A safe in Changhua County’s Fenyuan Township (芬園) that had baffled locksmiths has been opened after the township office raised the reward for opening it from NT$5,000 to NT$10,000.
The safe was cracked by an 80-year-old locksmith from Taichung surnamed Wang (王), who used a skeleton key that he said he has been using for 30 years.
Sitting on a folding seat in front of the safe, Wang alternated between working the combination lock and tapping the safe in different areas with a mallet. He managed to open the safe after 40 minutes, but found it to be completely empty.
Photo: Tang Shih-ming, Taipei Times
“There had been rumors in the township that the safe contained gold bars, so some people were quite disappointed that this was not the case,” township Mayor Lin Shih-ming (林世明) said.
After the office doubled the reward, news spread fast.
Wang said that friends and relatives approached him, telling him to take on the challenge.
He said he expected it would be no easy task to open the century-old safe, and brought a variety of tools to try, including a file, needle oiler, a mallet and his skeleton key.
After getting the safe open, he immediately made a video call to his daughter to share the news, he added.
He has been working with locks and safes since he was 13 years old, and has unlocked many safes and ATMs, Wang said, adding that he has a safe at home similar to the one at the township office.
“Nearly 10 people tried to unlock this safe before Wang, but they all failed,” Lin said. “Although people were disappointed that there was no gold or money in the safe, it was still a joy to see the inside of it after all these years.”
The safe, which had been used by the township office during the Japanese colonial era, had been exhibited with other historical items used by the office.
An alleged US government plan to encourage Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to form a joint venture with Intel to boost US chipmaking would place the Taiwanese foundry giant in a more disadvantageous position than proposed tariffs on imported chips, a semiconductor expert said yesterday. If TSMC forms a joint venture with its US rival, it faces the risk of technology outflow, said Liu Pei-chen (劉佩真), a researcher at the Taiwan Industry Economics Database of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. A report by international financial services firm Baird said that Asia semiconductor supply chain talks suggest that the US government would
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Starlux Airlines on Tuesday announced it is to launch new direct flights from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Ontario, California, on June 2. The carrier said it plans to deploy the new-generation Airbus A350 on the Taipei-Ontario route. The Airbus A350 features a total of 306 seats, including four in first class, 26 in business class, 36 in premium economy and 240 in economy. According to Starlux’s initial schedule, four flights would run between Taoyuan and Ontario per week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Flights are to depart from Taoyuan at 8:05pm and arrive in California at 5:05pm (local time), while return flights
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS