Safes are only as safe as the closest master safe-cracker in town!
There are so many ways to break into a one that it can seem quite amazing the country isn’t gripped by a permanent crime wave. In addition to the stereotypical methods often depicted in the movies involving everything from stethoscopes to explosives, modern technology has also developed such devices as autodialers and the like.
However, while much easier, cracking safes open is still not an easy task. First of all, there is the obvious problem of getting to work on the safe undetected. As the comedian Wood Allen remarked, ninety percent of success is simply showing up! But leaving undisturbed – by security, namely – is another problematic aspect of the whole enterprise.
Such concerns aside, however, the main issue relating to safe-cracking is whether one can afford to be noisy and messy about it. Even though many safes are hard to open, most are in fact vulnerable to physically forceful methods. If one can afford the luxury of brute force methods, they have the potential to be the quickest way in and out of a safe!
Once upon a time even x-rays were used to reveal the internal arrangements of a safe’s locking mechanism in order to deduce the combination. And of course, there’s always good old-fashioned digging and tunneling for something like bank vaults! But for every method, there is a foil – just as for every foil, there’s a method around it.
It’s a veritable arms race of the intellect, which is one reason why safe-cracking appeals to many with a mechanical bent of mind. It’s essentially a puzzle game; the whole thing is an exercise in problem-solving.
It’s also why breaches form such a part of many a movie: it’s the quintessential embodiment of life itself, isn’t it – getting past one’s obstacles by using one’s brains.