Safes & Physical Security for Valuables - What safe do you need, what do you put inside, and how do you keep your safe safe?

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Troon_Patrol said:
I thought it was interesting they had a plan and that they actually had real codeine in there, I really doubt an armed robber is going to gulp down a handful and wait around 15 mins to see if they are real. I suppose someone committing armed robbery is not above coming back for revenge if they have been tricked into stealing $8 in vitamins. I have always wondered what would happen if you took a large fiat note and then 99 low value notes or film production fake currency and wrapped them up extremely tight with excessive rubber bands. Would someone grab it and leave or would that motivate them to look further?
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Pretty much never worth playing games when you're trying to make the low level play. If its an armed robbery, the last thing you want to risk, however slim it is, is that the guy doing the robbing can tell that its not the real shit, and shoots someone. Same with real money mixed with fake money, all you've done is confirm you are lying about something, which both invites retaliation and further investigation - If you are lying, then clearly you're lying to hide something. Even if the first guy falls for it, word spreads and everyone else now knows to not believe a fucking thing, shoot first and get the drugs.

Far cheaper to just give them an actual bottle of Codeine and guarantee your not giving them any further reason to be aggressive, much like its much cheaper to just give them the location of an actual roll of $20's, or a decoy wallet with some actual cash in it. Even cold corporate calculus that doesn't care about lives knows that a standing policy of "Lie to and aggravate criminals" just puts them on the responsible end of anyone who gets shot, and that wrongful death payout will cost them a fortune. Bottle of codeine probably cost them $50 from the supplier.
 
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My girlfriend had the great idea to keep all your important documents in the freezer.
Nobody will look inside it and it’s mildly fire safe.
 
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Based on my recent experience, do not buy a safe second-hand. It sounds like obvious advice, but I got cheap and I paid the price for it. Getting your hands on the combination is an enormous pain in the ass that will involve contacting the manufacturer, getting a notary to sign off on the request and a big service fee on top of whatever you paid for the safe itself, at which point you will have eclipsed the price of a new one. That's all besides any potential structural damage from whoever handled it before you. Just don't bother.
 
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I got a safe from the PFB line of MSafes and was happy with price and delivery, plus it has good reviews in terms of being actually fire and burglary proof. Mine is about 200 lbs and can be anchored in two places for security.
 
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Another thing people forget is that a LOT of robberies, especially ones committed by pros and semi pros, are done on daylight when the home occupants are gone.

Posting about upcoming/current vacations out of town are essentially giant "Rob Me" invitations.

You go on that week long cruise or month long trip to Asia or Europe and the robbers have all the time in the world to turn your house upside down for valuables.

They'll dress up as Yard people, home repair men, plumbers, pest control, etc and roll up on a stolen/rented van or box truck and wheel out everything valuable.

So, post all of those vacation pics AFTER you get back home safe and sound. Also, have neighbors/friends/family swing by the house when your out of town to give it a look and maybe chill there for an afternoon/evening.
 
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Troon_Patrol said:
I think you meant to say "safety deposit box", a "bank vault" is not open to the public unsupervised. If what you have can fit within a 10x10 Box, only be accessible between 9am and 5pm by appointment only, you have no problem giving the bank your full legal name and social, and accept if there is a warrant , they will not hesitate to open that box, then yes, a safety deposit box might be right for you.
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Much like the Liberty Safe fiasco, there was a vault service in the LA/Hollywood area where the feds came in and literally robbed the place after lying to a judge. Sure it may be nice to think they'll handle the security and everything, but the feds can and will get to your shit, even if there's nothing wrong with you. There was also another place recently where dudes straight drilled through a fucking wall.

Outside of those, if you're into precious metals, you need to be wary about if you're just interested in the type of metal and weight you own, or the specific version of the stuff you own; because many precious metal vaulting services will say "You own X ounces of Y material," then shuffle shit around and should you say you need it, you'll get of equal value but not exactly what you deposited. So if there's some quality heirloom type stuff, don't fucking use those vaulting services.
 
