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Safecracker manages to get part of century-old safe open By PAUL FATTIG It took an hour and a half but veteran - and legal - safecracker Dave McOmie of Camas, Wash., pulled it off. He opened the bottom vault of an old safe on Wednesday that had been unopened for decades. Unfortunately, aside from a little rust, it was empty. The safe, donated to the Eagle Point Museum last fall, had been taken by a volunteer to the Safe and Vault Technicians Convention meeting near Reno, Nev., this week to see if an expert could open it. McOmie was one of some 400 legal safecrackers attending the convention. The old safe was one of about 100 long-locked containers the safecrackers took a crack at this week. The 2,000-pound "cannonball" safe that had been in the First State Bank of Eagle Point when it opened in 1911 was one of the big attractions, said museum curator Barbara Hegne. "The interest in it was just unreal," she said. "McOmie opened it in front of a class of safecrackers. He worked on it for an hour and a half." Unfortunately, while he was able to "unlock" the top vault as well, it remains rusted shut, Hegne said. "About 20 guys tried to work the top part open but they just couldn't do it," she said. "They did everything they could, including using an iron bar that must have been eight feet long. They worked on that thing all day long." However, the top vault had been opened when the safe was acquired in the late 1970s or early 1980s by the late Walt Young, a longtime Medford businessman. It was the bottom vault that held the biggest mystery, although no one expected to discover a treasure, Hegne noted. Made by the Victor Safe & Lock Co. of Cincinnati about a century ago, the safe was donated to the museum by the Young family. Hegne had been encouraged to take the safe to the convention after the Associated Press picked up a Mail Tribune story about the safe last month. The story noted that Hegne was looking for someone to open the safe. As a result, the museum received calls from as far away as New Hampshire and Toronto, Ontario, Canada. While most were from legal safecrackers, there was one inquiry from the other side of the law. When Hegne returned from Nevada on Thursday, a letter was waiting for her from a safecracker named Ed Chaparro of Frackville, Penn. "I hear that you are looking for someone to open (an) old Victor safe," it began. "I can help you. "I can open it for you via the tumblers without punching it or peeling it or blowing it," he continued. He added that he and a partner were both incarcerated at the same correctional facility in Pennsylvania. "You could petition your local judge to have us transferred to the Eagle Point jail for we can open your safe," he wrote, then asked, "Is there a reward?" Noting that she is declining the offer, Hegne says she'll continue to lubricate the safe to eventually open the top vault. Thanks to the Nevada trip, the museum now has the combination for the safe, she said. "They gave me the combination," she said. "We'll restore it now. It'll be a big interest in the museum." Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.