Lost Safe Keys

I got a call from a customer in Kent who had a ARFE high security safe (Grade 5) that he had lost the keys/ had them stolen when he was in europe, (Belgium),  He explained the story so far

There was a label on the safe from the safe company that supplied it and it said ring for service. He had called them and they sent out a subcontractor to open the safe as they don’t specialise in opening safes (Not an uncommon situations as for example i open safes but don’t move or supply them I sub that out myself)

This safe cracker, Safe Engineer, Safe Technician was somebody that i know of and i would consider to be good at his job he started off by telling the customer that the safe did not need to be drilled and they should not let anyone drill it. He then set about trying to pick / decode the lock open,

I was told he spent two days trying to get the safe open and finally gave up and said it needed to be drilled open he identified the safe lock as a Cawi 14 lever safe lock. (this is what the customer had told me)

This lock is a vault quality lock.with a european / VDS standard as a Class C and should be fitted on a safe at Grade 6 and up and not on the lower grade 5 safe, The company who supplied the safe are a CAWI agent and so fitted this lock at some later stage.

The customer aranged for the company to send some one out in a few days (that turned to weeks) to drill open the locked safe, the Customer was not happy with this and phoned up a few safe engineers and my Name and number was passed to him.

Having herd the story and the events thus far I told him that i was pretty sure I could pick open the safe, I told him if i could not pick it open i wont charge him and he can arange for the other company to drill it open or I could drill it open if they did not want to as I can open safes and Vaults Picking and surgical/fine drilling methods. ( I also make and design safe opening equipment and tools myself so im well versed in Picking safe locks) We agreed to get the safe open on the Saturday Morning.

A lot of things can go through your head on a job like this like why did the Safe Engineer not open the safe and spend so much time on it and still have it locked, anyway i wont know until im onsite.

On arriving to site i was shown the safe and confirmed the make and model of the lock it was a CAWI Wittkopp 1824, VDS Class 3, 14 Lever safe lock

So i started the process of picking the lock with my own pick that i made myself to use on this model of lock and all in all it took me 2 1/2 hours to pick it open, the cusomer was over the moon as they had waited weeks and weeks to get the safe open and even gave me a bottle of wine.

I change the lock over and provided a new set of safe keys, The company who had mucked him around could have called me to see if i could open the safe as i have had dealings with them in the past and they are also a trade supplier of some safe locks and parts, they even use to sell one of my safe lock picks to the trade.

Well there was one happy customer

I made the journey back to Colchester in Essex as that where I am based

If you need a safe or Vault opened please contact us.