Hi. I found this safe in the dumpster which is precisely where it belongs. Trust me. if you can pick up a safe and throw it into the dumpster, it's not a real safe and we'll talk about that later.

But I'm going to show you multiple ways to get into this thing because I got it out of the dumpster and it was actually locked and it didn't come with the key or the combination. So this is a Sandalford brand safe, but I'm sure it goes under many different uh badges. and this is a typical ass safe that you'll get at a hardware store. You know you can buy these at Bunnings here in Australia for next to Nixon.

You carry it out and if you can carry a safe out then from the hardware store, then it ain't a real save. Anyway, these are absolute and out of garbage. I'm going to show you why. I'll show you multiple ways to get into this thing.

So I found it like this. It was locked, it didn't have the key and I wanted to get into it. It was trivial. All I did was go to the manufacturer's website, downloaded the manual, and there's the default factory code, and sure enough, I put it in and it worked.

So I've actually reprogrammed this to one, two, three, four, and there, and we unlock it and we're in. But seriously, you'd be stunned at the number of people who use safes like this and just keep the default factory code. Don't do it. Change it like that's the bare minimum you can do.

But anyway, that's how I actually got into this safe because they didn't bother changing the factory code and the next way in of course is absolutely obvious. This one has an override key on it. Sometimes they'll be like behind a flap or but you know, something like that you may have to open. But oh geez, I can just pick this thing And I'm not good at picking locks.

so this is just a double-sided or double bit uh, key and the tumbler lock and these are really easy to pick. Let me show you. Okay, so I'm going to pick this in one shot. I am not the lock picking lawyer, so yeah, I'm sure he'd do it a bit faster.

I'm I'm just gonna rate this thing Okay, Oh, I had a slip there. Okay, is there an ah, there might have been another slip there. Let's up there. We go, there, we go.

I'm in no worries. So you saw how long that took me? It was like seconds. It's trivial to pick these sorts of lock now. there are good quality I say she can get with a good quality key, locks in them and they require more specialized tools to actually pick them.

And you know greater skill to actually pick them. But ones like this are just they're nothing burgers. Anyone with a simple raking tool can just get into this or you can probably just smash this out with a punch and a hammer and this flimsy piece of turd will just come right over. Okay, there's another method called bump in which is where we're actually going to drop the safe and hopefully we can get into it this way.

And of course it's light as you can just pick it up and carry it away and smash into it later so it's no protection if it's not, uh, screwed in at all. But anyway, this is another way in so hopefully like it's locked here we go and if I hold it and drop it there we go. and there are other brands and models of uh, cheaper safes like this one where bump in you can just like thump it right on the top like this and do a while. you're actually turning the knob and you can open it.

Unfortunately, this one's slightly better designed in that you probably saw there that I had to turn the safe upside down to actually drop it. So let's have a look inside and see how this happens. so we'll just take the back cover off here. This is the battery compartment.

There's a reset switch on this side, which is how you reset the uh code on this thing and there you go. There's a little bit of electronics in there for the keypad that'll just be a blobbed chip on the back. And here's the crummy mechanism inside this thing. So this is how any basic safe is going to work.

You've got a solenoid down here, which activates and electronically of course, by the circuitry after you enter in the correct combination and we'll see inside in a minute. But basically, uh, you've got a moving uh plate here which is connected, uh, to the bolt work over here and this plate is moved. As I turn the handle on the front, you can see that that whole plate shifts. and when I turn it far enough, it's gonna drop into place.

And you probably saw the little plunger. um, there. The little spring in the solenoid. It dropped down.

So now we can't open the safe anymore. There's a little plunger that lifts up. This dingle arm can actually lift that plunger up if you turn the key. Or if the solenoid activates it like that.

Then you can see that there's this. That metal plate just slides under that piece of little bit of nylon. There, It's It's terrible. So when we, so when you, uh, turn the safe like this, it just drops under its own weight, just drops back and you can hear that click.

