Monday, December 26, 2005
The Safe Incident (by Su-chun)
During the previous post, we mentioned tripping the electrical breakers routinely, figuring out which switch turns on which part of the house or room and all the other fun stuff. After about a month moving into our home, we started feeling more comfortable handling the quirks of the apartment. Part of the “fun” of living here is that Naples will test your patience. Naples will keep you humble lest you become too cocky and confident at your ability to handle this city. Read on for another “fun” story.
The owner had a built-in safe in the master closet. It is actually quite a sophisticated safe with electric keypad to operate. We had brought our own fire safe from the states, but decided to also use the existing safe to keep some of our valuables instead. We thought we were very clever by keeping the key of our own fire safe inside the built-in safe. Double the protection from would-be thieves, should they dare to break into either safe. This may sound a bit paranoid, but after hearing people having multiple break-ins, we didn’t want to take any chances.
On a Sunday afternoon before I was due to travel for work, I began packing my suitcase and necessary documents (i.e., the passport) for the trip. In Italy and probably majority of Europe, you need to carry your passport at all times even when you’re flying within the country. So I started punching the code to open the safe, but it just gave a long beep without opening. Trying a second time, after making sure that I didn’t accidentally punching in the wrong code, still the safe did not open. I stopped and asked Pat to try opening the safe, who knows, may be I was confusing the codes. Patrick tried a few times but still the safe would not open. At this point, I started to get somewhat annoyed, the darn safe is cutting into my football-viewing schedule. Yes, for some of you this may be a shock, but I’m now an avid football watcher, mainly just the Chargers (Quarterback Drew Brees went to Purdue, my Alma Mata) and the Colts (living in Indiana for ten years, one can’t help but be tainted, though having a great season did perk up my interest). The owner’s cousin lives above us and had been very friendly and helpful whenever we had problems in the apartment. He came to apartment with a friend (who’s a handyman) and started trying the code. They were not able to open the safe either. After discussing the thickness of the safe and whether or not it might be possible to drill through the safe to get it to open, we decided that we would call the manufacturer the next day and see if they could send a technician out to open our safe.
I was due to fly out early the next morning, conduct my meeting, and then take the last flight out of Venice airport. On my previous business trip, I had gotten a lecture from the gate agent because I didn’t have my passport with me. I decided to cancel the trip rather than taking the chance to get stuck in Venice late at night. The goal of the day became trying to open the safe. Patrick found the safe’s manufacturer on the Internet and called for help. He used a website that translates English into several languages. You type in what you want and it spits it out in Italian. Now he had a scripted dialogue to use for the phone call. Luckily there was an English speaking person who told him that the safe would not open because the internal battery had died and in order to open the safe, we would have to purchase an external battery source. Pat was told that the external power supply is readily available at an electronics store. Now to find a store that carried the part. After calling about 10 stores, Pat found a store that carried it. At the same time, Su-chun’s colleague (an Italian national) also called about 10 stores and came up with the same store Pat found. The colleague took me to an electronic shop that had this part at lunchtime. We drove through a really nasty part of town, passing a public cemetery and narrow, dark streets in order to buy this part. The part that we needed ended up being a small cord that attaches to a 9V battery. So, after I came home from work, we tried using the external battery part, and lo and behold, the safe finally opened! I took all our valuables from the safe and vow to never use it again. One more lesson that electronics in Italy are just unreliable, so always have back-up plans.
Total hours involved to open safe: 8; total people involved: 10; total phone calls made: 25; total cost of part: less than €10; one missed flight…another great story: priceless.
The owner had a built-in safe in the master closet. It is actually quite a sophisticated safe with electric keypad to operate. We had brought our own fire safe from the states, but decided to also use the existing safe to keep some of our valuables instead. We thought we were very clever by keeping the key of our own fire safe inside the built-in safe. Double the protection from would-be thieves, should they dare to break into either safe. This may sound a bit paranoid, but after hearing people having multiple break-ins, we didn’t want to take any chances.
On a Sunday afternoon before I was due to travel for work, I began packing my suitcase and necessary documents (i.e., the passport) for the trip. In Italy and probably majority of Europe, you need to carry your passport at all times even when you’re flying within the country. So I started punching the code to open the safe, but it just gave a long beep without opening. Trying a second time, after making sure that I didn’t accidentally punching in the wrong code, still the safe did not open. I stopped and asked Pat to try opening the safe, who knows, may be I was confusing the codes. Patrick tried a few times but still the safe would not open. At this point, I started to get somewhat annoyed, the darn safe is cutting into my football-viewing schedule. Yes, for some of you this may be a shock, but I’m now an avid football watcher, mainly just the Chargers (Quarterback Drew Brees went to Purdue, my Alma Mata) and the Colts (living in Indiana for ten years, one can’t help but be tainted, though having a great season did perk up my interest). The owner’s cousin lives above us and had been very friendly and helpful whenever we had problems in the apartment. He came to apartment with a friend (who’s a handyman) and started trying the code. They were not able to open the safe either. After discussing the thickness of the safe and whether or not it might be possible to drill through the safe to get it to open, we decided that we would call the manufacturer the next day and see if they could send a technician out to open our safe.
I was due to fly out early the next morning, conduct my meeting, and then take the last flight out of Venice airport. On my previous business trip, I had gotten a lecture from the gate agent because I didn’t have my passport with me. I decided to cancel the trip rather than taking the chance to get stuck in Venice late at night. The goal of the day became trying to open the safe. Patrick found the safe’s manufacturer on the Internet and called for help. He used a website that translates English into several languages. You type in what you want and it spits it out in Italian. Now he had a scripted dialogue to use for the phone call. Luckily there was an English speaking person who told him that the safe would not open because the internal battery had died and in order to open the safe, we would have to purchase an external battery source. Pat was told that the external power supply is readily available at an electronics store. Now to find a store that carried the part. After calling about 10 stores, Pat found a store that carried it. At the same time, Su-chun’s colleague (an Italian national) also called about 10 stores and came up with the same store Pat found. The colleague took me to an electronic shop that had this part at lunchtime. We drove through a really nasty part of town, passing a public cemetery and narrow, dark streets in order to buy this part. The part that we needed ended up being a small cord that attaches to a 9V battery. So, after I came home from work, we tried using the external battery part, and lo and behold, the safe finally opened! I took all our valuables from the safe and vow to never use it again. One more lesson that electronics in Italy are just unreliable, so always have back-up plans.
Total hours involved to open safe: 8; total people involved: 10; total phone calls made: 25; total cost of part: less than €10; one missed flight…another great story: priceless.
# posted by Antipasta @ 2:10 PM 
