Reading about the police raid on Michael Jackson's Neverland home / ranch
got me to wondering...
Suppose you were rich and weird and had a collection of illegal ... whatever
... that was precious to you. You could afford as elaborate a safe / vault
/ secret room / etc. as you wanted. Now the police knock on the door with a
warrant. Assuming they find the safe, how far will they go to open it?
Hire a high powered tech for a couple of days to drill / blast it open? I
guess that makes sense, since they want to find what they are after, but
just how far do these searches go?
Just curious.
Did a job for the FBI . The warrant allowed them to search the customer's
safe and they hired me to do the p&e and open ANYTHING locked. Rule of thumb
was unlock and move out of their way.
mr.bill
yep they get to do what ever they need to do to carry out the court
order..and they are under no obligation to put things back or fix them when
they are done. I know of one case where an entire house was taken apart
stick by stick.
Through the years I have been on many jobs with various law enforcement
agencies. One thing they all had in common was ,they didnt care how or what I
had to do as long as the container was opened for them to search.
Gary Hardigree
Georgia Safe and Lock Co.
I do 2-3 search warrants a month, it depends on what the warrant says if
they can even open the safe, like if you are looking for a stolen
elephant you can not open a floor safe, the elephant wouldn't fit. but
if you are looking for paper work on the elephant you can open the safe.
Also the arrest status of the person comes into play , i opened a
kidnaped victims safe, the pd paid for both opening and repair. mike is
not under arrest, his safe would most likely have to be opened with
care. A drug dealer sitting in cuffs can have his safe opened with a
crow bar and destroyed. But one thing to remember is all of the suspects
are given the opportunity to give up the combos before someone is called
in to do an opening.
If you presume that folks who are expecting the FBI may have
boobytrapped the safe, moving out of the way is a Very Good Thing;
dealing with that threat is THEIR job.
bobby I subcontract out to @ 35 locksmiths, and it just ends up getting
known , as for approaching the pd , they dont seem to talk among
themselves, so you might do the drug warrants but someone else does the
vice warrants
If they have a search warrant they will go as far as they need to to open and
container they suspect contains material covered by the warrant. Opening
virtually any safe is not a big deal when you don't have to worry about time or
secrecy.
I have heard of several cases where police searches missed hidden material that
was later discovered accidently.
They will sue the cops - the cops (rather City Hall, the County, the
State or Uncle Sam) have deeper pockets. Interestingly, how many
locksmiths have been sued when helping the cops?
It might not hurt to consult an attorney just in case: some state
governemental immunity laws might not allow a suit against the police,
but a locksmith MIGHT still be a viable defendant.
they sign the 'permission slips out the Yazoo BEFORE I would
touch one... just because... and define the HOW to be opened...
repairable, or not...
--Shiva--
Presumably the immunity laws also cover people assisting police in
execution of their duties, so a formal written request to assist
should extend that immunity to the person doing the opening.
Attorney's advice is appropriate and the local association or guild
may well have sought such advice.
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