850-lb Safe Too Heavy for Burglars

Chicago - A safe with nothing inside it and which was being used as a table was apparently too heavy for burglars to take, as they left it unopened on the sidewalk in front of a real estate office that was broken into late Tuesday in the North Side Lincoln Square neighborhood.

At 11:25 p.m., police were called to a first floor real estate office at a storefront of EM Realty, 5653 N. Lincoln Ave., according to Lincoln District police Sgt. Patrick Barker.

Officers found that the front door to the business was forced open and the place ransacked. Outside the office on a sidewalk about 40 feet away from where it was taken police found an old fashioned safe from the 1930s that was about the size of a file cabinet but weighed 850-pounds, according to the sergeant.

“They got as far as the sidewalk and dumped it. They left it there unopened,’’ Barker said.

The safe was also apparently too heavy for a broken 2-wheeled dolly left on the scene by the burglary, with the words “rated 600 pounds’’ on it.

“I have to give it to them, they moved it about 40 feet. I was surprised they got it as far as they did. I had three guys with me and the four of us had a hard time moving it. We only got 10 feet,’’ Barker laughed. "It's absolutely the heaviest thing I've ever had to move."

The sergeant said when owner got to the scene he told police the safe actually had nothing inside of it and was used in the office as a table.

“He’d never once used it,’’ Barker said.

The burglars were not in custody as of Wednesday morning.