My uncle had a good friend who found over 200 British gold sovereigns under the
rotten floor of a log cabin on one (he wouldn't say which one) of the Gulf
Islands in
BC Canada. He was searching for old bottles.
He kept them, moved to Australia to prospect for opals, his life long dream.
When he died his daughter got 90 of them from his safety deposit box.
contact the safe manufacturer with the model and serial number,perhaps fax
a copy of the property's title. They may have the combo on file.
there may still be valuables inside it.
Very interesting question.
You buy a house.
A day, or a week, or a year later
you find a stash of cash in the attic.
I would presume that the cash,
( and anything else you find )
is LEGALLY yours.
Any exceptions ?
<rj>
Are you serious? Never mind the logistical problems of keeping such
records, this is a huge security breach, and any company that does this
doesn't deserve to be in business.
google.com never fails!
I did a search of "safe cracking" (include quotes) and got lots of pages. I
did not read them but saw something about "thermal imaging".
Also may want to ask the previous owner what his birthday is and birthday's
of people in his family. Some people use birthdays. Or he may remember that
he did or did not use a birthday.
Perhaps the safe came with a standard combination and all models would have
this combination? (Then you would change it to what you wanted after
purchase.) Maybe the safe is still set to the combination it came with?
Also maybe the old guy remembers where he purchased the safe. If they are
still in business, maybe they would have a record of the combination?
BTW, if I found anything in the safe, I would return it to the old man. I
have a fireproof safe in my house, but all I have in it is documents which I
don't want to burn up in a fire. Nothing of any value.
"MiamiCuse" wrote in message
Bill wrote:
still in business, maybe they would have a record of the combination?
I'll second that thought.
Last year I bought a barely used Lincoln automobile from a repair shop
owner who was selling it for a customer of his, the son of an elderly
gentleman who'd bought it new and passed away shortly thereafter.
When I was putting my car papers in the glove compartment I discovered
two things "hiding" inside it:
A "Happy Birthday Dad" greeting card with an unused local restaurant
gift certificate in it.
A little leather bag containing a very beautiful and old looking rosary.
I called the place which sold the car to me and got the name and address
of the son, then mailed the items back to him that same day.
The next day we got a call from his wife thanking us and reminding us
that both she and her husband had worked for our family business some 15
years ago, then later they got hitched. (Small world, huh?)
The happy ending was that the wife looked around and found the keyless
door entry combination for the car and told it to me so I didn't have to
pay a dealer to fiddle a new one into the car's computer.
An Irish-Catholic guy I knew about 40 years ago said that his family
called stuff you found and kept which you knew belonged to someone else
"The Devil's host" and that hanging onto it would bring you continuous
bad luck. I choose to believe he knew what he was saying. <G>
Jeff
Jeff,
The happy ending of this story for me was reassurance that good people
are still doing good things. Those items, while useless to you,
probably mean the world to the surviving family.
You probably didn't mean to..... but you touched my heart with that.
I'll bet a year's salary that you did the same to the family. Thanks.
Contact savta.org and see if there's a good vault tech nearby. If so,
call and describe the safe. Is there a handle separate from the dial?
If so, try putting pressure on the handle (i.e. try to open the door)
while turning the dial. See if pressure on the handle makes the dial
harder to turn (even very slightly). If that is the case, the safe
can probably be manipulated, or opened without damage. Depending on
the mechanism, he might have to drill it, and that will cost plenty.
Good luck.
On Wed, 07 Feb 2007 01:45:38 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@antispam.net (Bill)
wrote:
You know, I've seen things likethat in movies, but a few years ago I
had a toy safe, about 5 inches x 4 x 4, all plastic with a clear
plastic inner door so one could see the gears, with notches in them
that had to line up to open the safe, and even this toy was better
designed than one would be that was harder to turn when a handle was
turned. There was also no way to listen with a stethoscope. I forget
how they did this, and for some reason I don't know where the toy safe
is, but its design was simple but silent.
Call a locksmith, or go to them with pictures. They may be able to get into
it by drilling a small hole and looking around with a thing called a
borescope. They then plug the hole and the safe is still, well, safe.
Did you try the more obvious numbers, like 10-20-30, 20-40-60, the man's
birthday, or his anniversary date? Or perhaps it was never changed from the
somewhat standard 50-25-50 default combination.
If you're in a big city, you might find a locksmith that has a device that
clamps onto the dial and spins it continuously for many hours until it finds
the right numbers. Such tools are expensive and not very common.
HomeOwnersHub.com is a website for homeowners and building and maintenance pros. It is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.