And then the only thing preventing that like from actually opening is that tiny little bit of nylon. It's terrible. There's that plunger for the solenoid. You can see that there's a little dingle arm there.

we'll call it, um, and then that. At the moment, I can't open that. but if I press down on that, which is it, which is equivalent to uh, activating the solenoid coil in there and then the magnet electromagnet just, uh, pulls that shaft down. But once it goes in there, the spring.

Well, it can't move anymore. You can see, then there's a gap in there. Then the slot in this plate is able to slide across like that. and so yeah, that's pretty piss-poor quality.

And but because it's mounted upside down, they have actually thought about this bumping, uh attack. like because this is upside down. Now there, there's a weight of that pin. I I really only have to feather touch that and really, that can open up.

and that's why if it's upside down and you drop it or thump it even, um, then you can just get that to open. But there are even worse design safes than this one where uh, this is actually mounted up the other way and then you can just thump it on the top of the case and bam even if it's bolted to the floor and the force is just transferred through to that pin and it's just enough to move it a little bit to stop it opening. It's these are just garbage. but this is actually the proper principle of like a real safe.

Um, and so I can show you one of those. a key, a real key lock safe. And but the devil's in the detail of how all this is implemented. But as you can see, you could probably just smash this out, right? This is just a couple of cheap ass bolts, just an aluminium plate here and right.

You could probably just get a punch in there and just smash it all out and then open it up if you really wanted to. Now, they did actually go to the effort to put a cover plate over this so that you can't like drill through the flimsy piece and door. uh, that they've got here. drill through that in two seconds, and then get in there with a coat hanger and, uh, you know, activate uh, the mechanism and get in that way.

So they're at least preventing you from doing that. But once again, they haven't designed it properly. There's still a way in that way as well. So this is a cardinal sin of any safe design in that you've actually got just a sticker here, which you can, uh, we're getting some up.

we can peel this off. And that warning, uh, there. It's not like an anti-tamper thing that was just, uh, yeah, I was. It was accidentally.

Uh, pushing the buttons there and entering the wrong uh thing. But look, look, look inside. We got a giant hole there. We drive a truck through this thing so even if we even with the cover plate on the back in there, we can just get in there and access the stuff.

This is ridiculous so we can just get in there, with a coat hanger and hopefully we can manipulate this enough to actually open up. Let's give it a try. too easy. and I've even done that with the back installed like this now.

They've tried to prevent this, but once again, they've screwed up right. So I've left the coat hanger in here exactly how this did it. Will it be there? Yep, you can see that the coat hangers there and it's lifting up the dingle arm. now.

believe it or not, they have actually thought about this and they've gone to the effort to weld this, uh plate here which goes all the way down to the bottom. um, to actually prevent access in here. But it's not enough because the case comes out to this depth here and you've got all this room, all this depth to get in there, past the plate and over onto the dink alarm. You've got to be kidding me and you can see it here.

Look, there's that welded plate right next to that slot you can drive a truck through and I was able to get easily because I had like this much depth room. I had this much look, I can stick my finger under there like that and all this room to get over there and just bend the coat hanger over and flip the arm there to open up the solenoid. Unbelievable that they can actually know about this and still goof it up to that extent. This is why these are utter garbage.

Of course, once you've got a hole in your safe like this, it just becomes absolutely comical. And especially in a cheap ass one like this, I can see both wires through there. I'm not sure if you can see them, but anyway, I can see two pairs of wires. One's for the solenoid and one's for the reset button.

So either of those, if we can get in there, hook those, pull them out because there's I think there's enough lead length on them. Then we can either just put a battery up to the solenoid and open it, or just reset the code. Oh, come on. So I'm just going to give this a go and see if we can snag some wires.

Yeah, well, I think they're the solenoid wires. Um, hey, come on. Seriously, there you go. I just pulled that through.

