Thread: Toddler Trapped in Bank Vault for 5 Hours

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) - A 2 1/2-year-old girl wandered into a bank vault and became trapped for more than five hours when employees closed the vault door, but was freed despite the door's time-locked system that prohibits it from being opened until morning.

Daniella Sanchez was freed Thursday, just before midnight, after a hole was drilled into the door. She was taken to a hospital for examination. Her condition was not immediately available.

The toddler's mother works as a teller at the Washington Mutual Bank branch, and while she and the rest of the staff were closing the bank Thursday, the girl apparently went into the vault to play, said Menlo Park Fire Chief Paul Wilson.

No one realized the child was inside the vault until after someone had closed the heavy steel and concrete door at 6:30 p.m., Wilson said. He said the doors could not be reopened until 6 a.m.

After bank security determined there was no way to override the lock, firefighters were called. Working with a federal search and rescue team, they drilled a two-inch hole so they could insert a surveillance camera and drinking water into the vault, along with a microphone that allowed the girl's mother to communicate with her daughter.

``She hasn't been crying or anything,'' Wilson said.

Fire officials had originally feared that the girl would have to stay inside the vault until morning. But a private concrete boring firm was brought in and determined it would be possible to drill a hole big enough for the child to crawl out through, Wilson said.

Redwood City is about 25 miles south of San Francisco.

No way to override the lock?!?!?!?! That's just crazy! This should stand as a lesson to all us parents---don't let your children play inside bank vaults. LOL

This is another reason to insert tracking devices on small children. Because the moment you turn your back they are getting locked in a bank vault or somewhere else that is impossible to open with a key.

(only joking, I don't have kids and I don't think that tracking devices are necessary for children only adult males)

Oh my... I would of thought the air supply would of diminished! Thank God she is OK...

I just need to know what ever happened to...
...WATCHING YOUR CHILDREN and not letting them wander around out of your sight??? ANYwhere, not just in the store or at the park. That's negligence as much as if she'd left her alone at home or alone in a locked car.