By Dennis Hamwel
An honest old lady found $100,000 and turned it in. Now Kathleen Ricigliano, 81, would like her bank, where she’s had an account for 40 years, to be just as honest with her.
“In the second week of February, I went to Sovereign Bank at 4823 13th Ave. here in Borough Park with my boyfriend, Joe Valinoti,” says Ricigliano. “I’ve lived in the same house in Borough Park since I’m 13, and I’ve been banking at this location for 40 years. They keep changing the name of the bank. But I never had any problems.”
Until now. That morning, Ricigliano and Valinoti filled out forms for a safe-deposit box to store valuables.
The box was in Joe’s name, but we both got keys to Box 770,” says the widow, who raised four kids in the neighborhood. “We didn’t bring our valuables with us that first day.”
Two weeks later, on March 1, the pair returned with their valuables and were escorted down to the vault by branch manager Paul Vigliotti, who used his key as Ricigliano simultaneously turned her key in the cover of Box 770. Vigliotti removed the 3-foot-long safe deposit box from the shelf.
“Paul showed us into a private transaction room,” she says. “No camera. He handed me the safe deposit box that felt bottom heavy.”