[OT] - The Lynx effext [OnT] - 2 brick wall safe

[David W.E. Roberts]

Hi,

just received a delivery from Screwfix - no problems there.

Came via Lynx.

However, as with most carriers there is a form to sign which states 'received in good condition'.

Momma was not a gypsy, so I don't have crystal balls.

As usual, I crossed out the 'good condition' and substituted 'unopened'.

However, what legal force has a signature in these circumstances.

If it turns out the contents are totally borked, do the carriers get let off because you signed a standard form?

Or is this a 'does not affect your statutory rights' thang?

Cheers Dave R

P.S. just got a 'two brick' wall safe - not exactly high security (looks like those things you get in package holiday rooms), but some local scumbag has been going round levering open windows with a screwdriver and nicking jewelry from bedroom drawers. Noty that we have much, but what we have we are fond of. It wouldn't deter a professional, but might slow down your average opportunist glue sniffer.

This thing looks as though it is really designed to be incorporated in a wall as it is built.

Anyone inserted one into an existing wall?

There is a lip around the back which looks as though it should sit behind a course of bricks. Presumably you just remove the two bricks, plus two above and one to the side, then refit the 'above and side' bricks once you have inserted the safe into the hole.

All we have to do then is hide the keys :-)

[Christian McArdle]

Have you considered one of the double 13A socket types? Not very secure in themselves, they depend on the scrote not noticing that you have one socket different in appearance from the rest...

Christian.

[£$oteric]

You need to put them in a safe really.... ;+)

[Dave Baker]

Complete waste of time those things. They just provide a handy package which can be jemmied out of the wall in 30 seconds, carried away and opened at leisure. Someone I know tried to hide one in the wall behind an expensive fitted wardrobe system. The damage to the structure of the house after the scumbags had ripped the place apart to get it out cost more than what was inside it. Then they drove it all away in the spare car once they'd found the keys to that. Either find a really good hiding place that most poeple wouldn't find or buy a proper safe that can't be carried. The only good place for a small safe is a top opener in a reinforced concrete floor with steel struts dug in that go down another foot or two so they can't easily dig it up. Anything in a wall is just an open invitation.

Dave Baker - Puma Race Engines

I'm not at all sure why women like men. We're argumentative, childish, unsociable and extremely unappealing naked. I'm quite grateful they do though.

[nightjar]

Usually, they have some device for increasing the size of the safe once you have pushed it through the hole and the back is in the cavity - tags that turn out with a screwdriver or bars that you slide out from the inside.

Not a problem if you have a combination lock.

Colin Bignell

[David W.E. Roberts]

** How did they know it was there? They most have had some idea that there was a safe or why empty the wardrobe to look for it? **

Perhaps I was aiming too high with the word "professional"?

The person (or persons) being protected against seem to have a couple of screwdrivers and a very focussed approach - lever open a window then head for the bedroom and empty the drawers.

Nothing is taken but jewellery - no cameras or electrical goods.

So hiding stuff would probably work.

As a second line of defence a simple concealed safe with a locked door would be an additional deterrent.

There is no intention of protecting stuff against someone with the time, energy and tools to excavate it from the wall.

Given the NG I am posting to, you could also guess that there could be enough tools around to assist in digging the thing out. (e.g. an SDS drill) (or club hammer, cold chisel, sledge hammer or two etc.)

So:

first line of defence is simple concealment second line of defence is a concealed locked box which is not immediately 'grabbable'.

Anyone who is determined, possibly carrying tools, and is prepared to spend some time searching will find most things. If they are prepared to make some noise destroying things then they will probably get any 'budget' safe or lock box out.

Much the same applies to locking internal doors. No point. Unless they are steel with rim bolts, anyone breaking in will just destroy the internal doors on their way through the house.

The protection is solely against the 'fast in fast out' opportunist thief who targets jewelry in bedroom drawers.

A lockbox set into the floorboards under a carpet would be about the same effectiveness i.e. takes a while to locate assuming you are looking for it in the first place.

So - to get back to the question - anyone fitted one of these things? If so, how?

Cheers Dave R

[nightjar]

More accurately, find one that an experienced thief, who has spent years looking for odd hiding places wouldn't find.

Then they come in when you are at home and hit you until you open the safe for them.

Colin Bignell

[Toby]

The scrote who visited me agreed as he chose to kick through each unlocked door, even ones that opened towards him.

Spent all morning searching and found a speck of blood on a glass fragment, gave it to the SOCA who DNA matched said scrote the next year. [1]

Absolutely, £50 in the sock drawer is my choice - the premise being they have scored an easy hit so may as well get out now, rather than trashing everything searching. Must remember to stop dipping in to it myself.

[1] Lack of evidence a year down the line, his story that he had seen the destruction and had only entered to ensure there was no-one lying injured inside could not be disproved.

[Colin Wilson]

Just as an aside to the wall-safe idea, if you have plastic that you want to hide (we all have too much damn plastic !) and have a sizeable video collection, you can make a rather handy "card safe" (absolutely no security whatsoever, but i`d imagine it`d take time to check out every sodding one if it occurred to a thief...) by hacking the guts out of an old VHS cassette, and using a little imagination to keep what looks like a normal tape spool on the rollers (hack a reel with a knife and sellotape it in place)

At first glance the tape looks normal but the front flap conceals a section in the middle of the cassette that is just the right size to keep cards in :-p

_________________ | . . | | /| . . |\ | | \| . . |/ | |______.___.______| |-----------------| /\ in here behind flap

[N. Thornton]

I think this kind of approach is fairly good for items of nonhuge value, if the house is in town. Many items can be worked into a storage unit of some kind. But if youre rural there's not the same rush to leave, nor nearby ears to hear.

Regards, NT