High Security Safes

All safes should give some degree of protection to the items stored in them. Some 'safes' are little more than lock boxes and offer little resistance to forced entry.

Others are designed and manufactured to defeat, or hinder, the more common attempts to forcibly gain access to the contents. Then there are high security safes.

No safe can be truly described as burglar proof of course, whatever security features are built in, there will be some crook who will have the knowledge and skills to defeat them, or who will take the trouble to learn how.

Safes that can be described as high security are more solidly constructed than the average safe. These safes have better locking systems, drill resistant lock plates, thicker doors and usually some form of relocking device.

A re-locker is an additional security measure that is automatically activated should there be an attempt to break into your safe. There are several different types of relocking devices, all operate independently of the lock. When activated the system shoots extra locking bolts from the door into the frame of the safe, this prevents the door from being opened even if the primary lock is defeated.

Many modern high security safes are fitted with tempered glass re-lockers, should an attack be made by drilling or cutting with a torch, the bolts are slammed home.

Once the re-locker has been activated, by an attempt to crack the safe, you will need the services of a locksmith to open up, and possibly repair your safe. But in most cases the burglar will have failed to get to your valuable items.

Banks are not perceived to be as safe as they used to be. Banks certainly have had bad press lately, but if you have large amounts of cash it is still better to keep it in the bank than it is to keep it at home. This holds true even for those of us with home security safes.

On the other hand, some of us need amounts of cash on hand for one reason or another. You may have several items of jewelry, or collections of other valuable items that you do not wish to keep at the bank. You will rest easier knowing they are safely deposited in your highly secure safe.

You may need to protect your items from more than just burglary. You may also be concerned about protecting documents, for example, against being destroyed by fire. Many high security safes are also fire resistant. You should however, be aware that some safes that have a good rating for fire resistance do not also give adequate protection against theft.

It may also be important for you to safeguard your valuable items from water, moisture and dust and security safes are available that are designed to give such protection.

Several locking systems are offered, from conventional dial combinations, electronic digital combination, lock and key, fingerprint recognition to safes that incorporate more than one locking system.

You will of course need your security safe to be of a size that suits your needs. Remember that the internal dimensions will be quite a bit smaller than the external dimensions due to the thickness of the insulation. It is a good plan to buy a safe with internal dimensions that are 20% larger than the largest item you wish to protect. This will give you additional room for any larger valuables you may acquire after you obtain your safe.

What about the weight of the safe will your flooring support it? Do you intend to have the safe bolted down? Does the safe come with pre-drilled bolt holes?

High security safes are generally floor standing cabinet style, good security wall safes are available but remember that wall safes are not usually very deep, which limits what you are able to store in them.

A cabinet style safe, high security or not, should be securely bolted to the floor. Although these types of safe tend to be very heavy it is possible for thieves to make off with the safe rather than try and 'crack' it in your home.

As stated above, no safe can be described as burglar proof. What a safe does is put another barrier between your valuables and the burglar. Most burglaries are committed by opportunist burglars who do not possess any safe-cracking skills.

However if you own valuable items that are likely to attract the attention of professional criminals, then a high security safe will mean the burglar will need time to attempt to defeat it. Burglars do not like spending time, the more time they spend committing a burglary the more chance they have of being caught.

High security safes frequently give criminals too much of a time challenge.

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