Auction

After reading “State’s Auction of Safe Deposit Items Raises Questions” (May 27), I called all the caretakers of our precious family heirlooms and asked them to check the status of their safe deposit boxes. One would think that since bank marketing departments can find new homeowners to offer home equity loans and recently bankrupted individuals to peddle their credit cards, they could perform rigorous due diligence and find the “lost” owners of gems, coins and precious metals.

Perhaps the minimum standard of the law that dictates banks’ obligations should be raised to take into account the technological wherewithal that they have to perform this task. Otherwise we rely upon a purely commercial enterprise, whose business practices include charging customers to speak to a teller, to perform a public service.

LAILA RASHID

Pacific Palisades