Safe-crackers take a shine to endoscopes

By ANGELA GREGORY

Police fear stolen medical equipment used to look deep into the body will be exploited by criminals intent on cracking open safes.

A range of endoscopes and related equipment worth about $60,000 was taken in a sophisticated burglary from the Olympus premises in Henderson last month.

The burglars used a hand-made circuit attached to an external telephone box to bypass the alarm system.

Police said at the time that they were baffled by the theft as the equipment, designed for doctors to look up noses and into body organs, had otherwise limited use.

But the Herald has since learned that the long, thin endoscopes are important tools of the trade for safe-crackers.

The flexible devices, up to 600mm long and 2.2 to 5.2mm in diameter - similar to the size of thin or thick wire coathangers - have directional heads and can be poked through small drill holes into dark cavities.

Using fibre-optic technology, a tiny bright light and lens on the tip of the endoscope clearly illuminate the contents of a safe, which can be viewed through an eyepiece.

Sergeant Ross Hunter, of Henderson, confirmed this week that there was a real concern the criminals might be planning to break into safes.

"It is something that we've had in the back of our minds ... They are used for looking inside large safes to try and work out combinations."

He advised companies that have large safes to closely monitor them for any signs, like drill holes, which would indicate such attempts.

Mr Hunter said he was also worried the theft might be the work of a "deviant" who planned to use the gear to spy on people by looking through key holes and under doors.

An expert commercial safe-cracker, who did not want to be named, said he owned endoscopes, which were very useful in his work.

He had contacted Mr Hunter after reading about the stolen gear in the Herald a week ago.

"I was slightly concerned the criminals had enough clues to get around the alarm system ... and Olympus equipment is the Rolls-Royce of scopes."

But he doubted whether any criminals here would have the skill to crack open a safe even using the endoscopes.

Even the internet sites where he corresponded and shared information with other safe-crackers were secured and required police clearance to join.

But the Herald found one internet site where the world's second-fastest safe-cracker, American master-Machinist Roy Watters, describes how he relishes the challenge of opening difficult safes like state-of-the-art vaults fronted by tempered glass.

"You couldn't drill the door from the outside because as soon as you cut the surface of the glass it will shatter. And when the glass breaks it activates a booby trap that cross-locks the door from the inside."

Mr Watters uses what he calls his "McGyver tools", a flexible drill and fibre-optic scope.

He drills inside the safe and, using the scope, which illuminates the inside of the safe onto a television monitor, drills holes into the lock until it pops open.

Most safe thieves use unsophisticated methods to gain entry, smashing their way into the safes with angle grinders, sledgehammers and pinch bars.

In Australia, police use scopes to spy on criminals. Private investigators also use the technology for surveillance work.

Around the world, special forces use the equipment to peer into buildings in hostage dramas so they know where and when to safely pounce.