If you really need to get a safe open, Bill Keller's your man.
Don't get the wrong idea, though. Keller works on the right side of the law.
Keller, like his father before him, is an acknowledged expert on how to open a safe. When he owned OK Tire, he operated his safe business as a sideline. Even now, when he's retired, he is still approached by people who can't get a safe open or who want him to change the combination.
To get those safes open, Keller doesn't rely on excellent hearing and a gentle touch.
"That's only in the movies," he said. If you put a stethoscope up to a safe, you can't hear a thing, he said. "The safes that open in the movies were never locked to begin with."
Instead, he uses an electric, diamond-tipped drill. Because of his experience, he has a pretty good idea where to drill the hole. If he's lucky, he hits paydirt the first time. If not, he makes four or five holes.
There's one type of safe, a Protectall model, that Keller can open without a drill -- sometimes. Knowing that trick is like knowing the formula for Coca-Cola, he said. But it doesn't always work. So don't try it at home.
Keller, 69, can get just about any safe open. If people have one of those big, ancient black safes, he recommends that they forget about it. Because it's going to take him so much time, it's probably not worth what it would cost.
If the owner doesn't care if the safe is used again, the job is usually pretty easy. He can open some of the new cheaper safes in 30 seconds.
"But the safe is going to be shot," he said.
If the owner wants the safe to still be functional when he's done, it's going to cost more money.
Keller finds working with safes intriguing.
"And you know what? You almost learn something new every time you do one."
His father, Les Keller, got involved in the safe business in 1947 or '48.
The elder Keller sold a lot of safes at county fairs. Many farmers bought them.
"Back then, there was a farm on every corner," Bill said.
In the late 1940s, rural fire departments hadn't advanced very far.
"If your house started on fire, it was pretty much going to burn up," he said.
Les Keller stayed very involved in the safe business, even after opening OK Tire in fall 1949, until his death in 1998. During his lifetime, he sold more than 9,000 safes.
Bill Keller began learning about safes by tagging along with his father, beginning when Bill was in about the ninth grade.
He learned a lot. Once, Keller attended a four-hour seminar about safes in Minneapolis. He "didn't learn a heck of a lot," said Keller, who graduated from Pierpont High School in 1961.
In the old days, if a safe owner or dealer lost a combination, the safe company wouldn't even send the number to the safe dealer. It went first to the local police chief, then to the dealer.
Keller remembers that years ago, a couple of burglars broke into a local implement store. They used a cutting torch to remove the back of the safe. All that work was unnecessary. Taped to the front of the safe was a sign that said, "This safe is not locked," he said.
Keller continued in the safe business all the years he owned OK Tire, handling safe inquiries while fixing and selling tires. He had a dozen used safes in the building when it closed in 2009. The last 15 or 20 years, Keller never even advertised his safe business. Business was "all by word of mouth," he said.
The final 10 years he operated the tire store, he got one or two inquiries a day about safes, he said.
He did a lot of work for small businesses as well as average people. He was also summoned to work at the Brown County Courthouse, Northern State University and the federal building.
Keller spends his summers camping at Wylie Park, where he has a job mowing the lawn. When people call the Wylie office looking for him, Keller knows why they're calling.
"It's a safe job," he said.
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Copyright 2012 - American News, Aberdeen, S.D.