Drop safe

• US 5,975,275 A
• Filed: 03/20/1997
• Issued: 11/02/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Brink's Network, Inc. (The Brink's Company)
• Original Assignee: Brink's Incorporated (The Brink's Company)
• Inventors: Angove, John F. G., Keith, Jasper Newton III, Gunn, William L., Heath, William D. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): BARTUSKA, FRANCIS JOHN
• Application Number:
  US08/822,579
• Time in Patent Office: 957 Days
• Field of Search: 194/206, 194/207, 194/217, 194/218, 235/379, 902/13, 232/7, 232/15, 232/16
• US Class Current: 194/217
• CPC Class Codes: E05G 7/001 Bank depositories automatic safe-deposit box systems E05G1/06
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 11/0093 Drop boxes
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 11/26 Servicing, repairing or coping with irregularities, e.g. power failure or vandalism
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/06 Coin boxes

Abstract

A drop safe for receiving and temporarily storing currency or other valuables from a cash register or point-of-sale terminal. The drop safe uses bill acceptors to transfer cash into sealed cassettes within the safe. An envelope drop assembly allows transferring into the safe currency or non-cash items not accepted by the acceptor. The drop safe door has a door control assembly including a gas spring to counterbalance the weight of the door for controlled movement during opening. The door is locked by a pair of door bolts linked to a lock cam, which is secured by a dead bolt against movement. An electronic control unlocks the dead bolt in response to entry of correct numbers, allowing a rotary dial of the outside of the safe to move the lock cam and release the door bolts. The drop safe includes a processor programmed to control the unlocking operation and to maintain and produce various reports of deposits into the safe, enabling easy correlation of those deposits with business-day operation of the drop safe.

Claims

1. A method of depositing funds into a drop safe at various times throughout at least one predefined business day and then collecting those funds from the safe at the ends of collection periods that include deposits made during parts of at least one such business day not coincident with the collection period, comprising the steps of:

depositing funds into the safe at various times throughout at least one business day that does not coincide with a collection period;

for each deposit into the safe, storing data in a computer memory associated with the safe to identify the amount of that deposit and the business day of the deposit;

removing from the safe the funds deposited into the safe in a collection period since the safe was last empty; and

at the end of said collection period, identifying from the stored data the total amounts deposited into the safe for each complete business day, if any, during said collection period and the total amounts deposited into the safe during each partial business day during said collection period to produce a closing content report for said totals, so that the aggregate of the partial and complete business day totals equals the total amount deposited into the drop safe during said collection period.

2. The method as in claim 1, comprising the further step of:

combining the amounts of funds identified for a particular partial business day during that collection period with amounts of funds identified for the same business day during all other collection periods including other portions of that business day,

so that the combined partial amounts identified for the particular business day correspond to the total funds deposited into the safe for that particular business day.

3. The method as in claim 1, wherein:

the step of storing data for each such transfer of funds into the safe comprises storing the data in a computer memory associated with the safe; and

the step of identifying the amounts for the full and partial business days comprises

recalling stored data from the memory at the time of each removal of funds from the safe to classify deposits by the date of each business day when the deposits occurred; and

then

using the classified deposits from at least two removals from the safe to identify the complete funds for each business day comprised of partial business days during those removals.

4. The method as in claim 1, including the steps of:

reporting by each partial business day and each complete business day during that collection period the total amounts deposited in the safe; and

reporting the total amounts deposited in the safe during each partial business day and each complete business day ending during that collection period.

5. The method as in claim 1, including the steps of:

depositing at least some of the funds into a cassette removably located within the safe and having a security number associated therewith;

storing the security number into a computer memory associated with the safe; and

then

at the time of removing the funds from the safe removing the cassette containing the funds deposited therein; and

retrieving the security number from the memory and reporting the security number of the removed cassette with a report of the funds removed from the safe within that cassette.

6. The method as in claim 1, wherein:

the step of depositing funds comprises presenting currency to a currency acceptor for acceptance to the safe and production of the signals identifying the amounts of the accepted currency;

manually depositing into the safe currency rejected by the currency acceptor; and

manually entering into a data entry device associated with the safe the denomination of the currency manually deposited into the safe, so as to produce the signals identifying the amounts of the manual deposits.

7. A method of depositing funds into a drop safe at various times throughout at least one predefined business day and then collecting those funds from the safe at the end of collection periods that may cover deposits made during more than one such business day, comprising the steps of:

depositing funds into the safe at various times throughout at least one business day;

the step of depositing funds comprising presenting currency to a currency acceptor for acceptance to the safe, and production of signals identifying the amounts of the accepted currency;

manually depositing into the safe currency rejected by the currency acceptor; and

manually entering into a data entry device associated with the safe the denomination of the currency manually deposited into the safe, so as to produce signals identifying the amounts of the manual deposits;

for each such deposit into the safe, storing signals identifying the amount of the deposit and the business day of the deposit; and

then

removing from the safe the funds deposited into the safe in a collection period since the safe was last empty;

at the time of such removal, identifying from the stored signals the total amounts deposited into the safe for each complete business day, if any, during that collection period and the total amounts transferred into the safe during each partial business day during that collection period; and

using the stored signals to compute a predetermined relation between the manually-entered deposits and the deposits accepted by the currency acceptor;

comparing that computed relation with a stored signal corresponding to a certain threshold value for that relation; and

producing an alarm condition when the computed relation crosses the threshold value.

8. The method as in claim 7, wherein the step of producing an alarm condition comprises:

producing an alarm detectable at the location of the safe; and

sending a paging Signal operative to activate a paging receiver remote from the location of the safe.

9. A method of depositing funds into a drop safe at various times throughout at least one predefined business day and then collecting those funds from the safe at the ends of collection periods that may cover deposits made during parts of at least one such business day not coincident with the collection period, comprising the steps of:

depositing funds into the safe at various times throughout at least one business day;

for each such deposit into the safe, storing signals identifying the amount of the deposit and the business day of the deposit;

removing from the safe the funds deposited into the safe in a collection period since the safe was last empty;

at the end of said collection period, identifying from the stored signals the total amounts deposited into the safe for each complete business day, if any, during said collection period and the total amounts deposited into the safe during each partial business day during said collection period to produce a closing content report for said totals, so that the aggregate of the partial and complete business day totals equal the total amount deposited into the drop safe during said collection period;

the step of storing data for each such transfer of funds into the safe comprising storing the data in a computer memory associated with the safe; and

the step of identifying the amounts for the full and partial business days comprising recalling stored data from the memory at the time of each removal of funds from the safe to classify deposits by the date of each business day when the deposits occurred; and

then

using the classified deposits from at least two removals from the safe to identify the complete funds for each business day comprised of partial business days during those removals.