Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/01/06/how-to-open-a-sentrysafe-with.html
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I’ve been telling clients about the problems with cheap safes for 30 years. Add the common issue that few people fasten them to the floor or wall studs and it’s a recipe for losing your valuables. A 2 lb. sledgehammer would probably pop one of the body weld seams open with a safe this cheap too.
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Kinda reminds me of when folks find one of those fire boxes on Storage Wars. What they would do is repeatedly drop said fire box onto concrete intentionally letting it land on it’s corner until the box pops open.
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I don’t know what to make of this guys videos (and those like it). On one hand, every lock and be picked in just a few minutes. On the other hand, his guy is obviously very skilled at picking locks and opening safes.
Maybe this safe is a partially bad example. But most burglaries are grab and go offers. If they even find the safe, are they going to take the time to pop it? Are they going to take the time to pick even the most basic badlocks?
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The real purpose of any lock is to make getting to what’s locked up more effort than getting to the valuables next door or next on the bike rack.
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If you are going to buy a safe, wouldn’t you want to know which ones are more secure?
Of course. That is why this specific safe is not a good example.
I want to know if he disassembled it, figured out his attack, and then tested or if he just went at it blind.
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Recently I was curious whether a cheap lock I got from the hardware store was any good. I have zero experience picking locks but know the general idea and had a set of picks laying around.
So I stuck in the tension wrench, applied a little pressure, and immediately upon inserting a pick the sucker flew open. I’m pretty sure a bobby pin or coathanger would get the job done here too.
Do I still use this lock? Yes, when I go to the gym and I just need to secure my cheap running jacket and need the illusion of security. Would I use this lock for literally anything else? Never in a million years.
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Quick-hit burglars are not the only thieves to worry about. Someone with medium-term unmonitored access to this safe, such as an employee, family member, or in-home service vendor, could readily access the contents of this safe and re-close it, with no indication that it had been opened. Some pretty minimal thought and repositioning of the mechanics could have made this attack method unfeasible. And of course all locks are ultimately able to be defeated, but this is downright silly.
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He must have analyzed it first, that coathanger was twisted just the right way to reach the solenoid. A random thief who is not familiar with that particular design will have a much harder time.
I still think cheap safes like this are best used as decoys with just enough valuables inside to convince a thief that’s all there is, while you hide the real stuff somewhere else.
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well if you come across one in a hotel room you could quite easily remove the screws on the back plate then make a note for laters
Its simple, unless it is a UL listed Residential Security Container (RSC) or stronger and bolted down, it is not a safe but a “safe”, a device designed to provide a delusion of security against theft and perhaps some security against fire/flood depending on the design.
If you want a real safe, go to a gun shop or buy one for guns that is an RSC: gun owners are about the only group willing to pay for real security on their containers, so as a consequence, they are the cheapest containers that actually make the specification: It is cheaper to buy a “gun safe” that can hold a squad’s worth of rifles than it is to buy a smaller RSC.
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If you want a real safe, go to a locksmith that sells safes and tell them you want a burglary chest. Explain the maximum value of items you want to store, how much space you need and any particular security concerns you have for your neighborhood, home and family members.
A competent locksmith will be able to recommend and properly install a safe for you. They will also recommend other layers of security that can make the prospect of someone robbing you much lower, or at least make any such attempt less likely to succeed.
The physical protective system structure is: deter > detect > delay > response. You want the bad guys to not even start, but if they do, detect them as early in the attack as possible and generate an alert of some sort to generate a defensive response, delay the access portion of the attack as much as possible so the attackers run out of time in getting to a completed egress phase before the response arrives to apprehend them.
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What are good ones? There’s about 1% of BB content that seems to be “all safes suck” – I realize that a determined thief can get my stuff, and so a safe–principally–should be to just make it not worth their time. But I have no faith in my ability to chose anything useful.
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Based solely on watching YouTube: if you can buy it at a company that does not specialize in safes or locks - it is not secure.
That does not mean it is not useful. It also does mean everything sold by a specialist is good.
If you go into a hardware store it is likely they will top out at stuff you or I could get into given time.
The decision of how much of a hinderance it will be vs what you are keeping inside is going to determine if it is useful.
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Simple: Look for “UL Listed Residential Security Container”. It means it passes the UL standard and is tested for it: https://www.ul.com/news/residential-security-container-standard-revised
This is an example where standards make the buying process easy. Buy something that meets the standard and you actually know it is to a good standard.
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I don’t recommend anything below Residential Security Container II or a ‘B’ rated burglary safe. A ‘real’ safe will have a combination dial lock from S&G (Sargent & Greenleaf), LaGard, ILCO or similar companies that can be fitted to any safe lock prep. The safes with the spiffy looking integrated keypads like the Lockpicking Lawyer defeated aren’t generally very secure.
The safe box should be at least 11ga steel in a RSC II container.
A ‘B’ rated burglary chest has 1/4" (6.35mm) thick steel walls and minimum 1/2" (12.7mm) thick steel door. I find that most of my clients have sufficient security with one of these when it’s properly installed (bolted in place) and other supplemental physical and electronic security layers. If you’re storing $40K and up or using it in your business for cash, gems, jewellery, precious metals etc., go for a UL 687 rated safe as recommended/required by your insurer.
A safe that has only a Class 125, Class 150, Class 350 label etc. is not a burglary safe; it’s only intended for use as a fire safe.
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I’m guessing the cease and desist letters and/or take down notices this guy gets from corporate attorneys must be epic!
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Sounds like that’s what I bought at Target (I think I spent less than $75). I stuffed it with too many papers on top and, some years later, the hinge on the lid is falling apart. The “safe” wasn’t so much to deter theft, but to (better) protect birth certificates, passports, $2 bills, etc. from some household catastrophe than the file cabinet that I’d been using.
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