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.