Complaint Review: Bank of America

Feeling Fleeced?

That's the only way to describe the hollow feeling when you open a safe deposit box at your so-called "friendly" neighborhood bank and find the box empty. Nada.

Has that happened to you? It appears that more people are coming forward every day to share their unfortunate experiences. And it is not confined to one bank in one state: this is a Florida-to-California fleecing. Big Time.

In our case, it took place at a Bank of America branch on State Road 7 in Hollywood, Fla. sometime between August 2008 and October 2009. I wish I could say it was an isolated example. A woman at another Bank of America branch in Tequesta, Fla. in nearby Palm

Beach County was victimized by a rogue locksmith during the same period (this episode was reported in the Palm Beach Post).

At the moment, we don't know how the Hollywood theft occurred. What we do know is that jewelry, cash and important papers were missing when the box was opened during a routine visit to the bank last October. Since no one had signed out the box during the preceding 14 months, the mystery deepens.

The Bank of America branch claims no responsibility because of signed contracts that supposedly exempt them. The fact that there were no video cameras in the safe deposit area further compounds the problem (at the Tequesta branch, video cameras caught the rogue locksmith in action).

Branch officers in Hollywood insist this is the first breach of their safe-deposit security system and disavow any knowledge of the Tequesta incursion. Yet a friend at still another Bank of America branch in Boca Raton pulled her belongings out of a safe-deposit box there when she inexplicably saw two unidentified names in connection with her box (the bank said the unidentified names may have been the result of a computer glitch, again during the same time frame as the missing goods in Hollywood).

We contacted detectives in the Hollywood Police Department and filed a report on the missing property. The detective interviewed various parties, filed a report and told us he could not find any questionable practices that suggested an "inside job" or criminal activity.

We also contacted lawyers in South Florida. And here's the kicker: if you file suit, the lawyers cautioned, the bank will try to paint you as the villain, not the victim.

So if you are 91 years old, live alone, and have entrusted a sizable amount of your financial security to a financial institution that is supposedly insured by the FDIC, what do you do? How many other senior citizens who go to a bank to check on their futures are suffering in silence through the same pit?