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Add “safecracker” to my resume

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    Add “safecracker” to my resume

    Long read...

    Last year, Shannon’s sister was cleaning her house out getting ready to sell it. She had their grandmothers safe that hasn’t been opened in 25ish years. The grandmother passed away several years ago and she was the only one that knew the combination. I was elected to bring the safe home and see what I could do with it.


    Old Victor floor safe, weights appx 600#. They began making them in 1885 but this one was made at or a little after 1920. Reason why I know that will be explained later...

    I got it moved and set it in my garage and researched in my spare time.

    I knew of a guy not far from here that had a robotic safe dialer. I tried to get in touch with him several times but never got a response. I hope he’s ok as he was fairly old.

    So, without his help, there’s not a lot of information online to help crack this type of safe as it doesn’t have a separate handle in order to “feel” for the gates. Luckily, there were two numbers marked on the dial. On a couple forums it said one number in particular was used more often than not as the last number. Knowing it was a 4 digit combination, knowing what could be the last number and having two numbers marked I decided to give it a try. Well, one of the marked numbers was the potential last number. I sat down in my garage and started in... beginning the turns to the left first, going thru the potential marked numbers in the sequence that normally happens with safes (4,3,2,1), no luck. Decided to begin the pattern going right.

    Here’s where it gets weird... the supposed last number is 54. So I go thru a number sequence, stop on 54, try to turn the dial and there’s a lot of resistance... CLUNK! It opened!! I couldn’t believe it!! I texted Shannon a picture and told her that I wasn’t going to open the inner door until she got home from work. It took me a total of NINE minutes! [emoji41]



    She gets home and she tells me that her dad said there’s supposed to be some gold bars in there. Turns out, there wasn’t. Mostly paperwork, old computer cassette recorders (pre-floppy discs), some jewelry (some valuable, some broken, some cheap) and a few coin collections.



    Cue the eerie music...

    This is where things go crazy. I knew better than to close the safe without verifying the combination. So I engaged the bolts with the door open. Tried the combination again... and again... and again... for an hour and a half. Switched things up in the number sequence, and the direction of the dial... no luck. So I decide to remove the doors inside panel to access the locking mechanism... I got lucky in more ways than one...




    See those glass vials towards the bottom? That’s not a light... That’s tear gas! It was used as a booietrap. They didn’t start doing that until 1920. The wire is strung taught behind the locking mechanism and wrapped around one of the screws... so if someone were to try to break into the safe by “punching” the dial, it would put tension on the wire and POP! Tear gas! [emoji15]

    Now cue the Mission Impossible theme music... I CAREFULLY remove the screws to access the gates. Everything is going smooth until the eerie music begins to play again... I turned the dial to verify the gate positions. Turns out, the combination I tried DID NOT WORK! I’m sitting there watching the dials and gates as I’m verifying the numbers on the dial. They weren’t even remotely close! [emoji15][emoji2962] Then I decided to try the combination by going the opposite direction on the dial for the first number. Everything works for the first 3 numbers. Once I got to 54 where it opened the first time, no go... I still can’t explain it because when I opened it the first time, I verified the number on the dial after it was open.... [emoji2962]

    So, I tried both combinations numerous times to verify and they worked flawlessly. I closed the safe and tried both again without failure. Now begins the long process of cleaning and restoring this 100 year old piece of history.

    Sorry for the long read but I honestly don’t know how it opened for me. Maybe Shannon’s grandmother was lending me a hand.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    Last edited by Tubby; 05-22-2020, 09:39 AM.

    #2
    That is awesome! Glad you didn't get gassed!

    Comment


      #3
      Thats awesome.

      Theres a podcast called "Stuff You Should Know". They did an episode on cracking safes and it was pretty interesting. Might check it out.

      Comment


        #4
        You sir, should go out and buy $20 worth of lottery tickets ASAP.

        That is awesome, thanks for sharing such a great story.

        Comment


          #5
          That’s **** cool


          Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

          Comment


            #6
            That's really neat, great write up too!!

            Comment


              #7
              That’s awesome!! Glad you got it opened!

              Comment


                #8
                Great story! I always knew u wuz a cracka

                Comment


                  #9
                  Very cool. Enjoyed the read.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Cool read thanks for sharing and congrats on the bounty.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Cool! Better lucky than good. Lol

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Cool story. Thanks for sharing.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          How cool is that! Were you aware of the possibility of the gas when you started? That is a very cool piece please share some photos when you complete the re store.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by myway View Post
                            How cool is that! Were you aware of the possibility of the gas when you started? That is a very cool piece please share some photos when you complete the re store.
                            It never crossed my mind. Shannon's sister said her grandmother always said "don't mess with that safe, it has gas in it". She told me that when I moved the safe and I laughed it off thinking it was a way to keep the kids from messing with it.

                            Once I took the panel off and saw it, I told myself "oh hell". Yesterday I researched what it could be and a couple forums stated it was tear gas. Once reading that, I remembered movies about safe crackers getting "gassed" trying to break into a safe. I always thought that was a movie myth as you never heard about it... I guess its not a myth after all!

                            As far as the restoration, It'll probably be just a deep cleaning inside and out. I doubt I'll actually "restore" it but may look into that in the future.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Love these types of stories!

                              Comment

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