGuinn, a Houston safe deposit expert. But McGuinn said safety is compromised if a bank's training and security procedures are lax. "Con artists will take this as an opportunity to somehow get past their security and once that happens, their things aren't safe."

Even without a key, McGuinn said thieves can gain access to a safe deposit box. "There are tools out there that you can actually buy on eBay that will open a safe deposit box in a vault without a key," he said.

The hard part for the customer comes after something goes missing or is stolen.

"The burden of proof basically is on the consumer to prove that the financial organization has done something that would have made access to their box possible," said McGuinn.

That's something Tony Teng said he learned from his experience at a Bank of America branch in Oakland. His safe deposit box held a family treasure, a 27 carat sapphire brought back from Cambodia.

But Teng said when he went to retrieve the pendant from his safe deposit box in May, it wasn't there.

"I was in shock," Teng remembers. "So like, I keep looking and looking, hoping it's hiding somewhere in the box, but it's not there."

Teng thought the bank would work with him to find the item or possibly even reimburse him for the loss.

"I trust that if something were to happen to me, that they would take care of me because they are the bank," he said.

But that's where Teng and other consumers get it wrong. Because it turns out, your safely-deposited items are not insured. So the bank won't pay you back for them if they disappear.

"They need to be aware, whatever they put in that safe deposit box, if they want insurance on it they have to go out and get that insurance themselves," said expert McGuinn.

Sure enough, Teng said, Bank of America officials told him the bank isn't responsible for his jewelry.

"They seemed to be like, 'we have nothing to do with this. And you loss, you loss,'" he said.

A Wells Fargo spokesman told CBS 5 Investigates the bank won't discuss Christine Riedell's case because it's under investigation by the police.

Wells Fargo also sent the following statement regarding the Riedell case and safe deposit boxes in general:

We've referred this matter to local law enforcement. We've been in regular communication with Ms. Riedel since we were alerted about this matter and are continuing to investigate.  We must respect the integrity of the investigation and cannot comment about any additional details because doing so could compromise the investigation.

While losses through a safe deposit box are rare, it's advisable to consider the following to with regard to property in a safe deposit box, to further protect stored property:  

• personal property insurance for valuables;
• saving receipts with regard to the property;
• photographing the property as a record of the property; and
• appraisals for valuables, and maintaining the appraisals current.

Bank of America sent the following regarding Teng's case and safe deposit box procedures in general:

Keys to safe deposit boxes are only provided to the owner (s) whose name (s) is on record. Only those keys can unlock the safe deposit box, as the bank does not have a key.

No one, including Bank personnel, can access a box without using that key. Bank personnel can only provide box access for owner (s), and have no knowledge of the contents.

For additional security, the bank maintains a Record of Entry Card for each box, which indicates each time the box was opened and who had entry. This is signed by the box owner.

In this specific case, the Record of Entry card shows only he entered the box.

The rules and regulations stated in the safe box lease contract clearly state that the Bank shall in no way be liable for the loss of money, jewelry, bullion, or other articles, the tracing or identification of which would be more difficult than that of bonds or stock certificates.

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