BSVTA member Thornhill Security were called to open a safe which had been attacked (unsuccessfully). A difficult operation given the damage the would-be criminals had inflicted on the body and door of the safe.
Thornhill Security were asked to open this Ratner Safe that had been attacked. The first picture (above) shows the point where the criminals finally gave up and left Thornhill to finish the job. As you can see in the photos, the construction of this Safe is very different to how some of the modern graded safes are manufactured today.
It did take a bit of time to get into the safe and no wonder when you consider that the body make-up is a mild steel outer body followed by hardened plate, then copper, then concrete, then hardened plate and then an inner mild steel body. Obviously, this is the same construction all around the body and the door would be of the same construction. This type of construction with differing materials forces an attacker to change tools often to breach the barrier.
None of the customer’s contents had been taken; however, needless to say, they were a little bit dusty after the engineers finally got the door open.
This Safe was probably around 80 years old and it makes you realise how great the British manufacturing industry was back then. Ratner were just one of the Safe manufacturers competing with Tann, Chubb, Chatwood Milner and Hobbs. Imagine how costly it would be to manufacture a Safe of this construction in the world we live in today.
Modern manufacturing processes would preclude such a complicated manufacturing procedure far less the man hours required.
Well done to Thornhill for the work carried out for their client and thanks for sharing the details.
