New bank safe deposit box laws written a few years ago are now resulting in empty boxes.
A few years ago, a law was passed that allowed any bank to raid your safe deposit box and take everything in it if you did not request access for six months. After six months of not accessing it, it was considered "abandoned". Additionally, Homeland security gave all banks permission to go into your box at any time, and steal any gold bars, guns, passports and documents which "could be considered contraband" with no proof it really was contraband, any time they want, without the six month limit, without a court order, and without any warning whatsoever.
So called "experts" are still claiming it takes a warrant and a court order and whatever else, but their ignorance of what Homeland Security has done does not change the fact that it is not needed and no one knows their box has been emptied until they go to check it. The banks then play stupid about it because they know whoever they take from has no recourse and it is all perfectly "legal".
Obviously if people are only now complaining about their money being taken, most banks opted to not raid the boxes. But Bank Of America decided to, and has started cleaning out boxes that are fully paid and regularly visited. Legislators got the "abandonment" time down to three years in most states and eventually reduced it to six months, even if the bill was paid which would clearly mean the box was not abandoned. Now people have forgotten the new rule, and oblivious reports like the following are being written.
It seems like this is darn near a classified topic, because there are very few MSM reports, most reports of banks doing it are like this Reddit post, which was previously posted on RMN:
It is important to note that all official sources are still saying the bank needs a court order and blah blah, but the reality is that all it takes is for the bank to say the box is abandoned, not visiting the box for six months now equals "abandoned" and then POOF, if the bank is lacking ethics it is gone. Lots of times the state gets into the box once the bank says it is abandoned, and other times the bank just steals it. If you have a safe deposit box, especially at Bank of America, you had better check up on it.
I am having a very hard time finding references to the laws that made this possible, but they are based on "abandonment" and will allow the raiding of your box even if you pay it all the time, provided you don't ever go in and open it yourself. It does not matter at all if you pay for it, it only matters if you access it.
Here's how America's banking laws are now:
1. The moment you put your money in the bank, it belongs to the bank, and if the bank closes, ADIOS, there is no FDIC (to speak of) anymore, your money is GONE.
2. If the bank finds a large amount of cash in your bank deposit box, it can delcare it contraband and take it, ditto for gold, guns, and documents.
3. If you try to circumvent this by stuffing a mattress with cash, and the police ever search your house and find it, it is theirs, no questions asked. You can (I guess) ask questions in front of a rigged kanguroo court that always sides with the cops. Technically it can't be said you never get your money back, because out of the (probably) over a million times the cops have seized funds under "asset forfeiture", someone DID get their money back, ONCE. However, to that effect, you'd have better luck winning the lottery.
Perhaps your best chance is to knock an extra large piece of concrete out of the basement floor "for a toilet" and then put the cash in a waterproof box and hide it under the new concrete. But if the box lets water in with cash inside, adios!
However, in some banks and states, it will last longer in a not waterproof box if there is no rain for six months!
As for loans, you will still owe them the money...but of course, as it is now, you will not have ultimate 'title' to your car or home.
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