[UPDATE AS OF 2:30AM SUNDAY NZ TIME, 9:30AM SATURDAY EDT]

[Last Update] [Official Solutions Thread] [Thread that started it all]

TL:DR - Not an April Fools joke, sorry. Decided to attempt to crack by hand and update weekly

Hi safechasers :) Thanks for hangin' out. I took a brief Reddit holiday for a week to bury my Grandfather and decided to leave it for a bit longer until the whole april fools thing blew over.

I'd like to say a personal thanks to all the kind users who sent me and the mods mail since I saw you guys last, special shoutouts to /u/xG33Kx, /u/Daxmau5, /u/godmoderage and /u/IWHBYDBTDGOTFF for the kind PM's amongst the wall of orange, I was considering taking people's advice and just not posting again until I had it open, but you guys helped me trust Reddit again :) As a relative newbie, the wall of abuse was really hard to take, and I started dreading logging in.

/u/x3oo sent through some awesome links for making a safecracker, I might give it a go with an old Playstation Slimline I have lying around, building it will probably take longer than trying every number by hand though, according to /u/jasperspaw, who sent:

• Fact. The built in manufacturer's tolerance is sufficient that you can dial every second number. 50x50x50 is 125k combs to run through.

• Fact. The design has a known defect that they fixed by not setting any wheels on numbers under 20. Some older models left the dial blank between 0-20. So it's 40x40x40, which is 64k, way under a million.

• Fact. You don't have to dial the full sequence for every trial #. Dial 4x left to 20,3x right to20, 2x left to 20, 1x right to the drop in. Then dial 1x left to 22, then right to drop in, 1x left to 24, et c. You'll be able to feel the cam contact the wheel each time you pick it up to move to the next number. You can do this with the first 2 wheels, but it takes more concentration, so it won't really save time. Advancing the third wheel like that will help a lot. Something else. A lot of people use a single # combination for convenience. Try simply 4x left to 20, then 22, 24, 26...

Note: I often set my personal safes with #s in the forbidden zone. It makes it harder for locksmiths to get at my shit. The problem with the "forbidden zone" is that after you unlock the safe, the wheels bind when you try to lock it, and you need to dismantle it to unjam it. That takes tools that a manager/executive doesn't have available late on a Friday after firing someone. So, you can use those numbers, and test it, and if it doesn't jam, it's fine, Most users follow the instructions.

I'm taking the slow route and putting some brains into it, instead of paying someone and sacrificing anonymity. I just want to crack this thing myself, and learn some cool things about vaults and locking mechanisms along the way. It doesn't matter if there's nothing in it, it doesn't matter if Reddit wants a big fake "Move that bus!" moment, and it's not about attention or karma or anything else.

I will attempt another live stream when possible, with decent enough warning for people to see it properly, If you can help in any way with building a safecracking machine, or programming arduino boards etc - drop me a line, or check out the solutions thread. I'm going to bed, I'll try and reply to any questions later.

[META QUESTION] Should I just forget the updates and post a link when we open it? Or would you rather see how we're doing?

Thanks for everything :) DSMS

This Sub has taken off so quickly, with so many subscribers in such a short amount of time. It would be a real shame for it to die once we either 1) find out what's in the safe, or 2) never find out what's in the safe.

So I got to thinking: how can we keep this sub alive?

Simple. This sub can be a catch-all for anyone who has acquired a safe, mystery box, piggy bank, briefcase, birthday present, treasure chest, oak barrel, thumb drive, bottle, locker, storage unit, abandoned home, bomb shelter, antique can, maybe even a confidential file. These people then post a picture of the object, and we as a sub can all guess what's hiding in said object.

So what do you guys think? Good idea? Share your thoughts.

EDIT: Oh, and if you agree, please upvote for visibility. I get no karma for self-posts.

What a long day! After the safe was opened, my brother and I briefly went through the contents, but for the most part we're waiting for my other brother to be able to join us so we can all go through it together.

I took a few pictures of the process of it being opened, and a few pictures of the goodies inside, which can be seen here. http://imgur.com/a/5ZqAa

On a funny note, there was this box that had a bracelet in it that my brother said I should have...and when I got all the cotton out of it I had to laugh. Setting there, between the top of the box and the cotton was a folded up piece of paper with my grandma's writing on it. It was the combination to the god damned safe. lol

Everything is locked back up, except for the envelope addressed to me from my grandma. That I have on my desk right now. It's bank notes from foreign countries. I have yet to go through them though, as I've been trying to get this post organized for you all.

I hope you all enjoy. :)

Edit: Thank you all for such crazy huge feedback, I'm glad most of you enjoyed it. I had lots of fun answering as many of the questions and comments as I could. :)

And for the few of you who were really mean about my picture taking, I'm sorry you found it so offensive. I don't think anyone really realizes how extremely dark that basement is, even with the lights turned on. You have to wait a little bit just to get your eyes to adjust when you walk around down there, so I really did as best as I could.

I thought that bad pictures were better than no pictures, and I really didn't have a lot of time to take them. And honestly, I thought at least a couple of them didn't turn out so bad for what I was working with in the dark down there. If you don't like them, then just don't look at them. There's no reason to be so rude about it. :(

[UPDATE AS OF 3PM TUESDAY NZ TIME, 10PM MONDAY EDT]

Bumping this thread because not much to report, I called the NZ distributors today and they recommended four safe cracking companies that would be able to get into it, the one we have already called is the first one they recommended, and even another safecracking company said they were the 'best in the business'. We're working to set up a time for a technician to make a site visit to inspect the crank handle and see how much work it will take to repair, one can possibly inspect it tomorrow and the other company is booked up till friday.

