Hotel keeps holidaymakers’ ID cards safe - for 40 years!

Renovations at a seafront hotel revealed that safes can protect valuables from even their owners.

When workers at Dukes pulled away a panel in one of the rooms, they found a shower unit and, behind that, a secure door.

They prized it open – hoping to strike gold – and found this pair of long-lost identity cards belonging to Hans-Jürgen Ibe and Karin Sörje, which seem to date back to the 1970s.

The German couple may not have got far without their documents - but never returned to the hotel, then the Duke of Marlborough, to collect them.

Owner Jo Seward said: “It’s such an old building, there could be all sorts hidden in the walls.”