Locks aren’t everything when it comes to locking things up, you know. I’m just surprised at how many people don’t realise this.

After the snooker club had some money stolen from an unlocked cash box (albeit from a locked cabinet), lots of people were asking me why I didn’t have the cash box locked. Well, there’s not much point really, when you think about it. Cash box locks do only two things - keep the lid down so you can pick it up by the handle, and stop sticky fingered friends from making off with a tenner. But face it, if someone wants to steal the money, there’s nowt stopping them from lifting the box in entirety.

Thankfully, some other right minded person (and our resident criminal expert) pointed this idea out when another club in the Union wanted to buy a small safe for a very expensive piece of equipment. It was pointed out that having a small, cheap safe is just begging to be broken into, and that the safe can’t be fixed down to prevent someone just picking it up and walking off with it. Which then prompted a discussion between both of us about theivery in the Union - I’ve personally carted out thousands of pounds of equipment without being queried by Security. Is it possible to pull up in a transit van at the back door, carry a safe past the reception and out the front, continuing past Security and into another van, without being stopped? I think so.

This isn’t Japan, though, where according to an article I read in the Economist last week safe breaking is a new crime wave. Not with the stethoscope / twidle a dial effort though, instead, just stealing the safe, or indeed, entire cash machines. Apparently, the quickest way to get the contents of a 300 kilo safe in Saitama is to push it out a second storey window, and let gravity do the hard work. Smooth.