Firefighters used saws, drills and the Jaws of Life to rescue a woman who was trapped inside a display safe Saturday at Tractor Supply Co. along North Center Avenue in Somerset.
Rachel Mitchell, 33, of Germantown, Maryland, was locked inside the gun safe for 45 minutes.
Somerset fire Chief Stephen Miller said Mitchell became trapped in the safe at approximately 2 p.m. when she was playing a game in the store with her daughters, who closed the door on her. The battery in the combination keypad was dead, and a person in the store tried to pry the keypad off with a crowbar, which made it unusable even after the battery was changed.
Miller said the first thing firefighters did was drill a hole to pump in oxygen. Mitchell had enough air inside the 3-by-5 foot safe, but the enclosed space warmed up quickly. He said crews gave Mitchell water to keep her hydrated. After drilling a hole, firefighters cut and pried at the top to open up a larger hole.
"The inside (of the safe) is lined with drywall, which got dusty and hard for her to breathe," he said. "We worked with her and made sure she was on the bottom so our saw didn't cut her." After firefighters cut a large enough hole, a locksmith was able to reach in and unscrew the door. Mitchell emerged uninjured at 2:45 p.m. "It all worked out in the long run," Miller said. "I was pretty surprised . . . she was very good about the whole thing."
According to Somerset County 911, members of Somerset Volunteer Fire Department, Somerset EMS and Jennerstown EMS were on scene.
Employees of Tractor Supply Co. declined to comment.
Actually that story sounds like a pretty good endorsement for the quality of the safe. If they had gotten into it in five minutes it would have failed the test.
It just have easily been a kid that got locked in. If all they lose is one crappy gun safe then TSC should consider itself lucky.
This is exactly why there are safety plugs that lock out the function of the locking bolts. TSC should have had those installed and there would be no issue.
'Course there lady isn't to dang brilliant either. Like said above, don't get into stuff designed to stay shut.
The battery in the combination keypad was dead, and a person in the store tried to pry the keypad off with a crowbar, which made it unusable even after the battery was changed.
owner's manual addresses this, IIRC.
Notwithstanding the lady was an idiot for crawling in, and the kids hellions for turning the handle to lock it, but don't store managers acquaint themselves with the products anymore? especially the bigger ticket items?
And it looks like they had an entire parade of geniuses on that little scene...
Safe shouldn't have been open like that, kids always play with stuff...and some get injured real bad.
As for the firefighters, well maybe they never encountered the problem before, but they broke into the safe the hard way, and drywall dust.
Can be done with hand tools available at any hardware store, not power tools, 10-15 minutes and with the power equipment they have on hand it could go faster, but you do have to pick the right power tool...I wouldn't use a saw.
Maybe they'll think about it and figure it out, but likely never see the situation again.
Probably can't complain too much, they did get the job done, but they managed to make it look real hard...and that's probably good for the safe manufacturer...I'd send a rep out there and take some pics for the website.
At least you can say that Darwin tried his best to improve the herd!
This story reminds me of back when refrigerators and deep freezers had latching doors it had to be made law to remove doors/latches before discarding them as it was a fairly common occurrence back then that kids playing hide and seek or what ever were getting trapped inside and suffocating.
Appears as though the store employee went into panic mode bashing in the battery/key pad.
Most of those display safes have a 123456..... Default passcode combo
But common sense should play into this too, momma told me never to play in the freezer, fridge, dryer, car trunk. Cause you might die.
Goes without saying.
I know new commercial safes with mechanical combo locks are generally set-up from the factory with a simple default combination like 0-50-0 or 25-50-25.
I just bought a safe. There was one like it for display, I asked what the deal was. They said a customer closed the door and spun the combination. The combination was inside the safe, good and sound. I mentioned to the salesperson that not having the safe's combination would make it less valuable to me. She retorted we'll get it from the serial number. Still they didn't have it yet.
What I don't understand is the store has the master combination. Why the hell didn't they just unlock it.
That happened at our TSC 3-4 years ago with a kid, they got him right out.
Apparently the battery was dead? I've not seen one of these safes so not know whether they have amechanical manual over ride or keyed over ride?
As others have pointed out, there was a whole series of dumbphuck moves that led to this 45-minute extrication. It's a lot like most catastrophes... one mistake won't cause one, but a series of little mistakes can make for a total charlie foxtrot.
Should the woman who got locked up have done such a damn fool thing as to get inside the safe? Hell no, she should have been teaching her kids to respect store merchandise and not use it as a public playground. Should TSC have made sure the safe was "safe" against such an accident? Hell yes. Should they have had the combination handy? Hell yes. If the battery was dead, couldn't they have grabbed one of the batteries at the checkout stand, put it in, and opened the safe? Hell yes. And after some idiot disabled the lock with a crowbar, couldn't they have used less heavy-handed safecracking tools to get the woman out? Hell yes.
But none of those things happened. In the end nobody got hurt, and everybody got a little egg on their face. Hopefully everyone involved learned something.
Once they gave up and started to forcibly break into the safe most likely the re-locker mechanism got tripped so they were SOL from there on out, regardless.
What I don't understand is the store has the master combination. Why the hell didn't they just unlock it.
That happened at our TSC 3-4 years ago with a kid, they got him right out.
Apparently the battery was dead? I've not seen one of these safes so not know whether they have amechanical manual over ride or keyed over ride?
As others have pointed out, there was a whole series of dumbphuck moves that led to this 45-minute extrication. It's a lot like most catastrophes... one mistake won't cause one, but a series of little mistakes can make for a total charlie foxtrot.
Should the woman who got locked up have done such a damn fool thing as to get inside the safe? Hell no, she should have been teaching her kids to respect store merchandise and not use it as a public playground. Should TSC have made sure the safe was "safe" against such an accident? Hell yes. Should they have had the combination handy? Hell yes. If the battery was dead, couldn't they have grabbed one of the batteries at the checkout stand, put it in, and opened the safe? Hell yes. And after some idiot disabled the lock with a crowbar, couldn't they have used less heavy-handed safecracking tools to get the woman out? Hell yes.
But none of those things happened. In the end nobody got hurt, and everybody got a little egg on their face. Hopefully everyone involved learned something.
Not a big deal, in other words.
I bet they didn't even know that changing the battery would have resolved the issue.
Even a locked but open door would be an invitation for an injury suit. A swinging door could easily crush some kid's fingers, hand, or arm. For sure some no brainers around there.
