hello all. i'm currently researching my (crime) novel. are there still any safety deposit boxes, or lockers, one can rent in manhattan? the kind that have a key (or key card) and are big enough to hold a laptop. it should be the only clue that's found on the body of the victim, and eventually lead the detectives to the laptop. the victim is a runaway and doesn't have a lot of money. thanks for any help/feedbacks. marco
Why don't you google major banks in the Manhattan district and ask them yourself if they have this facility? Being as it's a wealthy, financial district in one of the world's most bustling cities, I would imagine some of them would have. Perhaps some of our American members can shed more light on it. In any case, as it's a work if fiction, you'd be best advised (IMO) to conjure up your own imagined banking institution. If you as the writer tell us, the readers that there are safety deposit boxes - bolstered by your well researched descriptive setting - we'll believe it.
hahaha. thanks. i'm sure many banks offer such services, but since the victim will be a broke runaway, he wouldn't go there. more like the boxes that used to exist in train stations, etc. i was hoping there would still be a few places around that used to exist maybe 10 years ago. appreciate your input! have a great sunday!
I'm a tad confused by the question. Safe deposit boxes do still exist, and I see no reason why they would not still exist in Manhattan. They are different from those personal storage lockers. You can only access them during bank hours, and the bank has a key -- they need to be there to open the box with you, although they leave you alone in a room while you go through the contents.
ditto that... of course they still exist in manhattan and all other places where there are banks... and some boxes are large enough to hold a laptop... they're paid for annually and you have to have an account at that bank, to be able to rent one...
I too, thought he meant the type of safety deposit box to be found in a bank, apparently not. The OP means a locker essentially, of the type you may find in a train/bus station.
thank you for all the replies. maybe i didn't find the right words. but what i meant where boxes/lockers like you see in older movies sometimes, at penn station, etc. they were mid-sized, and you could put an overnight bag inside. i also seem to recall places that offered a mailboxes (some of them larger, to hold packages). but since i've not been back to nyc in a few years i wasn't sure those still existed. many people online have said that no public place like penn station, etc still have such 'lockers', because of 9/11. there are places around that hold your luggage for you, but no lockers per se. my victim is poor, a runaway...he'll try to store his 'valuables' in a locker somewhere in the city, maybe just overnight. but since he gets killed, it will take the cops a while to find out where to look (i was thinking of leaving him with just a key, but that may have changed and the places that DO offer lockers are now state-of-the-art, with combinations/electronic locks. that was the idea. appreciate all your inputs, so thank you again.
you're right about the public lockers being too handy for bombers, so i don't know think any of those are still available, but there are private storage facilities of all types around and definitely in NYC, where apartments have so little storage space... the mailbox type places aren't for storage, just for receiving mail... but there are some like this: http://schwartztravel.com/ that have taken the place of the old train/bus station ones... all you have to do is google for 'NYC private luggage lockers'...
