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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Seattle WA
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    Country: United States

    Default Just wondering if anyone would collect Tear gas vials from safes/vaults?

    Antique contains safecracker's worst nightmare

    Comments 3
    March 17, 2011 5:26 PM

    JOEL MILLMAN
    THE GAZETTE
    The owner of a north Colorado Springs antiques marketplace opening later this month caused a scare Thursday when he called police and asked what he should do with the nitroglycerin in an old safe.
    It turned out the liquid wasn't an explosive, just a safecracker's worst nightmare.
    Mike Underwood, owner of Willowstone Antiques at 1710 Dublin Blvd., had bought the safe years ago and planned to display it in his new business.
    A locksmith found the liquid-filled glass cylinders mounted to a cast-iron frame attached to the inside of the safe's door when he rekeyed the tumblers and told Underwood it could be nitroglycerin.
    Underwood had never put much stock in the locksmith's opinion since the safe had been shipped across country and moved several times without blowing up, but he didn't want to take chances.
    Neither did the police. The bomb squad arrived Thursday morning and took the cylinders away for chemical testing.
    The result: chloropicrin, a powerful tear gas commonly used in the late 1800s and early 1900s as a deterrent to anyone entertaining thoughts of breaking into a safe.
    "What it was designed to do is if someone banged hard enough on the safe or drilled into the door by the tumblers it would break the glass, dropping tear gas," said Steve Rogers, of American Lock & Key on West Uintah Street.
    "Have you ever been tear-gassed? Rogers asked. "It's a pretty effective deterrent. The safecracker would be lucky to see the cash, much less be able to grab it and run."
    Underwood said police returned the cylinders to him and he's contacted a company that disposes of hazardous materials.
    Rogers said he's seen the booby trap in lots of old safes and advises anyone who finds liquid-filled cylinders to contact the fire department for instructions on how to dispose of it safely.


    http://www.gazette.com/articles/glass-114727-turned-colorado.html

    So my thinking is this: IF these are very bad if the glass was to break why have them around in a collection of several? Seams like asking for problems. At the very least it will be a collection that would bring a tear to your eyes..... ok that was bad.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Odell Ne
    Posts
    581
    Country: United States

    Default

    Dean, I wonder how the police or whoever was able to test the chemical makeup with out opening the glass vials? If they did open them, how would they have sealed them and given them back to the safe owner? By the way, I still have my glass vial ,still loaded, undamaged, including the cast mounting bracket, that I took out of my brother-in-law's safe a year or so ago. I was always going to dispose of it, but my mischevious side thinks that it might come in handy someday.
    Mark A. Billesbach

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Cleveland, Ohio USA
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    1,433
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    Default

    Yes Dean there are crackpots among us who collect tear gas from safes. I sold mine several years ago to another "crackpot" and know of others who have no qualms about collecting them. The odds of a knowledgable safe tech setting one off in a drilling is rather slim and there aren't that many still installed on safes anyway. However, the greater danger is on self installed booby trapped safes but again that possibility is also quite slim. There was a period in the latter 1800's and early 1900's when just about anything and everything was tried by a very few makers. Lewis Lillie and his son, S Morris Lillie (his son?) both had patents arming burglar chests with both explosives and poison gases, respectively. This was in 1871 and according to Lewis at least 30 chests were sold with his little surprises. They were in Elizabeth N.J. at the time so any of the Lillie safes from Troy, N.Y. would not have this danger. None of these chests are known to exist and probably disappeared a long time ago. Doug

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
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    1,485
    Country: United States

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    I vaguely recall running across a patent for a "burglar exterminator" while searching for boltwork patents. IIRC it would trap and electrocute bad guys, in theory. A bit worse than tear gas and probably never constructed.

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