carwash star safes

[mydogron]

I work for an investor and he also owns a carwash i service time to time. The vaults have star heads that use a removable dial. We were recently had a vault cleaned out without any noticable damage. He says i didnt clear one of the combinations on the doors and the thief was able to remove the door by pushing in the button and turning the pin so that the door opened. I know i cleared the combination i just dont know how well. Is it possible i didnt clear it well enough anf he was able to only have had to figure out the last number? I always make sure the button pops back up but after this i did start paying more attention. It seems the vault that was opened felt like there wasnt much tension pushing the button out. Is this caused by a worn mechanism making it easier to determine the combination or is it because i ddidn't clear the combination properly? Thanks for allowing me to pose this question. Also what is the proper procedure for clearing the combination and how can i check to know its cleared?

[averagejoe]

Yes, it is entirely possible for a person to just find out the last number and depress the dial. If you only pop it out and give it a small spin it might not even move a wheels so they just have to turn it and push it in. Otherwise they just slowly start checking.

I surprised the hell out of the owner of a place where I got a part time job once. She was instructing me as to how to open it when he spun the dial to lock it in place and popped it up, gave it maybe an 1/8 of a turn and told me to try. I just spun it back and opened it. Her mouth dropped open and asked how I did that.

Apparently she had been locking the safe that way for years and didn't know it was possible to do that.

Always spin the dial at least 4 times to clear it.

[FarmerFreak]

Averagejoe covered it, I just want to clarify.

Dial in/out makes no difference for clearing the combo.

To clear the combo spin it 4 times counterclockwise.

how can i check to know its cleared?

If at anytime you are unsure if it is cleared, spin the dial 4 times counterclockwise.

Though it's a little suspicious that a thief would know to push the dial in and turn, instead of just turning it like a normal safe. It's certainly possible that they know a lot about safes and this was trivial. But it's also possible that they have previous knowledge about that specific safe and possibly knew the combo. Without a video of them opening it I doubt one could know for sure.

[2octops]

I vote for inside job.

Thieves don't just get lucky like this. Normally they would just start trying to destroy the property instead of bringing a dial with them.