Locked box’s secrets are safe and sound, so far

The Civic Museum of Regina is looking for people who want to take a crack at unlocking a safe.

Rob Deglau, the museum’s community coordinator, explained that officials recently took an inventory of the museum’s collection in hopes of moving pieces out of storage and into other places where they would be seen by more eyes.

One of the items that was taking up storage space was a safe that was built around 1900. Deglau said it had been used for nearly 50 years by a Regina furniture company but, when the business closed in 1979, the owners stowed the safe.

In 2001, the box was donated to the museum – but the combination wasn’t.

“It has been in here for almost 20-some years, but we can’t get into it, so it’s really not a functional piece for us,” Deglau said. “It’s actually a very large paperweight.”

So does the staff have any guesses as to what’s inside that paperweight?

“Not at all,” Deglau replied. “My guess is there’s maybe millions of dollars and we just can’t get into it.”

That prompted the museum to take to social media, where it put out the call for wannabe burglars.

“Facebook was just a great way to say, ‘Listen, we found a safe. Anybody out there who’s a safecracker or a bank robber, we’d love you to give this a try and see if you can open it up,’ ” Deglau said. “Lo and behold, we’ve had hits like we’ve never had before.”

Deglau said the museum has received “some crazy responses” along with some serious ones.

Among the latter group was an offer from an individual in Prince Albert who has a background in engineering. He said his hobby is safecracking, so he’d love to give this one a whirl.

Other folks have tried their luck since the Facebook post, but all attempts so far have failed.

Amateurs are welcome to try, but those who want to break out the tools – or the TNT — are not.

“There are experts who can get into it, but the reality is it costs so much to get into the safe that the safe then becomes non-usable after,” Deglau said. “It would cost $600 to break into it, yet the safe would be only worth $300 if we tried to sell it today.

“If we can get into it for free, then it becomes more of an item that can be reused again and be interpreted again somewhere else.”

Deglau’s primary goal is to save the safe for its historical value, and he wouldn’t mind seeing it used again by another business. If the box can’t be opened, it won’t be functional – and that isn’t acceptable.

Toronto’s Scott Gray, a regular participant in safecracking competitions, told The Brent Loucks Show his secret for getting into locked boxes.

“There are three things involved in terms of sight, sound and touch — if you’re talking manipulation itself, like the thing you see in the movies where they put the stethoscope on,” Gray said. “I’m using kind of all three senses at that time.”

Gray’s skills could come in handy for the museum’s cause, but he doesn’t put much faith in Deglau’s guess that the safe in question is holding boundless treasure.

“The majority of times, the safes are empty,” Gray said. “It’s not super-common to walk away from your safe and leave all your valuables still inside.”

— With files by 980 CJME’s Andrew Shepherd