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When an international IT company could not open their secure comms room door at their office in Cheshire they called us for assistance. The door was locked with a Manifoil Mark IV combination lock which are secure enough to have been the UK government’s security standard for many years. We quickly identified the issue and was able to get the door open by giving instructions over the phone.
When a new publican took over a local public house in Skelmersdale, Lancashire he found a Fort Knox underfloor safe which was locked and no keys had been left for it. We were asked to open the safe and to provide new keys so that it could be used. We have opened many of these safes in the past and on first impressions we didn’t expect to have any problem picking the lock but we soon found that the mechanism had seized. We eventually got it moving again and was able to pick it open to find a rather unusual amount of carpet fibres in the lock which had been causing the issue. With new keys provided the safe was put back into service and another non-destructive safe opening was completed.
Chatwood Duplex safe with lost keys opened in Ulverston, Cumbria.
The family could not locate the keys to this antique square cornered safe at a home in Storth, Cumbria after the death of the owner. We attended and picked the lock open for them so that they could retrieve all of the paperwork and personal possessions.
We were called to open this Alpha hotel safe at an international hotel chain site in Manchester. The members of staff who knew the supervisor codes had left and a guest had omitted to open the safe with his code prior to checking out.
Upon arrival there was still a guest in the room where the safe was so we were taken on a tour of other rooms where they were having difficulties, during this time we took the opportunity to work out the supervisor code and coach the staff on how to change it should they wish to do so. Once the guest had left the room with the locked safe it was a simple case of putting in the master code and it opened up straight away.
We received a call to open this Sentry safe with lost keys in Denbigh, Wales. The picture shows how we found the safe with a broken electronic lock and handle. We picked the lock open but with no handle to retract the boltwork we had to deal with that a different way but the owner was upgrading to a newer safe anyway and only required it opening so no repairs were necessary.
We were called to open this antique John Port safe at a Church in Openshaw, Manchester. During some renovation work the safe was getting stripped down prior to painting and they could no longer open the safe door. We opened it and found the edges of the door and frame coated in paint and the door would not shut and lock because of this. We stripped away the excess paint and got the door opening and closing nice and smoothly.
We were referred this job by a locksmith who had identified that the key had snapped in the lock and would not move in either direction. This Phoenix safe was located at a medical practice in Denbigh, Wales. On attending site we confirmed the locksmiths findings and diagnosed an internal fault preventing the bolt from retracting which caused the key to snap. At this stage we thought there was a high probability that the container would need to be drilled but pulling an ace out of our sleeve we got the bolt to retract and open the door. Once open we could see that the door had been violently closed whilst the lock was in the locked position which had bent the boltwork enough for it to jam. Having straightened out the boltwork the next step was to extract the broken key which turned out to be very stubborn and we ended up stripping the whole lock down in order to get the broken bit out.
This J.Grove & Son safe was acquired by the purchaser of a building in Bredbury, Stockport. Unfortunately it didn’t come with any keys so we were called to open the safe and supply new keys. Once we had picked the locks on the main door we found an internal locked coffer which we also picked open.
The safe plaque reads:
DEFIANCE SAFE WORKS LATE WITH CHUBBS
MANUFACTURED BY J.GROVE & SON BIRMINGHAM ENGLAND
The lock escutcheons read:
GROVE & SON INVINCIBLE LOCK
The key had been lost to this SMP Economy safe at a residence in Heswall, Merseyside. We attended site and opened it for the elderly gentleman who no longer wished to use it as it was getting difficult for him to bend down to open it so we were not required to supply new keys on this occasion.
The safe was initially purchased from the Liverpool branch of Withy Grove Stores which was incorporated on the 20th November 1959 but the company has since been dissolved. The address on the sticker is 21-29 Fontenoy Street, Liverpool, L3 2EH