… Looking at this table and camera setup I talked with Paul Crouwel, the
safe technician I came with. The original idea was to do this little
test under the flag of Toool. Paul would say something about the safes
and the way they were constructed and I would talk about the quality
of the locks. But this camera setup, and the content of the safe
(monopoly money and a pearl necklaces) proved the TV makers still
wanted to shoot the test as if it was a real time burglary. This was
reason enough to let Paul Crouwel do the test on his own. A real pity,
I would have loved to pick these locks and say something about them…
The results of the test can be seen today for those of you who can
receive Dutch television (NL 1 18:55). Besides testing the safes on
being burglary proof they were also tested to see how well they could
handle being dropped from great heights as well being set on fire.
(unfortunately not at the same time, that would have been real
spectacular television 😉
And for the record: Paul Crouwel normally never ever ever opens this
kind of low quality safes. He is a real specialist that mainly focuses
on high security safes. And he is one of the few people I know that on
a regular basis opens bank and post office safes. He invests a lot of
time and money in keeping up to date with safe technology and even
tries to open these high security safes without damaging them. For
this he uses a method known as ‘manipulation’, that was also covered
during the Sneek lectures. For this he constantly purchases the best
of the best materials and spends hours a day practising with it.
The latest tool in his toolbox is a manipulation aid from the UK.
Special hardware and software that will help determine what numbers
are in a safe combination, and what wheel you are working on. I shot
some video when the tool was demonstrated in Sneek (Video 17 Mb WMV).
To come back to the test: I can’t wait to see what they made of it.
Paul Crouwel will be live in the studio tonight and comment on the
test results. Needless to say I will make the video available asap on this site…
Ooh! I hope one of the safes falls victim to the rubber mallet exploit! It is just so shockingly cool to see!
Dear BlackBag,
I read with interest your 2006 article on ‘Cracking safes on Demand’, especially about the manipulation aid. The video looked really interesting. I’m looking for manipulation aids and is how I found your article. I also enjoy reading your articles on Bumping and picktools, a great site!
I thought therefore that you may be interested to know the following…
The sad thing is that the device seems to have been discontinued from Chris Belcher, but on a plus there is a similar device available from Wendt (http://www.zieh-fix.com/shop/contents/en-us/d85_Manipulation_Dialer.html) which I found through a couple of BELTEQ youtube videos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwMX47WFDOk). There was a video also about an Android App for manipulation (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf6FClpTmWc) but I haven’t been able to find it in any store.
I’ve tried to contact BELTEQ, but it seems to be either closed or under construction. If you’ve know where I can find out more info on the App I’d be very interested.
Once again, Great Site!
All the best
Don
Dear Blackbag,
I read with interest the above post.
This product appears to be a rip off – of the CB Assistant Manipulation Aid V3 – to which I own the Intellectual Property Rights.
I look forward to meeting Mr Wendt at the next trade show in the UK.
best regards
Chris
Dear Blackbag,
I read with interest the above post.
This product appears to be a rip-off – of the CB Assistant Manipulation Aid V3 – to which I own the Intellectual Property Rights.
I look forward to meeting Mr Wendt at the next Trade Show in the UK.
regards Chris
Hi Don
The manipulation tool that you refer to is a ripped off version of the original Assistant . I own the rights to the’Assistant’.
The ripped off version is being manufactured by the same person who helped write the original program.
A follow up
The Android notebook is just a method of graphing the results,
Hey Chris,
Enjoying retirement?
Hate to break this to you, but the inventor appears to be your own son. Standing on your sons shoulders of success must make your family very proud of you.
Based on both your profiles though, it does not take an Einstein to figure out who created what. I really hate Plagiarists! You should be ashamed of yourself! …. man!! your own son!
It seems he has not only created some clever software, the new TSM looks to be even better… and developed even for the Android!
Check your facts and while your at it, don’t embarrass yourself any further by trying to quote Intellectual rights etc. Retire with some dignity!
BTW… He has made a new movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu_U5OlfXyY
Search for Belteq – Ultimate safe cracking tool
Don
Hi Don
Thank you for the reply. Quite amusing and informative.