Earrings, Recovered

Safe deposit boxes at World Trade Center banks were presumed destroyed in the attacks. Many were found intact months later. Owners who retrieved their boxes found that the contents had suffered varying degrees of damage. Some currency and paper documents were merely charred, while others were completely destroyed.

Lower Manhattan resident Sherri Bethelmy had a safe deposit box at the Chase Bank branch at the World Trade Center containing heirloom jewelry she received from her mother. In December 2001, Bethelmy received a letter from the bank asking her to come view her safe deposit box. She was given goggles, gloves, and a mask before they used a crow-bar to pry open her box. When she looked inside, she was shocked to find most of the jewelry had melted to the point that objects were unidentifiable.