I keep re-reading this to find the sarcasm, but I'm failing to see it.  Surely you don't really think we should blame the victim?  It seems like the last statistics said Nissans and Toyotas were the most-stolen cars in America.  So when one gets stolen should we blame the owner for having it?  Cuz if they'd been driving a Ford Pinto no way would it have been stolen.  Or charge the rape victim with a crime because she was walking in "that" part of town?  Pure nonsense!

I stopped re-reading and can validate that the persons *opinion* is narrow minded and lacking common sense. 

Temptation to steal isnt any less prevalant whether the product is in sight or out of sight.  It just makes it more challenging to get!

I  can understand anyone wanting to keep their funds in close proximity. THe Bank industry only guarantees 250K of it be insured. So if they lose 750k of it from your account, ohh well, that interest compounding wont mean a thing. So the guy did the right thing by getting a safe.  And the police are doing the right thing by taking the matter serious enough to charge the men.

 A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Nothing wrong with the guy retaining what is his money.

I was not really being sarcastic, I was being truthful.  He kept his money in his house (which is his perogative even though I think it is stupid).  So only the ones CLOSE to him (his relatives KNEW he had it consequently, they robbed him.  He provided a "temptation" that they couldn't overcome.  I am not saying that stealing is to be condoned at any time.  I am just saying that he contributed to his own robbery.  There used a thing called "common sense".  Seems like to me it is in very short supply now. 

Agreed - and had the safe booby-trapped.

wow 1,000,000 in safe at home a small bank dont keep that much there safe over night they let federal reserve lock it up. 

I was about to contribute the same comment. And, it must be a pretty big safe.

litebets

If all the bank does is "lose 750k of it from your account" all you have to do is prove that you actually had the money in the account and you will be able to withdraw it, subject to the normal rules for the account. You don't have to pay for their accounting problems.

OTOH, if the bank fails, FDIC insurance will cover up to $100,000 for each depositor, or $250,000 for an IRA. Current banking regulations makes failure fairly unlikely, especially for large banks. I still wouldn't want my accounts to represent a portion of the bank's assets that didn't start with a few zeroes after the decimal point.

I think it's awfully stupid to keep that much cash on hand, especially when he obviously didn't have any need for it, but it is his choice.  The article doesn't offer any clues on this specific situation, but I think it's phenomenally stupid to keep that much cash in a safe that can be easily opened without significant skill or work, or in one that can be carried away. If you can afford to keep  that much cash laying around, you can afford a good safe.

"it must be a pretty big safe"

Just for fun: US currency is 2.61 inches wide by 6.14 inches long and 0.0043 inches thick. Multiply by 10,000 $100 bills and it's not quite 690 cubic inches. At 1728 CI per cubic foot, that's  0.4 CF. Figure the money came from a bank and is still fairly new and in neat bundles, allow for a bit of wasted space, and it will probably fit in a microwave. Maybe that's the problem. You can fit $1 million in a safe that's far to small for something that valuable.

If youre married, this is how you can structure your $1,000,000 to have it 100% FDIC insured at ONE bank.

Wife (Individual Checking & Savings)-$100,000

Husband (Individual Checking & Savings)-$100,000

Husband & Wife (Joint Checking & Savings)-$200,000

Husband (Individual IRA)-$250,000

Wife (Individual IRA)-$250,000

Husband & Wife (Living Trust with Benefactor)-$100,000

TOTAL: $1,000,000 (100% FDIC Coverage)

No worries on money he was losing.... he has more money where that came from.  I wouldnt be surprised if he didnt disclose of other money he was keeping in there.  The people who stole from him are total scum.  They deserve to rot in jail but I wasnt really surprised that his son in law stole the money from him... I was shocked that his grandson stole from him though.  I knew them years ago and feel bad for the victims.  They definitely did not deserve this.

The GameGrl Writes: THe Bank industry only guarantees 250K of it be insured. So if they lose 750k of it from your account, ohh well, that interest compounding wont mean a thing. So the guy did the right thing by getting a safe. 

Who told you this "fact?"  Not true.  You can keep $250,000 in a bank IRA, but otherwise that $250,000 limit is not mentioned anywhere on the FDIC web site or in their rules. People keep much more than that in banks. 

Forgetting about all the entitlements ($100,000 for each beneficiary) that are covered by the FDIC (i.e., revocable trusts) any person can deposit up to $100,000 in any one bank as an individual account and be 100% insured.  I could have up to $100,000 in as many banks as I want and be completely covered, so I don't know what you are talking about here.  The only way anyone has ever lost money in a bank over the last 50+ years is if he/she exceeded that limit when it failed, used unqualified beneficiaries in a trust, or exceeded the FDIC limit, perhaps with accrued interest.  Many people keep $1 million or more in banks. Losing $50,000 a year in interest just doesn't make sense.  Then there are very safe investments like savings bonds purchased through the U.S. Treasury or Municipal Bonds that are tax exempt.  The insurance companies that have been in business for 200 years that survived through the World Wars and the Great Depression and aren't going anywhere either, so a fixed annuity is very safe.

I won't go on to list the many safe investments, but keeping that kind of money in your home is really stupid.  Maybe he watched too much TV where they show rich people with safes behind paintings on the wall.

That said, nobody should ever blame the victim for being an idiot.  People leave keys in cars, but it doesn't mean someone should steal them.  Still, there's a lot more going on here.  Why would anyone keep that kind of cash in a safe?  Anyway, I just wanted to correct your statement about the banking industry. I don't know what you do for a living, but it's not in finance.  (No, I am not being a know-it-all.  I know what I am saying from my work experience.)