I've cracked the safe

A couple months ago, I locked the combination for our little home safe that we've had for 11 years inside the home safe. This safe holds nothing valuable in terms of money, but it does have our important documents like passports, original birth certificates, vaccination records, etc.

How I locked the combination inside the safe was vintage dingdong Susan. The time before I opened the safe before the dingdong opening, I decided to leave the key in the lock and not turn the combination dial. That way, I could just open the door up next time I needed something. Even if somebody broke into our house, they wouldn't get anything except our passports, so what did it matter if it wasn't really locked?

Well that brilliant plan worked great. I turned the key and the door opened without my having to do that pesky dial turning. I always overshoot the mark and have to start over with those combination dials. It was great in theory.

So I got out whatever I needed, gathered up everything that I'd pulled out and put on the floor, put it all back in the safe, turned the key in the lock, twisted the dial and bam, it was locked.

Then I looked around for the piece of paper that had the combination written on it. I had the paper handy because I keep it in a zip-loc bag with the safe key.

Where was it?

Oh my. Did I gather it up with all those papers and put it in the safe, which was now locked?

Did I do this without having looked at the numbers at all since I'd so brilliantly left the safe last time so I didn't have to bother with that pesky combination? There was no recent recall from which to remember the numbers.

Oh my.

My first inclination was to have the door welded off. But that meant lugging a heavy safe out of the closet, down the stairs, out the back door, to the car and to a welder. Better just to order new passports.

My second inclination was to try to remember the combination. I knew I had 3 of the 4 numbers, but it was that pesky 4th number that I couldn't exactly remember. I tried every variation of the numbers that I could think of. All to no avail.

There had to be a way to get the combination back, right? A couple years ago, the brand label was coming off. I went ahead and pulled it off because I figured why would you ever need to know the brand name? ONLY IF YOU NEED A NEW COMBINATION AND NEED A STARTING POINT FOR THE KIND OF SAFE THAT YOU OWN?

So then I went to WalMart where we'd purchased the safe a decade ago to see what brand of safes they sell. They were Sentry brand and they were, of course, all fancy and digital now - not a dial safe in sight.

I went to the Sentry website, found a way to contact them about a combination and sent an email. A bit later, I heard from a woman there who said it was a Brinks safe based on the model number.

Well then the corn maze got into full swing and thoughts of the safe only surfaced in the middle of the night when I woke up in a cold sweat worrying about needing a a passport to go to England at Christmas.

So today I called Brinks. While on hold, I listened to this message that said you could only get the combination by sending a notarized letter stating you're the owner of the safe, etc. I was prepared to send the letter but wanted to make sure I had a real Brinks safe.

This nice lady helped me and after giving her the model number, key number, and serial number (minus one number that was partially scratched off after a decade of use), she asked if I knew the numbers of the combination. I told her the four numbers that thankfully I'd written down right after the unfortunately locking. I wasn't sure they were right since I had not been able to get into the safe with them but they're what I remembered from 11 years of using them. And guess what? I had the numbers right, but the number that I thought was 4th was actually 1st.

The safe has been opened and the passports are ready for the trip to England!