Police, hotel and bank authorities differ as to when a St. John Westin Resort security officer reportedly placed a now-missing deposit pouch alleged to have contents worth $50,000 into the after-hours chute at the Chase Manhattan Bank branch in Cruz Bay.
A police spokeswoman said Wednesday that resort security personnel said the pouch was dropped into the bank's deposit chute at 12:45 a.m. Saturday – that is to say, last Friday night.
However, Chase Bank spokeswoman Tynnetta McIntosh said on Thursday that she understood the drop was made four nights earlier, between 12:30 and 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 8.
Late Thursday afternoon, however, Westin general manager Greg Lundberg said the deposit pouch left the resort late Friday night. What happened after that, he said, is unclear. "I don't know if the bag disappeared on the way to the bank or if it reached the bank and then disappeared," he said.
Police public information officer Annette Raimer had said on Wednesday that Westin officials became aware that the pouch was missing when a resort accountant called bank branch manager Esperanza Pickering this Tuesday, Aug. 15, and was told the deposit had not been received.
McIntosh said her understanding was that Pickering received the call last Friday, Aug. 11. However, according to Lundberg's account, that would not have been possible.
Lundberg declined to comment Thursday on when he became aware that the pouch was missing. After a preliminary investigation, he said, the resort turned the matter over to the police. He said Westin records indicated the name of the security officer who signed the pouch out late Friday night.
News of the missing pouch and its reported contents of $50,000 came to public attention on Wednesday when the V.I. Daily News published an item about it in a St. John police roundup.
According to McIntosh, it was Westin officials who contacted police about the matter and filed a report on the missing pouch and its contents.
Police Lt. Rene Garcia, officer in charge of Zone D Command on St. John, said Thursday that St. John investigators are continuing to look into the case.
McIntosh also said it was not accurate to state that the bank's security division was conducting its own investigation into the matter, as was reported in the Source Wednesday. The bank is "looking into the matter as we would look into any customer complaint," she said.
The Source story also reported that the pouch was said to have contained cash, checks, travelers' check and credit-card receipts. But McIntosh said it was "highly unlikely that there were any credit-card receipts," because Westin purchase points "process all of their credit cards electronically."
