Parents share a safe deposit box and add their adult son to the signature card. If he takes money and or property from the box is he guilty of theft, or does he have equal access and rights to the property?
Whether the son is a co-lessee or a deputy/agent, he has access to the box and its contents. Whether he has "rights" to the contents will depend on who owns the contents. If a particular piece of property that's in the box belongs to the son, then his removing it can't be theft. If the property is not the son's, then his removal of the property might be theft, depending on who it actually belongs to and whether the son had permission to take it. Frankly, the fact that the property is (or was) in a safe deposit box doesn't really affect ownership, as far as we can see.
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