A tourist accidentally opened a safe that could not be cracked for 40 years, and it was not empty

The small Vermilion Heritage Museum is located in the Canadian province of Alberta and is not particularly known to a wide range of tourists. It got its name in honor of the eponymous group of lakes located in the Canadian Rockies. This beautiful corner of nature is now part of Banff National Park and is known to archaeologists for finds proving that ancient people lived here more than 10 thousand years ago.

But back to the institution itself. It tells visitors about the local life of the early settlers, and the building is considered a clear demonstration of their home, the type of construction of which, by the way, was then new to this area. The museum presents not only the life of local residents, but also tells how the business of those times was, how shops looked and how agriculture developed. It is worth noting that there are a lot of collectibles. But the most curious of them is the old safe, which the museum inherited after the closure of one of the local hotels in the 70s. The fact is that the heavy metal vault was locked, and no one had a clue about what was inside and which cipher to use. For decades, the museum has tried to crack it, inviting employees of the manufacturer, experts, and blacksmiths. Representatives of the museum even made the safe a kind of entertainment for excursions, inviting everyone to try to open it. However, everything was useless, a huge closet continued to keep its secrets.

However, this continued until this year, until in June the most ordinary person visited the museum - 36-year-old Stephen Mills. He arrived in the city with his children and his wife, but they could not get into the museum, the building did not work that day. Then the enterprising head of the family was able to agree with one of the local volunteers: he led them inside with a small tour. And so, when it came to the safe, the volunteer traditionally invited guests to try their luck at its opening. Of course, no one had hoped that this would succeed, because they had been trying to crack the store for 40 years. But suddenly the metal door swung open.

To say that everyone was in shock would be too weak. Stephen himself says that he just looked at the dial with numbers up to 60, then heeded the mechanism and decided to try the simplest combination of 20-40-60, 3 turns to the right, 2 to the left and 1 more to the right again. And then he turned the handle ... When the door opened, he even staggered back in surprise. Perhaps that day he should have played the lottery.

The safe turned out to be not empty, but nothing particularly valuable was stored in it. Inside was a notebook belonging to one waitress, newspapers of the 77-78th, as well as a receipt from a hotel of the same period. Nevertheless, the safe was still useful. According to the lucky tourist, the director of the museum called him later to thank him. He said that the institution was on the verge of closure, but now, after such a fuss in the media, he hopes for a quick stream of visitors.