Old safe, new burglar?

Cepasaccus

A maybe silly question, but had any of your old safes had recently contact with a new burglar? If so, did they ignore it? Did they try to open it? With or without success? I hope they ignore it because of respect to their age.

Chubby

There was a burglar near where I lived in UK who used to use a disc cutter to open old safes. He got quite good and would simply cut round the lock. I don’t think he was ever caught.

The old fireproof safes are no match for modern tools! Unfortunately plenty of businesses rely on safes of this type.

Tom Gordon

It is also true that some of the good old safes are much stronger than many a modern safe, but often the insurance companies are reluctant to accept this reality, when someone waves a certificate for a new safe infront of their face.

Chubby

Chubb used to have a promotional video about this. It started with a bit about a supposed Victorian burglar opening a Chubb safe and then a modern one doing the same with modern tools. It ended with an OA attempt on a new Bankers Treasury. Must be 20 years back, I should think.

I agree 100% with the sentiments in the post above. I would rather trust my valuables (ho ho ho) in a Chatwood Diamond than in …. well let’s just say many new safes which would actually cost far more than the old Chatwood.

Does anybody on the forum remember those Ratner bankers with the 3 locks. Triple locking is quite unusual in my experience. Boy, those were tough!

Cepasaccus

The best German safes should be from around the 1980s. The security rating was at that time D10 and D20. Not much technical innovation since then, but a drop in manufacturing quality. An old safe probably loses against an experienced burglar with the right tools, but a simple burglar might not do much damage. We hat a burglar in our office which hat the standard burglar tool with him: a screw driver and also a tool to open unlocked doors. He was stopped easily by the first plain internal office door which was locked. And perhaps there are burglars who value historic objects and do therefore not attack them?

Chubby

I don’t think there are many burglars who respect historic safes!

One good plan is to have a relatively simple strongroom door which will stop anybody getting to a more elaborate safe. Many banks, in the old days, had a book room quality door opening onto a bookroom quality strongroom with the main door opening onto the bookroom. Any cowboy would be stopped by the booksafe door and so would not damage the main door.

bighammer

I’m up to 4 old safes, (and very little to put in them) so while they might be easy to get into, they’ll have to decide where to start. :8):

Tom Gordon

bighammer wrote
I’m up to 4 old safes, (and very little to put in them) so while they might be easy to get into, they’ll have to decide where to start. :8):

Is this a competition? 😺
Without counting, I think I have 12 at home.

[unknown]

Cepasaccus

Wow! I believe with 12 safes the burglar should be caught in the morning opening the last one.

In case someone here hasn’t read Allen Pinkerton’s Thirty years a detective: https://archive.org/details/30yrsadetective00pinkrich
On page 256ff he writes about THE BURGLAR, i.e. how criminals stole money from bank vaults. Interesting is also that in the chapter about HOUSE BRAKING there is no single safe mentioned.

Martin Hewitt

Tom Gordon

Wow! I believe with 12 safes the burglar should be caught in the morning opening the last one.

They are all Chatwoods -he is more likely to be caught trying to open the first one!

00247

Also at 12 and if the burglar starts with the cannonball he may be frustrated in a hurry. I do store the torch and plasma cutter in a separate area out of sight. If he is wise (oxymoron?) he will work fast and quite, my 2nd amendment tools are always handy.

Tom Gordon

00247 wrote
Also at 12

Just to check…that is IN your house?

Cheers
Tom

[unknown]

Chubby

00247 wrote
Also at 12 and if the burglar starts with the cannonball he may be frustrated in a hurry. I do store the torch and plasma cutter in a separate area out of sight. If he is wise (oxymoron?) he will work fast and quite, my 2nd amendment tools are always handy.

A crime prevention officer once told me about a man who had some very very special motorcycle. It was kept chained and padlocked etc. in a garage, where he also kept his OA equipment. Need I go on?

[unknown]

Safeone

The garage where mine are sat is quite well electronically protected but if a forced entry is made ‘Johny Burgular’ will find a dissapointing sight as all my safes are sat with their doors wide open. I took the advice off a crime prevention officer some years ago to do this to avoid any potential pain from a frustrated crim as I try to open an empty safe under ‘duress’

Behind the lock mech door is a good stash place though…………