Business, Family, Fantasy, Uncategorized

Safe Deposit

20 Comments

We have had a safe deposit box at our local bank for 30 years. We also have a fire proof security box in our bedroom closet for things we might need in a pinch when the bank is closed, like passports. (Who knows when we might have to make a quick getaway out of the country!)

Our bank built a new headquarters across the street from the old building that is to open next month.  We who have safe deposit boxes have to make an appointment with a teller to remove the stuff from the current box and walk over with her to the new bank and new box. Same lock, same keys, same box number.  We did the transfer last Monday.  The teller told us they have had all sorts of customers cashing long forgotten savings bonds they are finding as they clear out their boxes. We didn’t have any surprises like that, but it has been several years since we visited our box. Our box is full of insurance policies, the abstract for our house, and our wills and POA documents. We have   copies of those last things in the bedroom closet as well.

The impish part of me wants to put some weird thing in the safe deposit box to startle  our children  when they open it after our demise.  Husband suggested a roach clip. I thought of springy cloth snakes that pop out when the lid to the box  is opened.  If I actually did that, I know that whatever child opened the box would exclaim “Mom!”.   We shall see what I do.

Have you ever had a safe deposit box? What did you keep in it? What would you like to put in one that would surprise your heirs?

 

20 thoughts on “Safe Deposit”

  1. I love this idea, Renee – provided it doesn’t give anyone a heart attack. : )

    If memory serves, we have not had a safe deposit box. But my folks did, and yes, I went down to the bank after Dad died and found just a lot of official papers. We then put in the box a fairly valuable ring of his, which we then removed when mom moved up to Minnesota.

    I would be tempted to do something like the snake, or maybe a few really funny jokes on colorful paper.

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  3. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    We have a safe deposit box. I just visited it because I thought my passport was there. And it is not. Which means that I have lost my passport and must replace it. Ours held identical contents as Renee’s Safe deposit box. There are also some Indian Head pennies that my grandpa collected from late 1800s and early 1900s. I recently found the original PINK copy of my birth certificate from Story County, Iowa which also lives there.

    I think I might put a mouse trap in mine—and if I am really diabolical, I will add a fake mouse (perhaps a cat toy?). I will probably forget that I did this, then scare myself more than my son or his wife.

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  5. I’ve had a safe deposit box for over forty years, and that’s about how long it has been since I have visited it. I have no recollection of what’s in it, none. I suspect there may be some collectible coins, as I dabbled in that for some time, but I really don’t remember. We have all of our important papers, including passports, in a fire proof safe in our upstairs office. I have no plans to put anything else in there to surprise our “heirs.” Having no kids, most of what we leave behind (if anything) will go to various organizations that we like to support.

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  6. HI-
    Us too, haven’t been in it in years.
    We got one before we were married and kept the rings in there for a while before the wedding. Then had the farm abstracts in there until I needed them and just haven’t got them returned.
    There is a pocket watch in there that belonged to my Great Grandfather. There is some really fancy jewelry that Kelly inherited.
    I love the idea of leaving a snake in there. But yeah, I’d scare myself.

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  7. Had one but now have a small case kept at home with my birth certificate, will, car title, passport, password list, assets list including accumulated Subway punches.

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  8. OT – There isn’t a lot of activity on the trail tonight, so here’s the latest Tommy update.

    We haven’t seen or heard of or from Tommy in quite a while. But lately, cars of various makes and vintage, often without license plates or with expired tabs have shown up in front of his old house, and around the corner. At the moment, there are three such cars in the vicinity. Husband has, of course, been keeping a keen eye on that, and been doing a bit of investigating. The Jeep SUV that appeared three days ago had previously been parked on a side street, half a block away. Why it was suddenly moved, only to appear in front of his old house is a mystery.

    That car has expired tabs, doesn’t have a battery, and several other pieces essential to driving it are missing. The car is unlocked. Husband reported the car to the police, who marked it for towing if it wasn’t moved within a certain period of time.

    Tonight husband noticed that someone was out there preparing to tow the car. Guess who? Tommy. We have no idea where he’s staying, but he clearly still views this whole neighborhood as his turf. He even asked husband to give him a hand, which he politely declined. This nightmare isn’t going to end anytime soon.

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  9. I’ve never had a safe deposit box.

    My mother used to work for a savings & loan in downtown St. Paul, and she was one of the employees that would take you to your safe deposit box and facilitate the process of opening it up for you.

    I remember stopping in to see her at her office whenever I was downtown. It was on the lower level of the savings & loan, accessible from the skyway by going down two floors on the elevator. The building no longer exists, but the skyway still does, on a block that’s now devoted to a light rail station. When I walk through that skyway, I always kind of wonder what happened to that part of the building, the elevator shaft and the desks and the halls that the boxes were arranged on, when they tore down the building and filled in the lower level with soil. It still seems as if I should be able to get on the elevator and descend to that space, in that time.

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  10. The latest incarnation of “our” bank moved to a new smaller location two blocks away a year ago. We had a SDB then. They told us to make an appt. to walk the box the two blocks with a regular clerk unless we wanted an armed guard. Makes you wonder what some people have in their boxes. I used that to finally convince my wife to cancel our box. The only single thing that mattered any more was out car title.

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  11. Sorry I didn’t weigh in yesterday. I read the piece in the morning and then just never got back to the trail. No safety deposit box for me but we do have the metal box lock box with important stuff in it in the closet.

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