Okay, so, earlier this month I did do the coolest thing I might ever do, and I finally transferred the pictures from my phone to my computer, so you all get to hear about it.
I am a long-time purveyor of second-hand and thrift stores, because they (used to, at least) have interesting stuff and good prices (again, used to). And sometimes you get lucky, and they still do!
And sometimes you get lucky and they have something good out for a bargain price, but because you're the only person insane enough to be able to get any use out of it.
Case in point, my brand new (to me) leather briefcase:
It's a little scuffed, yes, but it's real leather and of high-quality make. And my parents both used to make harness leathers for horses, so they both know everything I could ever need about cleaning and/or restoring leather. And they both said it was an excellent find! All the more excellent because it was only five bucks USD.
"But Trickster," I hear you ask, "Why would they sell such an obviously valuable item for such a low price? In this economy and market?"
Well not out of the goodness of their hearts, let me tell you! No, it was for the same reason that I erased part of this photo: because it's nice, the clasps on this briefcase are extra secured with combination locks.
Two of them.
With a different combination on each side.
And the combinations set to '000'.
In short, beautiful quality, beautiful condition, made absolutely worthless because the damned this couldn't be opened.
Unless you're me.
A lunatic with - and I cannot stress this enough - no background in lock-picking or safe-cracking, but a can-do attitude and an excess of time on their hands for health-related issues, and also no shame, as well as an insatiable desire to know What's In The Locked Box. So I plumped myself down on the ground, out of the way of foot traffic, and began to do my best to crack the code. I started the classic way - slowly rotating the first number dial of the first lock one number at a time, wiggling it with each pause to see if I could feel any change.
I deduced at about 060 that this would take too long because 1) time consuming and 2) my finger was starting to hurt. But also I still wanted to get into the case, and knew I would forever regret it if I failed in my self-appointed, utterly inconsequential quest! So I paused to think.
And, in that moment, the movie National Treasure came to mind. Specifically the scene where they get something on a woman's hands so that when she keys her code into a secure elevator shortly after, they can check her fingerprints to figure out the code. A thought that led me to keys in general, to use degradation, to the factoid that wear patterns reveal the path/patterns of most common usage.
And, while in good condition, this briefcase was still second-hand, and had been used before. Enough that it did indeed show signs of wear on the combination locks.
A little double-checking revealed that certain numbers on each dial also had some numbers that showed signs of more frequent wear than the others on said dial. This reduced the number of potential combinations from Way Too Many to a Completely Manageable Amount. Especially when I noticed that the opening mechanism did indeed have more play in it when certain worn numbers were selected than others. Meaning, after a minute or two of fiddling (on both sides, because they each had a different combination)?
Pay dirt.
Which is also why both clasps have their combinations erased in these pictures; because I don't want to share the combos of my lovely new briefcase to the entire internet. There was even turned out to be something really cool inside that made my efforts all the more worthwhile!
The thing was a really cool story I get to tell people for the rest of my life about how I Mission Impossibled/James Bonded my way into a locked briefcase, and I like it very much. ;)
(I also like the briefcase, and I plan to use it to look extra professional if the opportunity ever presents itself. <3)
