California Seizing Safety Deposit boxes

blog.mises.org ^ | circa 2008

[pantherskincreek]

The State of California has stooped to looting the contents of safety deposit boxes to bolster state funds.

[RockinRight]

How? Are they making up court orders and just waltzing into the bank?

[jessduntno]

Amazing what some people will stoop to just to make a buck.

[dila813]

Due Process Violation? Sounds like it.

They should be able to sue and get it all back.

[TEXOKIE]

details? a hint?

[unixfox]

Why would these people think for one minute that the money was theirs in the first place. Don't they understand that the govt. can take what they want when they want?

Geez.

[NoGrayZone]

I guess this is just the beginning.....

[MrB]

I believe there’s a law on the books that after the death of the box owner, the bank must have an IRS agent present when the box is opened,

mostly to prevent untaxed inherentance of gold/silver/etc.

[Kevin in California]

This is a 3 year old story.

[Lazamataz]

Guarenteed, the crazy state of Calif__kya will be busting down your doors and carting off your plasma TV's and jewelry by 2015.

Calif__kya is basically a Mafia with an Official State Seal.

[Tigerized]

What’s next? Piggy banks?

[ClearCase_guy]

Government lets you “hold” stuff for some amount of time, but government won’t let you “own” stuff any more. Eventually, the government will take it from you.

[Mr. Lucky]

There is no law requiring a box to be opened with an IRS agent present. Some states require that a state revenue agent or tax assessor be present.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

A couple of decades ago, I read one of those books that predicted financial Armageddon. I can't remember the title--something like "What To Do in the Upcoming Financial Crisis." One point stuck with me--the author mentioned stockpiling some gold and silver--coins--easy to use when the entire system broke down. And he said to store them in a safety deposit box, but not at a bank. He predicted that access might be denied if there were a run on the banks. He suggested a a hotel's safety deposit box. After reading this, it sounds like our valuables would be safer in a U-Haul Self Store.

[mbs6]

A perfect example being property tax on homes. You get to say you own a home as long as you continue to pay your rent to the government.

[shove_it]

Gives a whole new meaning to “DRILL DRILL DRILL”.

psst Cali commies, this ain’t what we meant.

[ladyvet]

Grandpa had it right....mason jar under the old oak.

[CIB-173RDABN]

I have lived in the same place for over 25 years, have done all my banking through a credit union in which I have several different accounts.

Recently I got a letter from them concerning one of the accounts. It seems unless I took some action within a number of days they would be required to send the funds in that account to the state of California.

It seems I had not made a deposit or a withdrawal in three years and in the states eyes I abandoned it. Now the fact I had other accounts in the same bank did not seem to matter.

I ended up having to sign a form stating I did not in fact want the money sent to the state.

I should note, if the state does take money this way you can get it back if you discover they have done so, and the money was in fact yours to begin with. Not an easy process.

(Side note - there is a reason I have a separate account that I am not paying much attention to).

[Minn]

The people that whine and cry like small children whenever a blogger posts an excerpt and a link are losers and misfits, most likely with ugly parents ugly spouses and ugly children. But when it comes to a blogger posting only a teaser headline and a link, I would probably have to agree with them.

You can't even post a few lines to tell us the jist of the story so we can decide if it might be worth a visit to your site?

[IYAS9YAS]

Most states have a provision for unclaimed property. You have so long to claim it, then it becomes the property of the state. Each state defines the rules on how it should be dealt with by the holder of the property (all kinds of things show up), and the owner of the property.