Actually, no, I don't think that's the solenoid. Yeah, I think I can see it going up in that direction. So I think that's going off to the reset button. So let's let's give that a try.

So I think the top one goes off to the switch. but anyway, we can just cut that. Well, I can just actually short those together. You can like get little, uh probes in there and actually short them together.

Maybe just, um, actually splicing them like this will actually, uh, cause it to short out. So yep, yep, no, I don't think that did it. So I'll just strip those. I'll just touch those together.

Yep, there we go. So I'll go. One four, seven, Eight hash. Yep, I think we enter the code.

One four, seven, Eight hash. Yep, we're in. We just we just reset the code. Unbelievable.

And having a look in here, it looks like there's not actually enough lead length on the solenoid wires. So if I grab, ah, barely and you couldn't maybe, oh, maybe you could rip that out sideways and pull it out. But anyway, if you were able to get access and pull out the solenoid wires, you could just hook a battery up to it, activate the solenoid, and you're in Anyway, I hope you get the idea. Now how crap these cheap hardware store safes are.

They're absolutely pointless to have them. It just signals to people that, hey, there's potentially something valuable inside here. and hey, yeah, I'm an idiot and dumb enough to buy one of these stupid safes. And if you're talking about the actual um, you know, physical steel on these, that's like three millimeters.

Um, front door steel with the code in and I can assure you that the steel used elsewhere. this is actually thinner. This is about two millimeters on the uh, sides, the top, the bottom, and the back. Even though it does actually have the screw holes in every safe, when you install one, you should screw them to a concrete floor and or a concrete, uh, backing.

as well as the best, uh, way to do it. But yeah, you should bolt these things down. but it's like two millimeter mild steel. It's the most flimsy ass construction possible and you could just pry this open.

Yeah, I guess smash it open with an axe or a, you know, a grinder would get through this in a split second and it's just nothing. if you didn't want to do like any of the three or four other methods to easily get into this thing. And there's another way to potentially get into these as well. With a magnet.

A big ass neodymium magnet. I'm putting it inside a sock. Uh, for safety. and well.

there we go. It's it's serious business, right? But it potentially if you get it in the right spot, you can activate this solenoid in there and then just open it. But I've I've tried on this one. um, various methods.

I should have folded that over a couple of times. Ah, can't get that off now. Ah, this is hilarious. I did actually lock myself out of this safe so I'm gonna have to get back in so I can either use the coat hanger or I can pick this thing again so I might just try and pick it again.

Oh goodness, Come on. come on there we go. We're in. Except the bloody magnet.

There we go. anyway. I have actually tried the uh magnet attack on this thing and I just cannot get it. Uh, to do it.

but it is possible. Um, there's uh, youtube videos out there showing you, uh, some safe and cheap ass ones are actually susceptible to magnetic attacks. So what is a good quality safe? Well, let's toss this one out because literally I can pick it up and toss it. and here it comes.

It's pretty heavy. Here we go and you've seen this in previous videos so this is similar internal dimensions to what we had, uh before. So it's one of these like home safes and in this case it's a Cmi brand made in Australia and it is a reprimandable quality brand. You want a name brand? so here in Australia it might be Cmi Gardol Chubb Secure Guard Something like that.

You know, a major brand safe, Not just the crap that you pick up from the hardware store and this is their entry level safe. And what we're talking about here is 12 millimeters of steel on the front door, six millimeters, uh, steel all around and you can see here they've got an uh, once again, a anti-drill manganese uh plate here. so that's thick as what is that you know, four or five millimeters thick. Just the anti-drill plate and they've got a top quality legard um, highly regarded international brand electronic uh lock with an external battery.

so there's no like, you know, even if you rip this off, you're not going to be getting and be able to get in there and actually attack it. And these are very difficult to actually uh, bypass. And yeah, I've done some videos looking at um, side channel attacks on these and yeah, it's It's just ain't easy. I mean, there might be people who can do it.

