Safe crackers are at the Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza today to open up a Mosler safe that hasn’t seen the light of day in at least three decades. Officials with the hotel say they have no idea what is inside the safe, made by the Hamilton-based safe making company that went out of business in 2001.
The Plaza posted this on their Facebook page yesterday: "Very excited that a local safe cracker will be at our hotel tomorrow to open this safe. This safe has been around our hotel and Carew Tower likely since the 1940s or 50’s. Mosler was one of the most reputable and popular safe companies of the 19th and 20th centuries and based in Hamilton, Ohio. We are unsure the last time it was opened though we know it’s been at least 30 years. I wanted to create a public event around the opening however the locksmith does not desire to reveal their safe cracking methods to the public. Remember Geraldo and Al Capone’s safe? It may very well be empty but a neat story nevertheless. Stay tuned......
And a recent update says the opening process, which involves a "high-tech device" that will read and determine the safe combination, can take 18 hours on average and it's still being done behind closed doors.
What's inside? Only time — aka 18ish hours — will tell.
UPDATE: After a tech failure, the safe cracking machine had to be restarted. According to a post from the hotel on July 17, "Last night a component of the device reading the combination dial picked up a wifi signal which prompted a software update, which suspended the dial reading process. The process has been restarted. The device had reached 5,000 numbers before the software update which means there are potentially 695,000 to go.">
As of the afternoon of July 18, the machine was still working to crack the code.
And the Hilton has upped the ante with a special offer: If you guess the combination — or come the closest to guessing — you'll win a grand tasting and wine pairing at Orchids.
According to Facebook: "Facebook Followers, we appreciate your interest in the safe story so let’s make this even more interesting! The person who comes closest to guessing the combination will receive Chef Max's Grand Tasting with Wine Pairing for two in our fine dining restaurant Orchids. FB Message the hotel with three numbers, each between 0 and 99. The person with the least total variance wins! In the event the combination is four or more numbers, we will use the first three. In the event of a multiple person tie we will do a drawing with those who tied. Only one submittal per person and we are only accepting submittals via FB messaging. Good luck!"
