Something that has always amazed me about this blog is the fact that the most popular article on the site is the one I wrote about safe cracking over 4 years ago. There are obviously a lot of people who are interested in how to open a safe, and I have to admit that it’s a topic which I wouldn’t mind learning a bit more about myself. After all, I have a digital safe in my house holding many of my valuables, if it’s a simple task to open it then I need to know so that I can consider new home security measures. With that in mind I decided to do a little research to see if I could find out more and share it with my readers.
As always my quest to find out more about anything started on the web where there are plenty of people claiming that it’s ridiculously easy to open a digital safe in a matter of seconds.
The first video I viewed on youtube shows is a boy who doesn’t look old enough to be out of the house alone opening a small digital safe by hitting the top of the safe at the same time as you turn the dial. Supposedly it works because there a motor inside which pulls down a pin that allows the bolt to slide open. That pin drops down in most small safes when you hit the unit, allowing you a split second to release the door.
If that method doesn’t work for your small digital safe of choice then there are many other methods for breaking in. In some models you can even see the bar which holds the door on. A thief with a hacksaw could easily get through that and gain access.
There is also an override key to the electronic keypad on most models which is usually of a very low quality meaning it can be picked in a matter of a second by anyone who has a set of jigglers for lock picking.
Hmmm, that doesn’t give me much faith in the ability of my home digital safe to keep my valuables away from the sticky fingers of thieves, although my safe is a monster and surely it’s going to be much harder to break into than that?
Thankfully it doesn’t look so easy to get into a big home safe, but it’s still possible for people with a little time and a crow bar. Take a look at this couple doing the job with a little brute force.
What happened to the days when a master thief used skill and dexterity to gently coax open a safe to reveal it’s valuable contents? Maybe that only happened in the movies!
Here’s an interesting safe cracking video from mythcrackers with some guys trying to blow open a safe by pumping it full of water first.
Is it always possible to perform a safe crack?
How to crack a safe using a telephone
Supposedly a man with skill can crack a combination safe using nothing more than the handset from a telephone, at least it’s possible if your name’s Macgyver Here’s how it’s done (adapted from The Unofficial MacGyver How-To Handbook):
- Remove the handset from an old wired phone.
- Open the handset by unscrewing the mouth and ear piece (in newer models you might have to smash it open to get in at the parts you need)
- Remove the mouth and ear piece, these parts are going to act as your speaker and microphone.
- Rewire the device so that the ear piece is connected directly to the mouthpiece.
- Hold the mouth piece to your safe door and use it as a listening device.
- Reset the lock on the safe by turning the dial 3 times to the right.
- Turn the dial on the safe slowly to the right until you hear it click.
- Turn the dial to the left until you hear it click again.
- Once again turn the dial to the right until you hear a final click.
- You should now be able to crack open a safe.
The key to this method is hearing the tiny clicks which occur when the combination lock is turned to the correct number. Obviously the microphone and speaker combination which you rig up from the old phone will amplify the clicks making it possible for you to hear them. If you happen to have a stethoscope handy that will work even better.
What I learned From Researching Cracking a Safe
The bottom line is that any safe can be cracked. Having said that, you still want to use one of these devices if you valuables in your house that you want to keep safe from burglars. They are probably your best option available, plus you can get fire proof safes which will keep your cash and your irreplaceable paper work out of harms way if you property goes up in smoke.
The moral of the article is that you should buy the very best safe you can afford, and stay far away from the small digital safes you can pick up for a few dollars unless you can place them somewhere a thief will never look. Although in that case you might not need a safe at all.