Gun Safe help - and perhaps more

[chasfm11]

This is truly "asking for a friend."

Here's the back story. I have a good friend. The husband of one her neighbors/friends recently passed away. He was not very old and the illness came quickly. They have no children and the wife is feeling extremely lost, not knowing what to do next.

To compound the situation, there is a long gun safe where all of the important papers were kept and the access code to it apparently went with the husband. My friend helped to try to locate someone to get into the safe and apparently came up with $700 price tag for the service. Probably not unreasonable but the wife is not going to be in good financial shape and my friend is trying to find alternatives for her.

I have not seen the safe so it could be for 5 guns or 50 guns. I have no idea about is age. I'm told that it is a "Cabelas" For me, that could me that stores brand or simply that the safe was purchased from there. I'm told that there is a key slot in the middle of the knob which suggests that there is an emergency key. But I would have no idea what kind of a key to look for, if such an option where available.

But the situation gets worse. There was no will. And, as seems to happen in too many families, there is a vulture type who knows about the guns in the safe and wants to "help." It is perhaps a saving grace that the gun safe cannot be accessed at this moment. When it is opened, it may be difficult to preserve the collection long enough to make sure its proceeds go to the wife.

I've offered to help. My friend trusts me completely and since I don't remotely have a dog in this fight, I may be able to provide assistance. The thought was - what happens if the safe is opened? Who can legally take at least temporary custody of the guns? If I were involved, I'd immediately document make/model/serial of everything and take pictures. I don't have enough gun safe room to store them and I'm not sure it would be wise of me if I did. What other options are there?

I'm open to thoughts and ideas

[Papacub]

As far as the safe goes, can you locate a manufacturer, model number and serial number? If you can, get in touch with the manufacturer and see if they can provide a combination. I had to do this with a gun safe my son owned, when he came back from Iraq he couldn’t remember the combo. We got in touch with the manufacturer and they provided a combo.

[SigM4]

Short of drilling the safe (which will likely cost several hundred dollars as she discovered) you can probably get into it with a long pry bar and enough time. Most safes aren’t really going to stop someone with power/prying tools and enough time, especially a Cabelas branded one.

Now, once you’re in that’s another matter. Without a will she would be the rightful owner as she’s the servicing spouse and can deem to do with the guns as she pleases. That’s said if she wants you to remove the guns for safe keeping that’s up to her and no one else. At least it would remove them from the immediate situation until y’all can work out the details.

Oh, and the key in the middle of the knob just locks the knob and keeps it from being spun, it’s not a bypass.

[jason812]

Since he was married, I would think his wife gets his estate but I am not a lawyer so that's just a guess.

What town/area is the safe located? That would help in giving suggestions on who you might could call to get it open.

I have heard of this and don't know if it pertains to this safe. If it has an electric lock, some people are smart enough to hide the emergency key in the battery compartment. That is if it also has the emergency key lock which only a few do.

[Boxerrider]

There are Stack On safes with electronic combination locks that have a manual override key. You take the keypad off and put the key through the hole. It looks like a very long, skinny skeleton key.
I would consider cutting a piece out of the top and taking everything out that way.

Good Luck!

[airbornecpa]

Numeric Keypad?

If so, there is likely a keyhole behind the keypad. Contact manufacturer with model and Serial number, they can provide a key.

[chasfm11]

Thanks for all of the feedback so far. I literally know nothing more than what I shared and all of that came from emails. I'm disappointed to hear that the key isn't a bypass. That complicates things. I'm pretty sure that it isn't a numeric keypad. I think it is a dial and a handle.

On another note, I try to use situations like this as learning experiences. I've taken an entirely different approach to important papers so there is no immediate need for my wife to access our long gun safe if something happened to me. But I quizzed her this evening about how she would go about it . She didn't have a clue. I'm torn between not wanting her to be in the same position as my friend's wife and not wanting to provide information that could make a burglary more painful for me. I cannot get her to deal with her own passwords let alone something like a safe combination. SMH.....

[03Lightningrocks]

Thanks for all of the feedback so far. I literally know nothing more than what I shared and all of that came from emails. I'm disappointed to hear that the key isn't a bypass. That complicates things. I'm pretty sure that it isn't a numeric keypad. I think it is a dial and a handle.

On another note, I try to use situations like this as learning experiences. I've taken an entirely different approach to important papers so there is no immediate need for my wife to access our long gun safe if something happened to me. But I quizzed her this evening about how she would go about it . She didn't have a clue. I'm torn between not wanting her to be in the same position as my friend's wife and not wanting to provide information that could make a burglary more painful for me. I cannot get her to deal with her own passwords let alone something like a safe combination. SMH.....

The key in the middle of the dial can also be used to lock the safe and open it with no combination. Insert key, unlock dial, turn dial to right slowly. If it stops, it means he left it in the key lock on position. Many people do this for ease of opening. Turn the bolt and it will open. He may have the key on his key chain. If the dial is spinning with no key in it, the safe is in combination open only condition and you are back to the locksmith situation.

It is worth the try.

By the way. Even if it is a Cabellas safe, using a pry bar to open it is going to be one hard day of work. They will have to just about destroy the door. I am not sure what a locksmith will do to open it but if it keeps the safe usable it may be worth the money. She could always sell a gun or two and pay for the locksmith. Then she has access to her important papers.

[rotor]

I don't have an answer to the safe but most of them can be opened with power tools approached from the sides. I have seen this on youtube,

The problem of leaving this earth and having your loved ones floundering for help can be avoided though. There is a service called dead mans switch ( www.deadmansswitch.net ) where you can set up instructions for a designated person ahead of time, the service sends you an email once a month or so and if you do not respond they email your designated person with the info you want them to have. Not responding assumes you are gone. I have this set to notify my daughter. I also have a will.

[warnmar10]

This is truly "asking for a friend."

IIRC, in Texas if you die intestate your surviving spouse gets half your estate and the other half is divided among the surviving children. If no children, even from a previous marriage, the surviving spouse gets all.

A proper angle grinder and a stack of cutoff wheels will get you into the safe. The only challenge to opening a safe is how much time you have and how much noise you can make. In this case you have all the time you need and nobody will call the cops about the noise. Is the safe bolted to the floor?

[chasfm11]

I still have not physically been to this house and seen the safe so I cannot provide more information about it than I already have. As you can imagine, making final arrangements for the husband and giving the wife some time to process the situation is the priority. I'm hoping that my friend can help provide some stability to the decision making. Unfortunately, my friend just lost her BIL and is going to have to go out of town to attend that funeral. My guess is that my physical involvement, if any, will not come until mid to late next week.

[The Annoyed Man]

We are facing a similar dilemma with a safe we are storing for a friend. This person is still alive, but currently a federal prisoner and will no longer be allowed to own guns upon his release. In his case, all of his guns are stored in my son and my safes, and we want to put them in his safe to free up room in ours. It’s a keypad safe. We’ve been given the combination, and when you enter it, the keypad beeps, but the lock won’t turn.

I spoke with A1 Locksmiths about it. They suggested contacting the manufacturer...which I have not done yet....or paying A1 to drill out the lock. The cost for drilling estimate was about $300. My friend in prison has no money, and I don't want to spend $300 out of my pocket to open a safe that’s not mine, and is only being stored temporarily. This is complicated by the fact that I’m not confident that the manufacturer (Western) will want to help someone who is not the safe's owner.

I’ll let you know what I find out.

[03Lightningrocks]

When the lock is drilled out, can they then simply replace it with a new one?

[cheezit]

If you have to get In it and dont care about damage the quickist way in is a plasma cutter