SWITZERLAND: 85-year-old Woman Locked in Vault of Swiss Bank

ZURICH (7DAYS Dubai), August 11, 2006: An 85-year-old woman spent four hours locked in a Swiss bank’s vault before she set off motion detectors and was freed, the bank said Wednesday. The director of the safe at Zuercher Kantonalbank had allowed the woman into the vault Monday, but then locked it when the bank closed - with the woman still inside studying her documents, the bank said in a statement. She had remained so still initially that she failed to activate either the motion detectors or the attached camera, the bank said. Eventually, however, she was detected and freed after four hours. The bank gave the woman a bouquet of flowers for suffering from the ordeal, and said it would decide on further nonfinancial compensation.