the essential
A wealthy woman who lives between Toulouse and the Côte d'Azur denounces the mysterious disappearances of her goods stored in a safe of a large bank. The financial institution denies any security breach.
F. enjoys her retirement between Haute-Garonne and the Côte d'Azur, with frequent return trips which make her more vulnerable to burglaries. In 2008, this wealthy woman chose to place her most precious possessions in the rental safe of a Toulouse bank branch. She leaves exceptional jewelry, gold coins and wads of cash there, which she hopes to keep safe.
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To reinforce this protection, she even goes so far as to seal her most expensive objects in a wooden box closed with wax. For her, this space is inviolable. But a few years later, worrying signs appear: on each visit, she notices that objects are gradually disappearing from her “treasure”, without being able to provide concrete proof.
It was in 2019, during a careful inspection of her trunk, that she discovered that the wax seal she applied was broken, leaving little doubt about repeated intrusions. “Each new disappearance pushed me, in despair, to return to the agency, where I nevertheless felt powerless, faced with answers that seemed to elude my concerns,” she explains. Exasperated and distraught by these mysterious and repeated losses, she makes the difficult decision to empty her safe and break all ties of trust with the bank. “I noticed that many boxes were empty when I collected the contents of the box,” she certifies.
“No security breach”
She ended up compiling, in April 2021, all the documents (photos and invoices for the jewelry) to prove the losses estimated at 22,763 euros, and filed an official complaint with the Portet-sur-Garonne gendarmerie for theft and damage.
“It was by reading in La Dépêche that similar incidents had affected other bank customers that I became aware of the urgency of publicizing my case,” slips the elderly lady.
She regrets the lack of follow-up of her complaint by the authorities, a situation which she deplores all the more since she has, as a precaution, drawn up no official list of her assets, complicating her chances of being compensated and possibly identify the likely culprits. “I only have one piece of advice for individuals: above all, don’t let your savings or family possessions sleep in a safe,” she insists.
Faced with the accusations of theft made by F., the large financial group responded with a written communication, ensuring that no security flaw had been identified in its systems. In a letter dated June 9, 2021, the establishment states that only one copy of the key to each compartment exists, and that F., having not granted any power of attorney, was the only one who could access his safe. “Our security measures are flawless, and there is nothing to establish that there were thefts in this specific case,” wrote the banking institution.
