A bank has launched an inquiry after a grandmother's safe deposit box containing jewellery and valuables worth £70,000 disappeared.
Widow Jaikur Ravalia, from Rushey Mead, Leicester, stored her most precious items in the container for about 25 years.
Toward the end of February, she asked to have access to the box at the Belgrave branch of Barclays, where it is kept in a vault.
After an hour of waiting, she said staff told her they could not find it.
The frantic 66-year-old was told by the bank that it would try to locate the box, but two weeks on, she has heard nothing.
However, Barclays told the Leicester Mercury it was treating the case as "an urgent matter", and that it had launched an investigation.
The contents of the box includes gold jewellery and diamonds given to Mrs Ravalia and her late husband at their wedding, as well as hundreds of pounds in cash, her passport and family mementoes.
Her family said the contents of the box were valued at £70,000.
Mrs Ravalia, who pays £40 a year to Barclays to store the container - known by bankers as a deed box - said she is distraught and unable to eat or sleep.
Speaking through an interpreter, she said: "I'm depressed. I'm not even eating. I can barely talk about it. I just want my belongings back."
Mrs Ravalia had the box moved from the Barclays branch in the city centre to Belgrave Road last year when she went to live closer to her daughter, Rekha Ravalia, because of ill health.
Rekha said: "It's affected us all because what she had in the box was her jewellery, all her presents from her wedding day.
"They are antiques and have great sentimental value and she has treasured these items all these years.
"She already has high blood pressure and this has had a bad effect on her health.
"Barclays said that they would get in touch with my mum about this, which they haven't.
"We have had no telephone calls or letters. I think it's ridiculous.
"My mother felt that a bank was the safest place to leave her valuables - it's obviously not."
A Barclays spokeswoman said: "The matter is being investigated at the moment and until that investigation is completed, we won't be able to comment further. We are treating the case as an urgent matter."
She was unable to say when the investigation might be completed.
Brian Capon, from the British Bankers' Association, said he had never heard of a deed box going missing in his 25 years of working in banks.
He said: "With deed boxes, a customer hands in a locked box to the bank and they keep the key.
"It would then be kept securely and would have to be signed in and out of the vault, usually by two members of bank staff.
"If it was being given over to the customer, they would have to sign a receipt to show that."
Mrs Ravalia said that although she signed in to receive her box the last time she saw it, in December, she was not given a receipt after returning it.作者: lemonbunny 时间: 2008-3-13 00:11
NatWest没丢东西吧....:face45 :face45作者: bill 时间: 2008-3-13 05:13