The Origins and Contents of the Safe

After some research on the internet I managed to reconstruct most of the details of how the safe ended up being on an internet auction for me to buy.

In 2000 an American couple bought a holiday home in Christchurch, New Zealand, bringing the safe with them. She tragically died in a car accident in 2006 in Texas. A relative then investigated the safe (which apparently led to the drill holes next to the lock) and wrongly declared it empty. The husband returned to New Zealand in 2008 and got an auction house to auction the contents of the house. This included the locked safe. A local antique dealer bought a number of items, including the safe, on this auction. He tried two locksmiths to open it and eventually gave up, not wanting to spend more money on it. He then listed it on TradeMe a New Zealand internet auction site similar to eBay, where I managed to buy it.

When I finally opened the safe it was full to the brim with things. Most of it were documents, family photographs and other family mementos. Besides that there were two sets of US silver flatware and a collection of bead necklaces.

A few days ago I managed to contact a son of the previous owner. Many of the documents in the safe related to him. He was very pleased to hear that some items thought to be lost were still in existence. He asked me to send him the family photos, mementos and documents, which I did yesterday. He gave me some further background to the safe. It has been in his mothers family since they bought it in an auction in 1977. He still remembers the last combination it had, which is different from the one it has now. He thinks its likely that his mother had the safe opened at some stage due to loss of the combination on her part.

My next plan is to have a closer look at the lock by taking off the inside cover of the safe door. I will report about that as soon as I find the time.

Closer inspection of the safe

The safe is 50cm wide, 70cm high and 51cm deep. At the top left it says in golden letters:

Herring Hall Marvin Safe Co.
Hamilton Ohio

At the bottom of the door there is a sticker with the same information:

Underneath that there is a plaque that says:

Underwriters Laboratories, Inc
Inspected
Locking Device
Group 1 No 114275

On the top hinge is a serial number:

15542

The combination dial has 100 positions, the knob shows HHM (for the make).

Right from the dial are two drill holes. Drilling into the locking mechanism is a common way of opening a safe. The combination disks can be aligned visually or the opening triggered manually. For this reason some safes have cobalt plates embedded near the lock which is very difficult to drill and requires specialised equipment.

The right hole is only shallow. The left one is about 40mm deep but does not penetrate the locking mechanism. I don't think these holes were successfully used to open the safe.

In the base of the safe a section has been cut out. The outer hull has been cut away, the insulation (concrete) has been removed. Another metal layer beyond that has been cut out and bend to the side. Behind that there is a sheet of metal, which in my opinion, has been put there from the inside to close the hole.

I think somebody got into the safe this way and probably managed to unlock the safe through this hole from the inside. This means if there were any drawers or compartments in there, these would have been damaged in the process. Of course I don't know when that happened, but I don't think I will find great treasures (maybe a business card from a locksmith).
This is the safes weakest point at the moment. The metal sheet could easily be cut away.