Can you? Yes. Should you? Probably not.

Every decision you make will have pros and cons. It's a fact of life that we're all familiar with. No decision is perfect. Any good decision has a possibility of a negative you couldn't perceive before making it. Even bad decisions will often have a silver lining. Even if that lining is nothing more than learning which bad decisions you should not make again.

A business called for service on their safe... unfortunately, I was not available that day. Apparently they thought the need was extremely urgent so they called another provider. One that had NO experience with safe opening. They charged more than double what I would have to do the work and destroyed the safe in the process. Sadly, I don't have a satisfying "after" picture for this one. The container was entirely irreparable. Which meant they also had to purchase a new one. Which would be another 2'000 dollars (+/-).

The vendor they called was using a number that dialed up as disconnected. They received a call back from a blocked number. The person showed up in an unmarked vehicle with no identification and the invoice they issued was boilerplate generic, also containing literally zero identifying information. Before they started cutting, they lied to the client and told them "all they would have to do is file a warranty claim for a new door." Which is not a service provided by ANY safe manufacturer. All the red flags were in place for my client to turn this vendor away, but their desperation to get into the safe led them to make a bad decision. One of the variety where the only silver lining is that you certainly won't make it again.

You can check out my blog post "Some things are better left alone." To see what the proper end result of an opening and repair service looks like.

Let the bad decisions of others be wisdom for you. Hire a qualified professional (who isn't concerned with being identified). It will save you a lot of time, money and frustration.

Some Things are Better Left Alone

When it comes to speaking in public settings, confidence can help you overcome the nerves. Intuition can help you change a car tire or know when your steak is cooked to the temperature you like. Something that confidence and intuition cannot help you do is change a safe combination without proper instruction or the required tools. And if you do attempt to do it anyway, it can be a costly service to fix what you may think to be a small mistake.

The call seemed innocuous enough... "Our guy tried to change the combination on our safe and now we can't get it opened." They were very close so I said I would be right over. Immediately upon seeing the safe, I knew I was in for a treat. They had removed the case cover and relocker strap and left them lying on the top of the safe when they shut the door to test their work. Intuition doesn't inform you that you should always test combination changes with the door open. And once you do it incorrectly, there is no going back without professional help.

Knowing I would need at least 2 holes to manipulate each of the relocking devices back out of the way to get the door open again, I got my tools into position and started toiling away. All in all, it only took a little over 2 hours. This particular type of lockout is one I've had to do a few times but manipulating multiple locking components manually, and blindly, is always a little bit tricky.

I have always enjoyed puzzles. Sudoku, word scrambles, scrabble. I got into lock-picking as a hobby a few years before I started doing this professionally because it was (in my mind) the next step in the evolution of my puzzle love. Then, when that started to lose its glimmer, I took a shine to safes. There is little to me that is more satisfying than that feeling when I slip the final piece into place and that beautiful image (of an open door) unfolds itself in front of me.

After opening the safe, and patching everything up nicely, I installed a much more user friendly Electronic lock on the safe so that future combination changes could be done from the user interface... and hopefully I won't need to return to this one again, except to show someone how to change a battery.

Confidence and intuition can do a lot for you. Especially when combined with a little bit of determination and persistence. But it cannot get you back into a safe after this little mistake has been made. Some things are better left alone. And some things are better left to someone who knows.

- Dan Bailey

It's a Big One

A bank had me out when they went through a branch closure and one of their former managers, apparently upset about ongoing changes, decided to have several of the safes combinations changed. They neglected to leave a note or any other information related to the changes made and, because the bank had to verify that no confidential records or tangible assets were left inside the container, they needed to have the safe opened. When I asked the caller if he could give me any identifying information, he simply said, "It's a big one." I went out to assess their needs and quote the work. Time was of the essence as he was traveling from out of state and needed to finalize the closure within the next few days. We discussed the rate and scheduled the work for the following business day.

I was able to do the work in about 3 hours and leave the safe unrecognizably altered from the original state. The day concluded with a very satisfied banker. Not only were they able to verify that there were no important items unaccounted for, they also had their (very expensive) safe returned to them in working order for a fraction of the cost of replacement. Another successful service call in the book.