I feel so sorry for her. The crux of the issue is regular folks have no idea about finance and the legal fine print of contracts they sign. It could have been avoided if the bank had explained to her that money is insured in her account but not in the safe deposit box. Even better she wouldn’t have had her savings in cash all those years.
Banks can not be trusted to act in the customers best interest, they act in their own interest. Having insured money in your savings account is fine if you’re ok with inflation eating up 10% or more each year because federal banks reach into our collective pockets and keep diluting our savings. Leaving the fiat system and being your own bank can solve all these issues. While keeping gold at home is always risky, something like Bitcoin isn’t if you know how to set it up securely. They could ransack your home and take everything and still never get to it. Because it’s not located in any physical place.

Ok wait so if bank employees can not open the box with a bank key. And only the renter can, how the hell did her belongings come up missing? Further more, I have to wonder why are safety deposit boxes not covered under FDIC insurance just as regular deposit accounts are? How can banks expect customers to confidently pay extra rental fees for a safety deposit box if banks cannot ensure the security of those boxes. Someone had to have successfully phished for this lady’s personal info and then posed as her to gain access to her box and a bumbling employee failed to pay attention to detail and played right into a scammers hands.