Thought I'd pass this one along, if anyone thinks a cheap safe will provide much protection. Note how the corner was pried-up, and the locking mechanism smacked from the inside. Bolts folded-over like tin foil. Easy-peasy:

RedHead Safe Broken Into. - Maryland Shooters

to bad you have to register to see pics

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is it just me?

There are several good ones. Sorry, didn't notice you need to register.

What a shame. The old saying..."you get what you pay for" certainly applys here.

Can you grab the most informative pic and post it here?

I also can not view pics but I can imagine what it looks like. Every Menards lowes and big box stores sell "safes" they are more like a metal storage cabinet that resembles a safe, cheap chinese ****. Just because it looks like a safe does not mean it is a safe. You get what you pay for. A good safe made in America will cost $3000 and up so I guess you can decide if you want to put a nice gun collection in a cheap safe and take the chance this guy did, bet he will buy a good one next time!

I got permission from the owner first. He has now approved me to re-post the pics.

I am guessing here, but some other people were discussing that Youtube has a "how to" on how to bust into a cheap safe like this. You pry open the corner (you can see that's what happened -- only the bolts near one corner were bent) and then pop one bolt out enough, which breaks the internal system and then all of the bolts come free. Cheap safes fail this easily. Especially if not bolted to the floor or the wall.

I haven't seen it in a while, but there was some video of a guy doing this simply by drilling a small hole in the steel where one of the bolts was, then smacking it hard with a hammer. The entire door came open in under a minute:

Some serious Armstrong Method went into that.

Not sure which safe this was but a quick search Bass Pro comes up and I don't think $1000 is a cheap safe. They my be over priced, but if that's cheap I guess I need to spend twice that for a good safe.

Back years ago, before nite deposits slot at local banks,
businesses had free standing safes and we'd see a lot of em peeled.

Every 'safe man' had their on signature style of peeling or punching safes........
Most always layed on it's back and the door crimped and pried, starting on a corner, etc......

I guess it's coming back in vogue now in days in home burglaries.

There been cases where the thieves used a roll-back wrecker,
with a winch to jerk the safe outside and load er up and gone..........




.

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"IN GOD WE TRUST"

We should be glad the burglars didn't just wheel that thing out with a dolly and crack it at their homie's garage.

Safes, IMO, lend a false sense of security. The US Military and many police departments have armed guards and millions of dollars in security hardware, yet even they get hit with thefts. The only security any of us have is guarding the knowledge of our collections. You cannot steal what you don't know exists.

We had a defective safe at our store, the lock was messed up and would not disengage. the manufaturer replaced it, told us to just scrap the bad one. One of our regular customers said he was sure he could get it open....20 minutes...turned it upside down, put a pry bar on it and popped it open...not real impressed with safes any more.

I saw a video of two guys with rock bars break in a cheap safe in about 10 minutes. Yes I do have a cheap safe. Don

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"Don't worry be happy"

I have seen a video stateing and showing that ANY safe can be opened relatively easy with bars if flipped over onto it back.
They should be bolted down.

Of course they are better than nothing and will deter the amateur thief or someone in a hurry.

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Nearly Normal Mike, NRA Lifer

Lots of evidence here that BOLTING IT DOWN is of utmost importance. I did hear of a local story where the thieves showed up with a wrecker truck and fed a winch line through a window and pulled it out through the wall of the house to discover its contents elsewhere.

Somehow, from the effort I think they had some clue that the contents were worth the trouble.

The Mythbusters opened up a safe with water and TNT. Water does not compress and the small explosive created a preasure wave and blew the door clean off. The point was to prove or bust a movie myth.

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Livin’ Life From The Blindside

Makes since they need to be put on there backs. That way you can place more leverage on the crowbar using your entire body weight. I think popping one open that's standing correctly would be much much harder because full body weight cant be used. They have to use there upper body strength or lower body strength.

Thats still pretty scary but the bottom line is nothing is full proof. The best safe's and equipment in the world where still designed by humans who are not perfect. Finding a flaw might take time but its there and if someone wants in bad enough they will find it.

