An elderly couple in Brooklyn wonder just how "safe" their safe-deposit box is after finding loads of cash in theirs that didn't belong to them.
Kathleen Ricigliano, 81, and Joe Valinoti, 82, planned to store personal documents, including a will and funeral preparations, in their recently opened safe-deposit box at Sovereign Bank in Brooklyn, N.Y. But when they opened it for the first time, they had the surprise of their lives when an estimated $100,000 in cash fell out, instead. ABC reports the couple handed the cash over, though they have some questions as to where it went.
The couple said they alerted the bank manager when stacks of 100-dollar bills came out of the box. The manager commended their actions and called them "very honest people." Then he moved the box out of the private transaction room, notified "higher ups" and "that was the last we saw of the box," Valinoti told ABC.
Said Ricigliano of finding the money to CBS 2 New York, “I couldn’t even talk. I was scared. I was so scared, really. I don’t know why ... It’s stuffed. We pull it out — it’s all money. Oh my God. I said ‘Don’t touch it. Don’t touch it — it’s not ours.’” Valinoti says the manager refused to provide a receipt or document their findings.
The bank has been less than forthcoming about what happens to the money now, but said in a statement to NBC New York that it is tracking down the rightful owners: "Sovereign Bank has been trying to reach the legitimate owner of the found property. In the meantime, we're acting as custodians of the property in accordance with our procedures and the law."
Per Article 3 of New York state's abandoned property law, potential owners of lost funds, such as those in a safe-deposit box, must be notified by the bank. In the event of the original owner's death, the money may belong to their estate. No matter what happens, though, the process of sorting out and finding the rightful owner could take years.
As for Ricigliano and Valinoti, the two aren't disputing they did the right thing, but they wouldn't mind a reward of some kind, they told the New York Daily News.
“I don’t have regrets about being honest,” Ricigliano told the paper. "But I regret that I didn’t hold onto that money until they located the rightful owner.”
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