Perusing the website of an Estate Sales company the night before made a few things very clear apart from the items I had interest in. One thing was more than clear and that was there were lots of items in the garage of the mornings sale that I wanted meaning … lots of other guys would clearly want them too. I’d have to be on my toes and Johnny on the Spot next morning as those photo’s were likely to draw pickers from farther afield than usual . I parked the vehicle next morning forty minutes early and only two houses away in that very nice upper crustier neighborhood to stake my spot as number 7 in line just behind another regular. As is our usual we passed the time in front of that fine home with chat about past finds and items we seek. I mentioned the wife has had me looking for one of those small fireproof safes to store our important papers from fire and flood and so far have only found ones just a bit too small .
The garage turned out to be a very successful pick and though I didn’t score everything I wanted I did deem it a pick worthy of the 40 minute drive and 40 minute wait out in the cold . I paid up and safely stored my loot in the sold items area and entered the house to see what’s up. Lots of nice things but nothing for me until I entered the master bedroom to see a 24 x 18 x 18 fireproof safe sitting in the closet on a metal rack …. perfect . I countered the asking price and it was quickly accepted and I was a happy guy with the deal pending on the provision that the combination worked . It did work and so I placed the written combo into the safe and muscled the 106 lb. beast to the floor with a lot of help from gravity and abandoned it there to go seek a dolly.
There was a very nice dolly in the garage and so I went to retrieve it and wove my way back through the crowded house to retrieve my prize only to realize I’d locked the combination in the safe . As miracles do exist I remembered the first two numbers and slowly turned the dial eighty eight times and presto , it was open. Thinking this to be my lucky day I only made it as far as the bedroom door before both tires on the dolly pissed all their air out to rejoin the atmosphere making them a difficult roll across the expensive carpet in the long hall until reaching the very ornate hardwood floor of the great room . Here the wheels gave up rolling completely and as I closed in on the front door my fellow picker poked his head out from the door to the den to say …..
” I always knew you were a Crazy Bastard …. look what you did to the floor ”
Two thick wide rubber skid marks followed me all the way to the front door before succeeding in dropping my safe at the end of the driveway and returning the dolly to the garage with it’s two tires half off the rims . I gathered my loot from the sold items area and went to retrieve the truck and place it near the safe. A very nice young guy heading for the sale stopped and asked if he might help me lift it up to the tailgate and I was indeed grateful though I did warn it was a heavy beast. He brushed that off with the implication that I was just a worrisome old fart and we both lifted it to waist height . That’s when it slipped from his hands to narrowly miss his feet and come to a sudden stop hinge side on the concrete curb .
He said he was sorry and I said me too and we tried again with success. It’s still a very decent safe though not as handsome as it once was and it’s new found scars are now hiding in a closet again .
