I was speaking with a client this morning who is getting a new 800lb. safe delivered to his home. He called to ask if, given the size of the safe, should he still go through the hassle of having it professionally installed.
Yes!
I told him a story about a home in Shaughnessy that was burglarized several years ago. Three men broke into the house and stole a huge safe from the master bedroom closet that weighed over 700lbs. The safe was not ‘installed’ and the men were able to get it out of the closet and down the upstairs hallway. Rather than carry the safe down the stairs, they simply pushed it down the curved marble staircase.
Once at the bottom (you can imagine how the staircase looked) the crooks loaded the safe into the back of their waiting car. A neighbour saw the men and called 911 to report the burglary as well as give a description of the little car that was bottoming out with the weight of the safe in the back. Unfortunately, they got away and I’m not sure if the safe was ever found.
(we did not provide any security services for the home)
Moral of the story?
If it is not bolted down… a safe is movable.
If you are going to get a safe, no matter how big or small it is, it MUST be professionally installed. Virtually every safe comes with a special mounting plate and pre-drilled holes that will allow for secure mounting without impacting the fire rating of the safe. This is definately a project that is worth calling a locksmith for. At a minimum, bolting a safe down will help five minute proof it.
For many of our clients that have had a safe installed behind cabinetry or some other type of millwork, we have added an alarm contact to the wooden door in front of the safe so that we have an even longer head start to respond (we always install the safe door as a 24 hour zone, so that the alarm will sound as soon as the door is opened, irrespective of whether or not the alarm is actually armed).
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