EVERETT — After more than 20 years, they found the missing locker.
Some expected it to be empty. They were surprised by what was inside.
There had been a rumor for years that the Rotary Club of Everett had lost a safe deposit box stored at a local bank. After some digging, the members found it. They revealed its contents during their Tuesday meeting.
“Sadly, no found money,” club President Amy Norman said.
Instead, there were some deposit and stock certificates, which ended up being receipts for past transactions.
When the club turned 100 a couple of years ago, members tried to find the original charter. They didn’t, and the idea of the missing capsule came up again, Norman said.
The Everett dentist promised to find the container.
With the help of others, she found it at the Union Bank on Colby Avenue, which used to be Frontier Bank.
“The bank had been changed so many times that we stopped getting the invoice for this thing,” Norman said.
All three people who were originally in charge of the deposit box have died, and the key was missing. Eventually, the bank was able to break into it with a drill.
The papers inside were kept secret and placed in a briefcase, which was sent to a vault in the Everett Police Department.
The club held a raffle for its 133 members to determine who would open it. They raised $400.
Tom Rainville, 87, was the winner. He’s been in the club since 1972, and now lives in Mukilteo.
“Believe it or not … I ran a bank,” he said.
He started the American First National Bank in Everett in 1984, and sold it about a year later, he said.
Greg Lineberry, a Rotary member and Everett police captain, picked Rainville up on Tuesday. They rode in Lineberry’s 1941 Chevrolet Master Deluxe police car.
They parked right in front of the Legion Memorial Golf Club.
Rainville walked into the crowded room, about 15 minutes after the meeting had started. He was handcuffed to the briefcase.
The group started a drum roll by pounding on the tables.
Then, Rainville opened the case.
The documents in the suitcase at first looked like checks, and appeared to be worth about $80,000.
They aren’t.
They were dated to the late 1980s and early ’90s.
Norman had previously bet another member there was something inside. Now her friend has to donate $100 to a charity of her choice.
Stephanie Davey: 425-339-3192; sdavey@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @stephrdavey.
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