Because CHEMTD is moving to a new corporate office in April, we have been slowly de-junking and eliminating anything we don't need. As was bound to happen, my attention turned to this Coffre Fort National safe which I used in junior high but eventually forgot the combination of. Faced with the prospect of having to lug it to yet another address, I have decided that I am going to open this sucker up, once and for all.
I have been talking to a few companies about "the job" and have been told that the options for getting into a safe like this are either:
- Contact the maker and, after proving ownership, obtain the combination originally registered to this serial number.
- Grind the door off and then repair it once the combination has been reset.
- Drill a hole near the dial and use a 'scope to read the combination from the inside.
- Put an 'auto-dialer' machine on it for three days and let it cycle through all of the possible combinations (no gaurantee that this method would work though).
They charge a flat fee for the attempt and an additional hourly charge for the time required to get in, and the cost to repair it afterwards (estimated to require 6-8 hours).
(And yes, I am just as surprised as you are that dynamite is not the common method)
Normally, I would happily pay these charges because you are pretty much guaranteed that a safe like this will contain either, a) treasure or, b) a map to treasure. This situation is different though because I happen to be the person who last closed the door back in the 1990s, and I am fairly certain I didn't have any treasure then.
Kendall and I once tried to open the safe, but our efforts only resulted in the removal of the top hinge pin (before we realized that the hinges themselves would still prevent the door from opening). This time is different though; I am either going to get in and reset the combination so we can start using the safe, or I am going to drop off its twisted, smoldering remains at the local dump. What I am not going to do, is move the 'world's heaviest coffee table' to our new house.
Stay tuned,
- C
3 comments:
Chad,
From the pictures I have seen of under your bed, YOU do have valuables to store! Let Heather know that I am not volunteering to help with the moving of the safe! I will help with a lot but I will not help with that!
I pretty sure watching The Italian Job would help prepare you for any major safecracking attempt. Be sure to let us know what you find inside. Hopefully it's a handfull of diamonds wrapped in a black cloth or at least some really old hockey cards or some Apple stocks.
What Twyla? I was sure that I could count on you for the heavy lifting...
Lorin, that's a good point. I didn't watch the Italian Job but I have been watching a video of Jeff Sitar.
Check him out at:
www.jeffsitarsafecracker.net
So awesome.
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