How to open a safe

[Iain]

Nothing criminal.

At my place of work we have a safe. It was left by the previous occupants and they left instructions as to how to open it so we want to. It's a local govt building so I doubt it is full of drugs, other than perhaps Ritalin for the people downstairs.

The instructions are:

From 0 zero anticlockwise x3 to 30
Clockwise through 30 x 2 to 53
Anticlockwise through 53 x1 to 97
Clockwise to 10

NB do the opposite to that which is indicated above and hte safe will open.

The safe is a Phoenix Centurion 1200, it has a dial and a key that has two positions (either that or it will turn a little when the safe is locked)

I've never used a rotary safe before. Any clues?

[yesterdaysyouth]

turn the dial 3x's to the left and stop on 30 on the 3rd go around, then 2x's to the right stop on 53, 1 turn left stop on 97, then to the right until you hit 10...

[client32]

Due to the last line "do the opposite"

Turn the dial clockwise several (3) times and stop on 30.
Now counter-clockwise, passing 30 2 times and stop on 53.
Clockwise again, passing 53 once and stoping on 97.
Finally counter-clockwise straight to 10.

[Iain]

The difference between the two answers highlights our problem. Thanks guys, we now have a useful and partially fireproof safe.

[client32]

Which way worked?

Or do you not want to let us all know the comination to your safe?  

[jefnvk]

The easiest thing to do when you have two choices is to try them both.

And I'd be wary about using someone else's safe, especially if they have acess to it.

[Iain]

They don't have access to it, the part of the building that we are in was abandoned for about a year before we moved in, and that was about a year ago (didn't work for them then)

I did try several ways of approaching it, but I think I just messed it up a few times with over-running what I was aiming at. Never used a safe like that before so I wasn't sure what I was even trying to do, whether there was a method of using the key etc.

We're not really worried about using it as a place to hide stuff away (it's a charity, there is no money) but maybe to store important documents as it is supposed to be fire-proof up to a certain temp and for a certain duration. Of course there was also plain curiosity in the office as to what was contained within... there was nothing though.

Client32 - you were right.

[Azrael256]

I think I just messed it up a few times with over-running what I was aiming at

Usually, the higher quality the safe, the more accurate you have to be.  I had two floor safes.  One was a cheaper safe that would allow two or three numbers off to open it, and the other one had to be dead center of the mark to open.  There is also usually a way to change the combination once you get it open.  If you get into that, you'll find that there are limitations to the combination imposed by mechanical necessity.  Mathematically, that makes the safe much easier to crack, which is why multiple devices (combo dial, key, and keypad combo) on a given safe make it more secure.  If it's the commercial type safe that you buy at office depot, it's already easy to crack for anyone with a little knowledge and a fiber-optic scope, but since you're not storing the plans for the B-2 bomber in it, you shouldn't have any problems.

[Antibubba]

I'm glad you got it open.

Was Geraldo on hand?  

[Iain]

That went right over my head.

I vaguely know who Geraldo is.

[garrettwc]

I'm glad you got it open.

Was Geraldo on hand?

Been a while since I thought of that.

Iain some background. Before his current job Geraldo Rivera was a gonzo journalist for ABC news. Several years ago, he did a much hyped two hour prime time special called "Al Capone's Vault". They had discovered a hidden vault in the basement of a Chicago hotel that allegedly belonged to the infamous gangster Al Capone. The show was two hours of buildup and history leading to a climax where they would open the vault at the end.

What did they find when they broke through the wall? A big empty hole in the ground.

Antibubba is making a comparison to your safe cracking adventure.

[client32]

Was Geraldo on hand?  

I had to go buy a new keyboard to type this.

Iain: http://www.reason.com/links/links072203.shtml
here is an excerpt:
"Geraldo's pathbreaking 1986 special, The Mystery of Al Capone's Vault, in which he took a couple of excruciatingly boring and painful hours to open the mobster's legendary "secret" vault on air and find absolutely nothingexcept a massive audience. The Al Capone special, widely dismissed as a career-killing flop, actually turned in the highest ratings ever for a syndicated special."

EDITED TO ADD: garrettwc beat me to it.

[El Tejon]

Best way I've seen is to steal the safe out of its resting site.  Drive out to an orchard where Hayzeus left his zapatos, beat on corner with a sledgehammer and peel the top or bottom open like a sardine can.

Bethca can guess what kind of case that was!

[Warren]

I clicked on this thread expecting to see a link that owuld lead me to a video of a safe being blowed the Hell up.

I'm glad you got it open but really this thread was not fun AT ALL.

[Azrael256]

"Frame it up, then blow it to h*ll!"

[MaterDei]

That note is bizarre.  Anticlockwise?  And the bit about do this in reverse, written on the same piece of paper as the combo?  What's the point?

Government building = BizarroWorld

[Kharn]

Anti-clockwise is the European way of saying counter-clockwise.  I think its also used by the military to denote the same, but I dont have a DOD writing manual here at home to verify.

Kharn

[El Tejon]

Blackburn, O.K.  It was a burglary ring, working downtown.  They would pay off the security guard or get an employee to leave open a door.  

Go in and get the safe, knew right where it was.  Carry it out and drive off into the countryside (woods, where I am lots of orchards, hayfield, wherever).

Take a sledge and pound on corner of safe until something comes loose.  Stick in a pry bar (the big suckers, 6 footers) and rip it open like a can of sardines.

Another one was a homemade cutting torch with welding rods lashed together that would melt the thin top or bottom of a safe.  Let me know if you want to know about this one.

I always laugh at the rubbish in the gun rags about safes and safe doors.  They aren't coming through the door, Mr. gun hack.

Have seen high tech, like a perfect use of cutting torch at a Wendy's floor safe.

[possenti]

I work as a welder at a landfill.  One day, I found a small safe that a customer left on the "dump ramp".  It looked like it was about a 100 years old.  About 2X2 feet on every side, with heavy steel wheels on the bottom.  Weighed about 300 pounds.  Locked up tighter than a drum.

Curiosity got the best of me, so I hauled it into the welding shop and started cutting it open.  It had external hinges, so I started there.  I cut every exposed part off, but the bolt type latch wouldn't let the door budge.  After about 2 hours with a cutting torch, plasma cutter, pry bars and an air chisel to bust through the bricks and concrete, I finally got it open.  By this time, I had an audience watching to see what was in it.  The inside space was much smaller than the outside due to the thick walls.  It was empty, except for a small wooden drawer in the bottom.  I pulled it out, and revealed...2 plastic buttons.  Everyone chuckled and went back to work.  Buy hey - maybe they were special buttons!

 Now I know how Geraldo felt...

[brimic]

We have safes that are about the size of the largest gunsafes that we use to store schedule 1 and schedule 2 drugs where I work. There are a handful of people who are given the combination, mainly production supervisors. Word has it that a newly minted production supervisor spent 3 hours trying to get the safe open before he gave up when our QC department needed a sample out of one the safes. I'm not going to go into any detail about the combinations, but its similar to the one posted above plus a few other manipulations of the dials and each safe is different. I can say that if a person were given the combination of the safe, there is no way in heck they would ever be able to get it open unless they knew something about safes or had explicit training on the safes.