I need to travel north tonight after work so I won't be around to reply to comments sorry, I'll try and reply to as many as I can get to though. Please downvote any lame trolling activity to hell, insults are just repetitive and boring and miss the point of this subreddit completely.

Thanks! This sub is just the beginning :) DSMS

[EDIT: I guess I should crosspost this to the main page, so the people get it]

Commonly asked questions:

• No we will not drill it. Anywhere. There is already a hole, we are working on getting an endoscope.

• The tape IS very interesting, apparently it was stuck to the dial originally holding it in place. We are trying all sorts of different theories surrounding it.

• The handle is completely ground off, the safe experts assure me this will not be a problem.

• We will look into starting a KickStarter once we have a RELIABLE QUOTE from a reputable company, thanks for all your interest and support! Please don't try to start your own, that loses me all credibility. We will provide reddit with all the facts as they come to light (this feels like a press conference)

• We have permission to crack the safe from the (current) owner as long as we DON'T DAMAGE ANYTHING.

============================================= .

[Old update from yesterday as per header, can't change it sorry]

Been at work all morning, ran through a few comment replies, huge thanks to the solutions thread, we got through a tonne of stuff last night and the manual really helped as we were entering the numbers wrong. Also a massive thanks to my mods who have been teaching me how to reddit, please understand the wall of text is very hard to keep up with, but I'm slogging through it and every upvote for a good post helps. We're dropping all the meme posts so the sub can develop itself, and it's great to see people getting into the spirit of it and submitting their own. This whole thing isn't about the karma, it's all about finding out WHATS IN THAT FUCKING SAFE!

WHAT WE'VE DONE

• Contacted a safe expert. We couldn't do this yesterday because it was a sunday night, we rang a few locksmiths just incase and they started to get really suspicious and didn't take me seriously. It's now monday afternoon here in NZ and I've been ringing around different places, should have an email quote tomorrow from them, but I'll be ringing around a few different places in the meantime and trying different people.

• Tried a bunch of combinations using the manual and factory settings from the solutions thread, plus as many as we could keep up with on the chat. The 3g coverage was terrible last night and it was almost impossible to keep up with. The live stream was really just supposed to be proof that the safe existed :P

• Tried sticking a security camera in the hole. It didn't fit. We've had an offer from a local guy in my PMs, but his number got lost in the wall of orange so I'm trawling through my inbox looking for him.

WHAT WE CAN'T DO

• Damage the walls, floor or roof in any way, even if they can be repaired (Like drilling a hole). The walls and roof are nearly ten inches of solid reinforced concrete. If we put a camera in it'll be through an existing hole, we can't smash into it.

• Drill the door. We don't want to damage the locking mechanism before a safe expert can inspect it. We are getting quotes and will update as we get them.

• Blow it up. But thanks for the suggestion!

Thanks for your help and patience, the first few hours were always going to be a shitstorm but now that the dust is settling, I hope this subreddit can be fun and engaging for everyone. If you can help in any way PLEASE drop into the solution thread or crosspost, and make sure if you see a post like this you bump it to the top. The mod team and I are working together to get this subreddit running smoothly, and the front page is already looking better.

I'll update you as soon as I know any more. Cheers guys!

[EDIT] We've got a meta post going about the subreddit thanks to the mod team, and we'd like you as a community to be involved :) Thanks

Good news everyone.

And no, it's not from that most disapponting of redditors, u/liesaboutredditgold. Your quest for gold (my guess) is going to get faster and easier, and it's going to be in your hands instead of relying on the tight schedules of the companies you've contancted, or on your own budget. I almost feel like Oprah. Not really at all though.

I've secured an borescope in Auckland. I can have it sent by courier tomorrow, NZ time. Probably to a different address than where the safe is because of privacy concerns. I'd just ask that I please get it mailed back to me when it's done.

It will record video straight into your laptop, so while streaming would be ideal, if it's posted immediately after being recorded, that would probably be easier and minimize delays. A second simple web cam can capture the action. I can get take the video files and slap them together with some prewritten background info, add some music, credit who ever helped, have OP review it, then post it to youtube, probably within an hour or two of the safe contents inspection, barring power outage or total internet failure. Or, you could live stream it or pretend it's live, if that's what you're in to. Lots of sites do that. I prefer the story being told in the video, because this is a kind of amazing story.

This is the internet though, not requiring Peter Jackson's film teams shooting 3d at 48fps.

The borescope is simple and easy to use, thin and 2 meters long. That's the game. Minimize delays. I'm just kind of over all the safe memes, and memes about safe memes.

AS OP's said, it would of course be awesome to have it opened and be inside. Maybe if it was Capone's tomb and Geraldo Rivera was there.

But maybe if there's nothing worthwhile in there, there's no need for it be opened. And since there's already a hole, I say let's get it going rather than waiting for an appraisal on Friday. You can make as much of a little news event, if that's what you're into. I recommend keeping the focus on the contents of the safe. That's what intrigues me, not people talking about the safe.

This could be a wrap, by the weekend. Unless we find there's need to open the safe, and I really really hope there is.

Otherwise, I might have to make my own safe. With gold, and drugs.

I'll bet you one big silver coin that if there's silver or gold on cash or drugs inside, there you will no longer have to be waiting for open times in their schedules. Everybody with real world safe cracking skill will be breaking down your door (althought they'd really only need to pick your locks) to get a crack at it.

And if you do make some cash, maybe you'd consider a donation to preserve New Zealand's amazing natural environment for the next time I'm able to get out in it.

TLDR Please PM me where to send a brand spanking new boroscope.