Locked in the Vault

Strongly fortified vaults have long been used to protect a bank’s assets and provide peace of mind to its customers and clients. One auditor learned the hard way that a bank vault is just as good at keeping people in as it is at keeping people out …

The main vault at Kennebec Savings Bank was originally installed as part of the state-of-the-art banking facility constructed in 1959 at the Bank’s State Street location. The vault had a 17,000-pound door, and the walls were made of 18 inches of 5,000-psi concrete and a half inch of plate steel on the interior wall.

Each day at 3 p.m., a bank employee would typically wind the clocks on the vault to prepare for the close of business. The clocks served as timers that prevented the doors from being opened until the start of business the next day. Once those timers were set, no one would be able to open the vault from the outside until the timers ran down.

On one particular afternoon in the mid 1970s, the Bank was host to a team of auditors from MacPage Accounting Firm, who spent the majority of the day going in and out of the vault to gather materials. At the end of this particular day, then-treasurer Jim Chase set the timers, swung the door shut, turned the lever, and unknowingly locked one of the auditors inside the vault.

As soon as the auditor heard the door shut, she realized the seriousness of what had happened. She felt her way in the dark to the

Left: The vault’s door weighed 17,000 pounds and featured a series of clocks serving as timers that prevented the doors from being opened until the clocks wound down.

rotary phone and dialed “0” to get the operator. She said, “This is not a joke. I am locked in the vault at Kennebec Savings Bank and I need you to connect me to the Bank.”

A Bank officer answered the call. After she told him what had happened, he asked her to hold for a moment and visited her colleagues that were in one of the conference rooms. They confirmed that—sure enough—they were indeed missing one of their coworkers.

After a few futile attempts to open the door, John Fecteau from the Mosler Safe Company was able to talk to the auditor on the phone. John recalled that she was very calm as he coached her through the steps necessary to open the door—which included several attempts at throwing a heavy cash drawer to break the inside-door glass and expose the timers. She was then able to override the timers, which allowed the combination on the outside of the door to move.

After she was freed, John remembers her saying, “My first thought was—thank goodness it wasn’t on a Friday night!”

Top right: The auditor was locked in the vault located in the original Bank building which today is still part of the Bank’s location on State Street. The vault was home to customer safe deposit boxes, as well as an area where tellers put their cash drawers.

Right: The vault was removed in 2019 to make room for additional office space. The removal of the 17,000-pound door required the use of a forklift and a large crane due to its weight.