I think its pretty darn important to bolt one down and hopefully in a closet or a corner where it would be hard to get a six foot pry bar on it for some leverage. The only thing more important is to take the makers name off of the safe. If a crook new what brand safe it was and could examine the locking mechanism of that certain brand, it would be very easy for him to know where to drill a hole or two and override the locking mechanism.

Not all safes are created equal guys. Needless to say this safe company has just been embarrassed.

This method will not work with all brands. Do your homework before buying. Still better than leaving the guns in the closet or wood gun cabinet.

http://www.nwsafe.com/libertys-head-...eo-p-1248.html

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Life Is A Gift. Defend it!

Just watched a video on You Tube were it was demonstrated that a $1000.00 safe available from various big box stores was opened in under 2 minutes!

Search, "racing to the bottom".

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Molon Labe!

I think it also bears mentioning the safe in questions here did NOT have locking bolts on the top and bottom of the door. 12 bolts is better than most, but my Liberty Lincoln 50 also has two bolts on the top and bottom. Most high quality units like Liberty, Cannon, and Browning all have these bolts on the top and bottom of the door.

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Un-Reconstructed Southerner

Extra bolts help. Bolting the safe down helps (more than anything).

I always link to this video when discussing safes. It tells you just about everything you need to know to make an informed decision about buying a typical gun safe. It also shows examples of prybar and torch cutting.

Click here:
http://youtu.be/ltK-bDbADa8?t=0m1s

Great safes, but holy heck... that site wants almost $1,000 extra to deliver to my house!

I'm a big fan of Sturdy Safe brand safes. You can spend the same money as Liberty Lincoln and get a 5/16" SOLID (not fake composite, like the busted safe in pics above) front steel door, and 7 gauge steel body... most safes in the $2,000 range are 11 to 14 gauge steel. Delivery is free to the garage -- or pay extra for another location.

Link:
http://www.sturdysafe.com/

I can see that the pins are not case hardened as they won't bend. Would've made it harder to open.

EDIT: Nevermind, I see what happened there, it's the frame that's bent.

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_It was love at first shot_

Folks a fire safe is not a vault and was never inteded to stop burgulars---it is intened to keep things safe from fire for a short period of time.
I can open the back of one with a large screwdriver and a ball peen hammer in 15 minutes----only an idiot would go thru the front.
The best of fire safes are rated at two hours.
PS---Don't trust a vault or money safe to keep your guns in good condition.
Blessings

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TEXAS, by GOD

A locating consideration (in addition to making sure it is properly bolted down) is to locate the non-hinge side of the door close to a wall. This makes it more difficult to get a lever arm on the corner of it. If not anchoring to a concrete floor, a heavy metal joist spanning plate under the floor is probably necessary to keep it upright during an attack.

What you say is very important. Bolt to floor (Hopefully concrete) and to a back wall (again concrete if you’re in a basement) Safe should go into as tight of a location as possible. Try to put the opening side of safe tight to an inside corner. The harder you make it the more security you potentially have. You’re trying to add time to a thief’s task.

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14 S&W Revs none with locks!

That link is to a company here in Washington that sells Liberty safes. Find a LOCAL Liberty dealer.

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Life Is A Gift. Defend it!

I think the old saw comes into play here. Locks only keep honest people honest. If someone wants something badly enough they will find a way to get it.

Mr. Keith, did you ever come across a safe that had been opened with a "burning bar" ? I've seen photos of one opened that way but never seen one for real.

One of the more interesting pictures of safes was for a local estate sale a few months ago.

Had a picture of a safe that looked like someone had used an abrasive disk grinder and just cut a big square hole through the front where the lock used to be. Probably easy to just reach in the hole and shift the bolt mechanism.

Now why they though they could sell that ...

Assuming they can find it. You can't steal something you can't find.

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Centennial Every Day

What little I have is in a very cheap cabinet, not much different than a gym locker. I could defeat the lock with a ball-point pen.

I don't have the dough (and my stuff isn't worth enough) to buy the better safe.

Its only purpose is to keep children, mental defectives, and gun control advocates from hurting themselves.

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and what his trumpet saith

Here's a video for you:

Security on Sale Gun safe Prying video - YouTube