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If you live in an environment, like an apartment or shared housing, a safe may be out of the solution set for the physical security of valuables. Try hiding these things.

Hiding things is a craft: know how, tool skills, creativity, imagination, tactical skills, all in one autistic hobby. Just ensure the thing you are hiding things in ('the host') is not itself valuable or portable. You can also, if you're skilled and discrete, fashion secret hiding places in the construction of your home or apartment. The entirety of carpentry and fabrication is here, but on a small scale and limited by your skills and imagination.

SWIM once concealed a pound of weed inside an interior wall while they were away on business.

Concealment as a craft is why I can't drag our Hinduboo, Kala. There's so much attention to craft and detail and the guts to undertake such a project.

I have both of these texts and it's a good start. Start small, build skills and confidence.
 

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Troon_Patrol said:
Mechanical vs digital?
I love digital locks, the ease of use in opening and changing the combo outweigh the cons, tape an extra batter to the top of your safe and only use name brand batteries.
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My main concern with digital, aside from part quality for components like caps, is the issue with shit designs being hidden, lockpickinglawyer's vids have made me cynical over shit designs where a there is a trivial way using a magnet or inducing a current in the right spot to trigger an open.

Maybe be an unreasonable view tbf, at least mech locks have a century or so of weeding out weaknesses.

Also if the worry is someone cutting them open and you would rather lose the contents than have them taken, I saw ages ago somewhere, where the person claimed to put bottles of isopropal where they would have to cut in, the assumption being they would set off the alchol before they could get fully in lol.

Do not recommend it Tbh but though it was creative xD
 
A safe is just a massive target create fake paneling
what you're gonna need is some hinges some wood paneling and magnets bonus points you can add a security detector using one of those RFID chips that you can get off Amazon
the majority of houses have a about A6 inch gap between the outside and inside walls.
Or live in the middle of bum **** nowhere criminals are lazy

you can get a battery powered demo soul which can cut through concrete steel and anything is safe is made out of asset maybe those big *** bank vaults but you can just cut through the walls
 
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IdiotPlusPlus said:
My main concern with digital, aside from part quality for components like caps, is the issue with shit designs being hidden, lockpickinglawyer's vids have made me cynical over shit designs where a there is a trivial way using a magnet or inducing a current in the right spot to trigger an open.

Maybe be an unreasonable view tbf, at least mech locks have a century or so of weeding out weaknesses.

Also if the worry is someone cutting them open and you would rather lose the contents than have them taken, I saw ages ago somewhere, where the person claimed to put bottles of isopropal where they would have to cut in, the assumption being they would set off the alchol before they could get fully in lol.

Do not recommend it Tbh but though it was creative xD
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Without even watching the video I'm sure you are talking about "Sentry" brand or another low cost safe. As I said way back in the original post avoid Sentry avoid economy safes. They do make good decoys though. GOOD SAFES/safe locks cannot be opened with a magnet. I wouldn't be boring holes in armored hardened steel with diamond tipped drill bits if I there was an easier way, I assure you. The safes you are describing I can open with my bare hands, I will not post the method here. The larger sentry brands vulnerable to strong magnet attacks, those can be opened with a couple of big Flathead screwdrivers in under 10 mins if you're a strong guy in good shape. I prefer to drill a hole in the exact spot stick a screwdriver in and then pound the screwdriver with a 2LB mallet, does the job a lot cleaner. Don't ask me about the exact spot, I try not to put that stuff out there.
 
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Troon_Patrol said:
Without even watching the video I'm sure you are talking about "Sentry" brand or another low cost safe. As I said way back in the original post avoid Sentry avoid economy safes. They do make good decoys though. GOOD SAFES/safe locks cannot be opened with a magnet. I wouldn't be boring holes in armored hardened steel with diamond tipped drill bits if I there was an easier way, I assure you. The safes you are describing I can open with my bare hands, I will not post the method here. The larger sentry brands vulnerable to strong magnet attacks, those can be opened with a couple of big Flathead screwdrivers in under 10 mins if you're a strong guy in good shape. I prefer to drill a hole in the exact spot stick a screwdriver in and then pound the screwdriver with a 2LB mallet, does the job a lot cleaner. Don't ask me about the exact spot, I try not to put that stuff out there.
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Fair, I might just be too cynical about it lol, but I generally distrust tech being added to products as a way for makers to cheap out rather than use it to improve things.

