You see it in the movies, the safe cracker—usually a thief—spins a safe’s dial and opens the safe. Maybe the thief uses a stethoscope to listen to the safe mechanism. Phony stuff for the movies, right? Well, not really, it happens in real life. There are a few Master safe and vault specialists who really can open any safe or vault made. Dave Richardson, of Richardson’s Safe & Vault is one of these. Dave has 30 years of experience in his craft and he can open any safe made. You ever look at that massive vault at your bank that is open during business hours? Ever wonder what happens if it malfunctions? Because they do malfunction, and more often than you’d think.When a bank’s vault fails to open, the bank calls the vault’s manufacturer. And when the vault manufacturer’s technician fails to open the vault, they call Dave Richardson. Yes, just like in the movies, in real life a “safe cracker” can open a bank vault. Dave says he has done it in as little as 20 minutes, and his toughest job ever took all night to open a bank vault.
For smaller safes, like you have at home or a shop keeper may have, there are two basic types: mechanical combination locks and electronic locks. For mechanical combo safes, a specialist like Dave Richardson can often open the safe without any drilling; it’s called “manipulation” when a safe expert opens a safe without drilling. Dave says he can manipulate open a safe about 50% of the time. A safe specialist starts by just feeling the dial and mechanism with their fingers. If they can’t open the safe that way, they can use acoustic devices to help them “hear” what is going on inside the safe’s works. Finally, a safe specialist like Dave Richardson can use special laser devices that detect tiny variations in the vibrations occurring within a safe as they work the combination dial.
So next time you see a safe cracker in the movies, you’ll know that while the technique is probably phony, the reality of safe manipulation is true.
