Safe cracking, anyone? 150 year old safe stumps expert

MiddenMonster

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Dec 29, 2004
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This should bring back memories of the wall safe thread from last year. But if you can crack this safe, located in Astoria, Oregon you will win a prize:

http://www.dailyastorian.info/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=395&ArticleID=38283&TM=77748.31
Ancient safe stumps expert called to open it
By TOM BENNETT
The Daily Astorian

It's almost a century and a half old, but the old safe at the former Hanthorn Cannery at Pier 39 stumped one of the nation's leading "safecrackers."

Pier 39 owner Floyd Holcom and the rest of the Hanthorn Cannery Foundation wanted to find out what was in the safe, which has been a fixture of the old plant since it opened in the 1870s and currently sits in the building's interpretive center.

So they hired Dave McOmie, a nationally recognized safeman who specializes in opening all manner of safes and vaults.

Using some sophisticated sensing equipment, McOmie worked for two hours Tuesday but was only able to come up with one of the four numbers in the safe's combination dial lock. At one point McOmie suggested drilling into the safe, a common technique in safecracking, but Holcom and the other foundation members said no.

No one's sure what is even inside the safe - at reunions for former Hanthorn workers, attendees have been offered the chance to "open the safe and win a prize," Holcom said.

McOmie did confirm that the safe was a Hall model, which were last manufactured in 1879. The Hanthorn cannery opened in 1875.

Though he failed in his first attempt, McOmie will be back to try again, Holcom said.

"The mystery continues," he said.
 

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