Importance Of Steel Thickness and Gun Safes Broken Into

The picture above shows three attacks. The top is a fire axe. You can see the shape of the pike that was done with one blow. It would not take much longer to have a hole large enough to get inside. Second set of pictures shows a sledge hammer attack through the body. The bottom picture shows a sledge hammer attack on the top seam of the safe, breaking the welds. The body was skip welded.

There is virtually no difference when it comes to the amount of time it would take to penetrate high tensile 10 gauge and 12 gauge. As you can see from the picture above, it only takes one blow of the fire axe to pop a hole in it this large.

This is a 10 gauge safe pictured laying down on the left. According to the owner, the robbers started at the bottom of the safe and cut the frame. Then they pried the lip out past the bolts in the door. They used a saw to cut the lip at each point till they needed to pry past the bolts to open it.

3/16" (7 Gauge) Safe Body Performance

Here is a video of an axe attack on a Sturdy Safe vs. an 11g body safe. 12g, 11g, and 10g perform almost the same when it comes to non powered tool attacks. Even with a light "cement" composite insulator and a 16g liner.

A firemen named Richard sent his old 3/16" Sturdy Safe to us for free repairs after a few burglars broke into his home and tried using his fire axe to open it for about 10-15 minutes. They beat off the handle and dial. They also tried to hack the top right hinge off and pushed the safe down on its side in further attempts to open it before they gave up.

The Following Was Posted In The CONTRA COSTA TIMES News Paper In Hercules CA: 3 Arrested After Hercules Robbery, Stand Off. By Karl Fischer Article Launched: 06/04/2007 01:49:09 PM PDT: "Police were called to a home at Lupine Road and Dogwood Court, where family members in the front yard told them that armed men had run into the home. The home is near Lupine Hills Elementary School, which was evacuated shortly before 2 p.m. Hercules Police Chief Fred Deltorchio said the incident started about midday on the 100 block of Golden Rock Drive, where a homeowner either came upon a burglary in progress or was the victim of a home- invasion robbery involving three armed men. One man put a gun to the woman's head and ordered her to open a safe that held guns as part of her husband's collection, Deltorchio said." ---- What wasn't mentioned in this article was that the robbers attempted to break into the safe 2-3 hours before the woman came home using various power tool methods. The safe they attacked, but failed to open, was our Sturdy Gun Safe. These photographs show the safe after Sturdy Safe employees had already removed the door to fix it. As can be seen, the safe body, though suffering cosmetic blemishes (after over two hours of being attacked), is structurally unfazed. The door (though not shown in these pictures) was in equally good shape.

The Following Was Posted In AR15.com
Launched: 11/21/2009 Screen Name MITCHELL states: "So, my house was robbed. The (burglars) went at the safe with a crowbar that in retrospect, should have been in the safe. The (burglars) didn't thinks to use the impact drill or 3" grinder on the floor next to it, rather they tried to file down the hinge with a hand file. It seems they gave up after about 8.7 seconds...I couldn't get in and had to call a locksmith. One of the relockers had been activated by the (burglars) trying to pound on the combination shaft. This guy breaks safes every day and it took him 4.5 hours to get in. He said it was the best gun safe he's ever opened. He also opens jewelry safes and much harder things to open. It was entertaining to watch the opening and repair. To repair it, we replaced the hardplate and put bearing steel in the holes of the door."

Attempted break-in! Perpetrators failed. Worked on a Sturdy Safe with a cut off wheel and grinder for 20 minutes and still couldn’t get in. Went only for the side of the safe made of 3/16” steel (shown here) and didn’t touch the door. They gave up and left 2 minutes before the cops showed up.