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17th April 2024 Issue no. 701

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Locked safe with no key at Darwin dump shop snatched up with hopes of finding valuable contents

By Molly Baxter, NT News

THE suggestions about what could be in John Notais' locked safe are endless - a map to Lasseter's fabled gold reef, classified army documents, gold, bundles of cash, firearms, even a collection of fingers!

A Northern Territories, Australia, Recycling Solutions dump shop worker in Darwin, Mr Notais comes across all sorts of strange things that people send to landfill but three weeks ago an aged green safe took his eye and he bought it for AUS$50.

"It's about 70 years old," he said. "I like anything that's old-school or antique and when I saw this one come in I thought it was really cool so I just bought it."

The safe is locked with no key, so Mr Notais has been in touch with a locksmith to open it - although its age could pose problems. “I’ve seen a show on TV where people go around and open safes in America and take a commission from what’s in there so hopefully there’s enough in this one for me to get a round of drinks for everyone,” he said. “I tried to move it to see if anything was rattling in there but it was too heavy to move so if there was anything in there, I’d suggest that there would be paper or something that doesn’t move too much.”

All he hopes is that it’s not a booby-trapped military safe, as he’s seen some people try to open them and be sprayed with teargas. “If they are broken into, the teargas canisters deter them but I don’t think this safe is like that,” he said. “Looking at the green colour of it, it might be military but it could have come from anywhere.”

Photo: Helen Orr

18th January 2017