Contractor flattens 83 safe-deposit boxes

A Singapore-based bank has offered to repay customers for lost cash, documents and expensive jewelry after a contractor accidentally removed dozens of full safe-deposit boxes and crushed them as scrap metal.

Executives at DBS Bank (Hong Kong) were embarrassed to admit that 83 boxes filled with valuables were removed from the bank during renovations, then dumped and compressed in a junkyard.

Bank employees and workers with a Japanese safe deposit box company, Kumihara, rushed to the scrap heap to try to recover cash, crucial documents and smashed jewelry.

Customers were angry that some of their most precious possessions had been lost, and local media say DBS will be on the hook for millions of dollars in losses.

DBS spokeswoman Catherine Ong said Wednesday that the bank might have trouble finding out exactly what was inside the boxes. She promised officials would ask a lot of questions if any claims appear "dodgy."

The mix-up was the result of human error, not foul play, said Ong.

Acting on orders, construction workers removed a total of 920 boxes, 837 of them empty. The bank was replacing the safe-deposit boxes with larger ones during a branch expansion.

The bank plans a full internal investigation, but Ong said it was too early to say if anyone would be fired.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the territory's de facto central bank, said it would keep a close eye on how DBS resolves the problem.