This one does not have a manual key override, it's just electronic only. so we'll take that off. and all the best safes are inspected by Clint. This is an internationally recognized Carb R brand high security electronic lock on these and you ain't gonna bypass this anytime soon.

Let me tell you, unless you're an absolute top notch professional, you're not getting through this thing. It's got all the ratings and international certifications for an electronic lock and with the anti drill plate and the 12 millimeter front door now, of course these things aren't absolutely bulletproof. This is like an entry level, uh safe. There's much higher quality ones than this.

This is just a basic one that I think you should have as an absolute minimum. Not that hardware store, uh, garbage. And this will provide pretty decent burglary, uh, protection. You know, if just your regular opportunistic, uh burglar who comes along, they ain't getting into this anytime soon.

If you've bolted this, uh, down to uh, concrete floor and or concrete wall as well and you can see how this one's a flush mount here. It doesn't have any external hinges. There's nothing wrong with external hinges. Uh, by the way, they're just fine because any good quality safe will have an internal, uh, anti-pry bar or dog bar as they're called.

Look at this just world it in there like that. and once again, that is a 12 millimeter jobby in there. And yeah, you just ain't gonna be busting into this anytime soon. It's a serious commitment.

So if you want to step up from a quality basic safe like this one, then you'd be looking at what's called a Tdr safe or torch and drill resistant safe. And they're actually by torch. It means actually oxyacetylene torches. and they've got special materials inside.

It won't you be just solid steel like this? They've got materials in there to actually deaden. Uh, drill bits, grinder bits, and uh, torch attacks. Um, as well with oxy acetylene torches. So yeah, but they're you know, many thousands of dollars.

These are like sub thousand dollars. But basically you get what you pay for. this. and if you go in for a key version, there's nothing wrong with the key or a tumblr uh locked version.

Yes, you can actually defeat uh tumblr spin, uh, locks easier. But you know you've gotta be like fairly skilled in the art of actually you know, doing that or you've got to have one of those automated machines which you stick on the front and you leave it there for an hour and spin spin spins until it finds the combination. But then you know we're talking about opportunistic burglaries here. So if somebody knows that, you've got the save, especially if they know what type, no, I don't use this.

uh, by the way and I don't use that other one that you source. I don't think you can break into the Eev blog lab and get into this thing. And yeah, if you do want to get a key based version none of this, get a one a proper brand name with a high security pick resistant uh key set on it. All right.

Let me show you what a much higher quality key locking uh safe is going to look like inside. it's got a high security uh anti-pick key lock here with um x number of uh pins. and here's your uh deadbolt here and it's got a re-locking mechanism here so it works on the same principle. Here's your uh deadbolt here and we can retract that with our key of course and then we can open our safe like that.

It just starts swings the arms which then swings the bolts on the side, but additional things inside here. In addition to the deadbolt here you've got what's called a re-locker So even if you try and like punch out this uh lock somehow and I'll show you here, I've taken the screws out. Boom. Now look at that.

It just shoots up. This pin shoots up and you cannot open it because you've got this re-locking spring-loaded re-locking mechanism like this. And in addition to that you've also got an A probably a manganese anti-drill plate in there which are deadens drill bits going through. That's in addition to like the 10 millimeters of like solid steel on the front.

So that is what you'll get in a higher quality key safe. Like you wouldn't want anything less than this. So these are just other garbage. Do Not Buy them.

They're absolutely pointless. Um, might be okay as a decoy safe. You know to leave some fake gold in there or something. You can buy fake gold on ebay and people think they got themselves a score.

While your real safe is uh, you know, hidden somewhere else. One of the first rules of course is security by obscurity. Um, if people know that you've got a safe or they can see that you've got a uh safe then they might turn up with their code hanger and get into your stupid ass safe. So I hope you found that useful.

If you did, please give it a big thumbs up. As always, discuss down below: catch you next time you.