safecracker at large

Murder mysteries abound, but there are precious few books, fiction or otherwise, for the general  public about safecracking. Murder mysteries have more appeal to writers, readers, and moviegoers.  It's hard to maintain reader or moviegoer interest for very long when the topic is safes and safecracking. It can be done, though, and if you keep your eyes open, however, every once in a while a book or a movie about safecracking and safecrackers comes along. Aside from relatively recent and well-known safecracking-themed movies like The Italian Job and The Score, here are a few books and movies I've uncovered: The Great Train Robbery Fiction, by Michael Crichton, the man who brought us Jurassic Park --- This book is easy to find, and was made into a very good movie with Sean Connery (opinion of course). This is the fictionalized account of a real and daringly well-planned heist that took place in England aboard a train carrying safes loaded with the British Army payroll fo...

I first published the anecdote that appears here in the newsletter I write for my industry (Boxman). Hardly technical, it's something of a departure from my basic "Day In The Life" type yarn. It was unusual to say the least. This might be the greatest adventure I never had. Though it makes good telling, there are only a couple of facts that I know for certain to be true. Fact: I did get this phone call and I did have this conversation, the gist of which I’ll recount here. Fact: The treasure was/is real. The rest? If nothing else, a good safe-related yarn.   See what you think. One slow morning several years ago an earnest-sounding man called and introduced himself. He’d obtained my phone number from a locksmith outfit that routinely refers safe work to me. He said he was calling me based on their stellar character reference and the fact that they said I was good at opening safes. When total strangers call and open dialogues with flowery praise for ...