I suppose the problem is without knowing someone irl who works on the ones available in my region it's hard to tell what's legit or not.

Is there any industry standards you could recommend looking for when looking at products to help weed out the shittier ones?
 
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IdiotPlusPlus said:
Fair, I might just be too cynical about it lol, but I generally distrust tech being added to products as a way for makers to cheap out rather than use it to improve things.

I suppose the problem is without knowing someone irl who works on the ones available in my region it's hard to tell what's legit or not.

Is there any industry standards you could recommend looking for when looking at products to help weed out the shittier ones?
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You familiar with DefCon? The hacker convention? A guy gives a presentation on opening an ATM, a lower security ATM equipped with a what I'd call a good brand Lagard lock. I start watching this video because as I said in the original post you can "brute force" (hacker term, NOT physics term) some of the good quality electronic locks like a Lagard. Now I figured he was going to write a code for a brute forcing program that tried every combo possible till it received a code accepted response. Once again known as a "brute force" technique in computer terms. What does he end up doing? He drills a fucking hole in the front just like I would do. This particular brand of ATM door is really thin made of low grade 1018 AKA "mild steel" as mentioned. He drills it in a spot that if the mechanical parts failed the thing would still be stuck locked. My attack would be the mechanical part holding the lock in the locked position opening the safe even if the electronic components had failed. My point is he ended up using a power tools to open the thing, any asshole with an angle grinder can do that.

The engineers have UL certified these devices. They even made them X-ray proof briefly in the 60's or 70's, like some cat burglar was going to haul a portable x-ray machine to the front and back of a safe. The good brands do not ever open with just a magnet, even a high powered one at that.

Are you familiar with the "Kia USB" problem? The rumor perpetuated by the media was any KIA vehicle could be stolen with a USB drive. This is objectively false. The flat piece of metal fits a USB port located behind the ignition lock. How do you remove the ignition lock? You use the key to rotate to remove non-destructively or you force the ignition to RUN/START, by putting a ton of force on it. If you do that WTF do you even need a USB drive for if you are forcing the ignition to the RUN/START position for? Why remove the igntion you broke and turns without a key? Leaving the igntion in hides the fact it's been stolen, why remove it and reveal that car was recently stolen to anyone who looks in the passenger window? So much bullshit perpetuated by media.

This long rambling response can be summed up as: you get what you pay for, and the media/content creators will exaggerate the vulnerability that all safes can be opened with a high powered magnet if it gets clicks. If you tell me what the purpose/budget of the safe is you are considering I will gladly give you my specific opinion, if you want to DM privately go ahead. I gave the names of good bands in my original post, You want a really tough safe? Buy anything rated "TL-15" or higher.
 
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Step 1: Find a wasp nest

Step 2: Kill the wasps

Step 3: Chemically treat the nest

Step 4: Put my valuables into waterproofed containers, insert into nest

Step 5: Glue the nest up onto my garage, a tree, wherever
 
Remember kids, locks are there just to keep honest people honest. I for exanple, believe strongly being also conscious on general area where you store your stuff. Don't park a Bentley in a ghetto etc. One thing that is common for storing the hotter items here is to drive outside the city and bury it in the woods. Take plastic air and waterproof container, shove the loot in there, packed properly and be mindful of the coordinates. Don't draw pirate map with huge X either, thatcs how my little brother almost lost his Raphaello action figure. Dig hole deep enough, place some metal alongside gravel and dirt on top of the container and try to clear your tracks there. Then you can go fetch it with shovel and metal detector later on. YMMV with the area and items stored of course.
Troon_Patrol said:
why remove it and reveal that car was recently stolen to anyone who looks in the passenger window? So much bullshit perpetuated by media.
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I think it was some kids joyriding rather than anyone stealing the car for usual reasons and afaik some youtubers tested that method and found it working.
 
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