Recently, whilst researching for a new post, I was reminded of an incident that occurred way back in the early days of my banking career. This particular incident still amazes me to this day, so I thought I would include it here. It happened around the late 1970’s.

Back then, banking hours were between 10 am and 3 pm. Businesses, however, closed at 5 pm. So to protect their earnings overnight, they utilized a service known as a “night safe”. Each bank branch had a small Chubb safe that protruded through the wall of the bank. The idea being, that all businesses subscribing to the service were issued with a lockable leather satchel, which they would fill with their day’s takings.

They would ‘deposit’ this through a sliding drawer which lodged the satchel directly into the small safe. This would then provide a secure overnight resting place for their money. The next morning the client would front up, have their satchels retrieved from the safe and the contents deposited into their accounts. A tried and true system that was absolutely foolproof.

That is until someone had the idea to take a mid size steel tool box. Paint the bank’s logo on it and literally, chain it to a post next to the night safe. They then placed a large sign on the night safe that informed customers “night safe facilities are under repair, could you please place all satchels in the secure box provided. Thank you, Branch Manager’ And with the addition of a large hand drawn arrow pointing to the rather dubious alternative night safe facilities, the most brazen of traps was set.

Many businesses had their employee’s lodge their takings after hours. But it would seem these employees were certainly not paid to possess even the slightest bit of common sense. That’s right, you guessed it, at least 10 businesses as I recall, placed their takings into the “secure box” which ‘miraculously’ disappeared before the bank opened the next morning.

You can imagine the confusion when the bank opened and business proprietors turned up to deposit their takings. No record of any lodgement from the night before. As you would expect the finger of blame was immediately pointed at the teller, then at the staff member whose job was to lodge the satchel.

The dastardly scheme was soon discovered though, with all and sundry shocked by the simple but ingenious way they were completely duped.

Thanks for reading and why not have a look at some other posts while you’re here. May I suggest “11 of the best financial planning tips” as a starter.