SPOTLIGHT SAFE & VAULT The Liberty Presidential Gun Safe l No Movement e Lock Bolt ted the scope and could see the handle itting the lock bolt, but no movement e lock bolt. Anthony did some pry- th a probe and got it to move a little t not enough. I used a bigger punch ised it some more, but it still was not h for the handle cam to clear. ause of the ball bearings, our hole had me out exactly where I wanted it, so w I had to take a ¼-inch bit and go in at gle toward the lock bolt so we could ittle more push on the lock bolt. It t take long, and I had about another nch showing on the lock bolt, and h a punch we pried the lock bolt all the nto the lock and finally the handle m was not hitting the lock bolt. But it idn’t open. e went back to the external relocker hole The fired external relocker. The Office Checks In I received a call from the office asking how I was doing and if I wanted Anthony to come out and help me. I said things weren’t going well, and yes, it would be great if Anthony came out. I called Anthony and asked if he had any steel stick with him, because I was out. It was probably about 30 minutes later when Anthony arrived, and I had just fin- ished having a lunch break. Back into the house to start work, I intro- duced Anthony to the customer and once again had to assure the customer that I would have his safe opened before I leſt. He made a comment on having to furnish dinner for the two of us. Anthony started drilling for the internal trigger with the lever rig and things went normal. Once we reached the bearing, we packed it with steel stick, waited 15 minutes and then drilled again (Figure 4). If I remember correctly, we had to pack that one twice. Once we got to the trigger, we drilled all the way through the lock and then tried the 20 KEYNOTES JANUARY 2014 handle: the lock bolt still would not move. I checked the external relocker and it still was not being hit. It was time to go back to the lock bolt hole with the three ball bearings and de- cide what was going to be the best way to get through them. We packed the hole with steel stick a couple of times with no success. The bit would just get caught between the bearings. We opted for a larger bit, jump- ing from ¼-inch to ⅜-inch with the same success, none. This was using up time, using up drill bits and we weren’t making any progress. The problem was that we would pack it with steel stick and then when we drilled, the bearing on top would shake loose and bind the bit. The decision was made to drill up to the bearings with a ½-inch bit, that gave me a large enough hole to go in with a probe and pry the top bearing down out of its position and then suck it out with a magnet. We packed it with steel stick one last time and then drilled through to the lock bolt. and finally we could see the relocker being hit by the handle cam, so with Anthony working the handle and me working the probe on the relocker, the safe came open. Aſter pulling the back panel (Figure 5), it appeared to me the internal trigger didn’t fire — because of the way the cover broke and where the screws were that held the re- locker plate on. I believe the lock bolt was so mushroomed over that it wouldn’t move, and that’s why we had to pry it up. This safe should have been opened with one ¼-inch hole and in one and a half to two hours maximum, but because of someone not knowing what they were doing, it cost the manufacturer a whole lot more money plus a new safe to the customer. llinger has been a contractor, electrical or and owned an RV e center for 34 years. he business to his d after two days of re- , decided that wasn’t n 2003 he attended s at Lockmasters to learn about safes, and he was hooked. He was hired by SafeCo Security in Phoenix, AZ, in 2004. WWW.ALOA.ORG
