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mfcorey1

(11,062 posts)
Thu Aug 29, 2019, 08:38 AM Aug 2019

An Orlando bank lost her jewels. She sued and lost. And then they turned up -- at an auction

It had been three years since Orange County teacher Jennifer Morsch’s lifetime of valuables mysteriously disappeared from her safe deposit box at a Chase bank on Dr. Phillips Boulevard.

About $100,000 in jewelry, gold coins and cash were gone. A federal lawsuit Morsch filed against Chase questioning the reliability of bank safe deposit boxes had come and gone, with Chase winning the suit based on a statute of limitations provision.

Morsch, an elementary school special education teacher, was out of options and out of hope.

Then she got a text last Thursday afternoon that would rip back open the safe box snafu she had tried to leave behind. It set her on a path back to the items she believed were long lost through a series of coincidences — and more than just a little dumb luck.

“It wouldn’t hurt to check it out,” came the message from a friend, along with a link to an auction that the Florida Department of Financial Services’ Unclaimed Property Division was holding called Florida Treasure Hunt. The department auctions unclaimed property from banks, but also offers consumers the option to reclaim their property if the see it among the items.

The news of the auction had run on WKMG Local 6 news with a photo of a gold choker necklace with five round-cut diamonds that looked an awful lot like one of the items that Morsch had lost in her safe deposit box.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-bz-bank-jewelry-update-20190828-4arnfeygbbez3liifwrg2vm4lq-story.html

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An Orlando bank lost her jewels. She sued and lost. And then they turned up -- at an auction (Original Post) mfcorey1 Aug 2019 OP
How could the attorney not know exboyfil Aug 2019 #1
Client and attorney were never notified that unclaimed property might be theirs MaryMagdaline Aug 2019 #2
Bottom line SoCalNative Aug 2019 #3

exboyfil

(18,008 posts)
1. How could the attorney not know
Thu Aug 29, 2019, 09:01 AM
Aug 2019

the unclaimed property would go to auction? Shouldn't that been one of his lines of inquiry?

So who was correct on the box?

MaryMagdaline

(7,896 posts)
2. Client and attorney were never notified that unclaimed property might be theirs
Thu Aug 29, 2019, 09:08 AM
Aug 2019

Bank either 1. Didn’t know which customer it belonged to or 2. Found the jewelry after being sued and did not want to notify potential owners and just punted to the State.

The attorney can’t just call the state and say, “My client is missing jewelry. Show me everything you have.”

SoCalNative

(4,613 posts)
3. Bottom line
Thu Aug 29, 2019, 10:20 AM
Aug 2019

forget about using safe deposit boxes and spend the money to have a safe installed in your home for these types of items.

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