Safes and teargas

[Father Time]

Anybody here wish to share your horror stories with this subject?

The locksmiths here know what I'm talking about while the rest of you may be clueless, so, I'll fill you in.

From the 20's to the 50's, some safes were equipped with a charge of teargas. This was a deterrent against safecrackers of the day. If the safecracker made a mistake and broke the glass container, around 4 ounces of teargas would be released. POTENT stuff too.

My own experience goes back several years. There was a locksmith shop down in the basement of the place I used to work. He had an old safe that sat outside the door waiting to be removed to the alley for disposal. It had been peeled in a bungled attempt to open it, so it was worthless at this point.

I was a young buck in those days and helped the old man get it up the freight elevator and out in the back alley. He had already opened the door to remove the contents for the rightful owner.

I stayed out there for a while playing with the thing. Safes still fascinate me. Anyway, as I was crawling around examining it when I spied this little metal box mounted up under the door. It only required a screwdriver so I
ran inside and got one.

Oh boy! Maybe the locksmith missed something!

After removing the screw, I saw this glass capsule with a liquid in it. I had never heard this kind of thing before , but I sensed this was a deterrent of some kind.

I took it out, marveled over it's pretty shape, and then leaned it up against the alley wall. Started tossing pebbles at it from about 20 feet back. Finally got it to break. I could see something like a heat haze leaving the capsule.

I waited about 10 seconds and then approached it. I got about 5 feet away before the gas hit me. All of a sudden, I couldn't see, couldn't breath, couldn't think.

Jeezus!!!

I started running down the alley blind as a bat to get away from this stuff.

After I recovered myself, I went inside to the bathroom. Looking in the mirror, I was quite a sight.

Eyes streaming with tears (still) Snot running down my nose, and something like foam in the corners of my mouth.

I've never told anybody about this until now.

Hope you enjoyed it.


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[Romstar]

Yeah, wasn't THAT fun stuff?

I believe they pretty much outlawed those things under the same laws that prevent you from booby trapping your home against invaders.

We've flipped the coin, and now criminals have more rights than their victims.

I have seen one or two of these condenced nightmares, and knowing what they were, I didn't go anywhere near the bloody things.

I don't believe they were all that popular in my area.

Romstar

[zeke79]

I have some pictures somewhere of an old vail pack that was pulled from a safe. Pretty neat stuff .

[Wolfman]

I would so love to have a few vials of the stuff. I almost managed to snag a cansiter/granade of the stuff when I was on base awhile back but i thought it best not too for 2 reasons

1. Stealing is wrong

2 stealing from guys with guns is worse

[bumpit]

Where can I buy one for my safe

[AUGOLDMINER]

I have a large can can of pepper spray rigged in my gun safe.
If someone doin't like it tuff luck sue me.
To get to my gun safe you have to go through 2 locked doors. plus the safe door.
I will leave it up to a jury to decide if i was wrong.

When i worked with explosives we were told by the cops that it was a good idea to rig a pepper spray device on our explosives storage.

[eric343]

Teargas from old safes is BAD. You're very lucky that you got away with just streaming eyes, snot, and foam.

Why?

The teargas used in old safes has a tendency to degrade into cyanide gas.

Yes, it will stop a safecracker...

[Raccoon]

lovely.

is there any written record of safe manuf.s and models that used this shite? i think it'd be a great community service to put specific names out there for public awareness. at least those who are googling their model safe will read this thread and think twice about drilling.

[Father Time]

I'm certainly lucky I wasn't leaning down in the safe at that time.

It smelled like clorox to the tenth power too.

I recall cyanide smells like almonds.


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[SFGOON]

Explosives smell like almonds or marzipan - without Google, I think blood agents (cyanide) smells like freshly cut grass and garlic.

[UWSDWF]

arsenic poisoning makes you smell like apricots...
and gangrene does smell like almonds though

[SFGOON]

Gangrene is an infection, not a chemical agent. It smells like poo or rotting meat (or both.) Silly drunk!

[unbreakable]

Sometimes. In particular, mustard gas has a rather nice aroma. Gas victims from World War I recalled a sweet and spicy scent that brought to mind lilacs, garlic, horseradish, onions, or—you guessed it—mustard. In its yellow-brown liquid form, sulfur mustard doesn't smell like anything; the characteristic sweet aroma develops only as it evaporates.

In general, "blister agents" like mustard gas smell pretty good. Another blister agent developed around the time of the First World War, lewisite, smells intensely of geraniums. A blister agent called phosgene oxime has an unpleasant, irritating smell—but with hints of freshly mown hay. The related diphosgene smells like anise.

"Blood agents," which incapacitate or destroy your blood cells, come in a variety of flavors. The bitter-almond smell of the hydrogen cyanide in Zyklon B permeated the gas chambers at the Nazi death camps in the 1940s. (Not everyone notices the nutty aroma.) Hydrogen sulfide gives off a whiff of rotten eggs. Deadly arsine has the scent of garlic.

[unbreakable]

Oops, I meant to hit preview.

Silly mac computer


That was from here- http://www.slate.com/id/2148198

[SFGOON]

I am rather rusty