Most people who walk in to our store, are looking for good safe that can withstand a typical pry attack. And very often when torch resistance is mentioned, it is followed by a grin, a wave of a hand and something along the lines of – “that’s an overkill”. In most cases of home burglaries, that is true… However, not all. And this story is about an attempted safe break in where the bad guys came “prepared”.
For privacy reasons we will call our customer Joe. Joe came into our store with a general idea of the security level, long gun capacity and the amount he wanted to spend on his new gun safe. While browsing through all the brands on the floor, he kept coming back to Summit Safe. And even though it was more than he was looking to spend, it just seemed like the best bang for the buck. The 7 gauge box, the solid steel plate door with almost non-existent door gap and the extremely strong mechanism seemed to tick all the boxes. After few hours of education and contemplation, Joe finally decided to pull the trigger on the biggest Summit Safe.
A year went by and Joe was selling his house. Everything was moved out except for the safe that was still filled with guns and other valuable belongings. While Joe was out of town, his realtor was showing the house to a group of people who saw the safe and got a great idea. A vacant house with a safe full of goodies and all the time in the world to open it, was an opportunity hard to pass. So later that week, this group of people came back with variety of tools including a torch. According to the police report they worked on this safe for over 8 hours. These bright individuals began by torching the corner of the door. After a while it was decided to drop that idea and go straight for the lock. After hours of torching around the lock, they were able to penetrate through the plate door, fire insulation, hardened steel plate that protects the lock before finally getting to the lock itself. Once they reached the lock, guess what happened? No the safe didn’t pop open… Yes the relocker fired, jamming the safe completely shut. Disappointed and exhausted the intruders went home empty handed.
When the Joe called us, he was still a bit shaken up from the recent events. He confessed that he had a case of buyer’s remorse after we delivered the safe, questioning if he made the right decision by spending that much money and getting such a big safe. After a long pause he proceeded with “but it was the best decision I have ever made and I am so happy that I went with Summit Safe”. If we were to end the story here, it would be good enough. A perfect happy ending. But it gets even better. Because Summit Safes has a lifetime warranty on attempted break in and fire, they replaced Joe’s safe at no extra charge. We had his safe opened, removed and the new safe delivered within the next few weeks.
The moral of the story is not that you have to get the biggest most expensive safe, but that you get what you pay for. In most cases a 12 gauge safe will withstand an average smash and grab break in. However in cases where an intruder comes in prepared, which does happen more often than you think, there will not be a happy ending.