The combination had been lost to this Fort Knox Chancellor under floor safe at a private residence in Maghull, Merseyside. We attended the customers home and identified the lock as a La Gard Group two, three wheel combination lock, initial diagnostics suggested that the lock was working correctly so we began the process of manipulating it open.

Manipulation is a process of discovering the combination of the lock and is often depicted in movies with the safe cracker using a stethoscope or an upturned glass tumbler to listen to the lock. Whilst we carry high tech listening devices they are not always necessary and with this lock we didn’t need anything but our un-sanded fingers to identify what the lock was ‘saying’ to us. Within a short space of time the lock had given up its first number of the combination shortly followed by the second and the third at which point the lid could be removed to reveal the safes contents. We then reset the combination to one of the owners choosing and gave instructions on how to dial the lock and how to insert and remove the lid.

Fort Knox safes are unfortunately no longer trading but they were based in Maghull so this one didn’t have to travel far from the factory where it was made.