We were called to open this Yale Certified Safe at a Pharmacy in Wirral, Merseyside as the key had been lost. What we weren’t told was that a previous company had already spent four hours drilling holes into it and had to give up. This changed our game plan which was to pick the lock open without causing any damage to the safe as we usually do. The safe had already been destroyed at this point but we still went with an approach that would cause minimal damage and opened it with a single small hole. We have blanked out our method in the picture for security, the holes that can be seen were already present when we arrived on site.

The moral of the story is to research your safe engineer before letting someone loose with a drill. Are they members of trusted trade associations such as the Master Locksmiths Association (MLA) or the Safe and Vault Technicians Association (SAVTA)? Do they have experience with the same safe that you need opening? Ask them how they plan to open it and if drilling is their first or only method then consider getting a second opinion.