Safe cracking has been in existence for as long as safes have and is the primary domain of burglars and locksmiths. Locksmith services crack safes in emergency situations or when the owner of the safe requires it to be cracked. There are several reasons to crack your safe, you may have forgotten your pass code, a safe lock malfunction, an emergency such as a fire, or an attempt to save your valuables from buglers. Cracking a safe requires different methods according to the type of safe in question.

Different Types of Safe Cracking

• Lock manipulation: this is a stealthy way of unlocking a safe without damaging it. It requires manipulating the lock to figure out the combination of the safe lock. The rotary combination lock can be manipulated by feeling or listening to the sound it makes to figure out the combination code. Wheel locks are much better in this regard because they are made of lighter materials which reduce this vulnerability greatly. This technique is favored by locksmiths because it does not require damage or repairs but can be time consuming since it requires stealth.

• Guessing the lock combination: some people set their lock combinations with weak numbers that can easily be guessed such as anniversary dates, phone numbers, birth dates etc. manufacturers of safes also use common numbers such as 1111 or 0000 to allow the owners set the safe after purchase. Guessing a lock combination can be very simple especially when the owners have not set their own combination or use very weak combinations.

• Drilling the weak point: most safes may be difficult to manipulate but almost always have a weak point to drill through. These drills give access to the safe by bypassing the lock mechanism. It is commonly used when the locks of a safe have malfunctioned or in burglary attempts. Simple safes are thicker and cannot be drilled but wheel locks are easy to drill through. Drills are perfect for locksmiths because they save time even though there might be slight damage to the safe, this can easily be repaired and returned in good condition.

• Using auto-dialers: these devices do not automatically open safes as they are portrayed to do in movies, instead, they go through a cycle of combinations to open the safe. Auto-dialers do not work on all safe but have specific safes locks that they are compatible with.

• Brute force: this involves rendering the safe useless by destroying it. It is destroyed using explosives, acetylene torches, thermic lances and drills. This method is ill advised and most be done with care as it could destroy not only the safe but the contents of the safe.

• Scoping: this involves boring a hole and inserting a bore-scope to observe the lock and spinning the lock dial continuously. It is done by professional locksmiths where extra security measures are present within a safe lock. It may be minimally damaged but can easily be fixed and returned to use.

• Use of radiation: this entails using x-ray radiation to reveal the insides of the safe and the combination code.

• Safe bouncing: this is done by using a magnet pin to confuse the locking bolt to gain entrance to the safe.

Please note that this article is not intended to encourage safe cracking, safe cracking is only to be left to locksmiths, and it is illegal to crack a safe that is not yours. It is advised to use combinations that are not easily guessed on your safes to protect your valuables.