Due to the tenacity of Greta Acas, a seventh-grade student at Orland Junior High School, a century-old, 400-pound safe with a once-lost combination now sits open in a science classroom at the school.
For 14 years, the Victor Safe sat unopened in the basement of the Plainfield home of John DiNovo, an Orland Junior High science teacher. DiNovo lost the combination years earlier. He did track down the previous homeowners, who provided him with a combination that proved to be of limited use.
He assigned a project of researching and finding the combination to his four eighth-grade science classes, but it was Acas who came out the winner.
With the help of friends, DiNovo hauled the safe to his classroom. He found a safe expert online and gave that information to the students. The classes worked on the project for the first three-quarters of the school year with everyone’s curiosity focused on what might be inside the safe.
“The project would take into account engineering, problem-solving and involve math equations,” DiNovo said. “The project was more about doing something that involved diving deeper into the Internet and not just finding a YouTube video.”
But the eight-graders’ interest in the project soon waned, but his seventh-grade honors science class was anxious for a chance to solve the mystery.
When Acas, 13, heard the story, she jumped into action. She focused on the website of Terry “Andy” Andreasen, a safe technician with 40 years of experience in the industry who worked with the Secret Service, the FBI, banks and credit unions.
For two weeks, Acas researched and studied the website, as well as lessons learned from other safecrackers.
“They found a sequence that the manufacturer had used for all their sequences to get the numbers and combination by adding to the first number,” Acas said.
“We knew the first number was correct, so it was a matter of finding the sequence and combination,” she said.
Whenever she had a free moment, Acas headed to Room 106 to work on the safe. Then, on April 13, two weeks after she started, Acas was working on the safe as DiNovo took attendance.
“Greta was back there doing her thing, and I hear, ‘Uh, Mr. DiNovo? I think I have it open.’ And she clicked it over. My jaw dropped,” DiNovo said. “There was this incredible look of pride on her face. It was really something.”
As exciting as getting the safe open was, the discovery of what was inside was a bit anticlimactic.
DiNovo didn’t expect anything large to be in the safe.
“I’ve rolled it around before, and the wasn’t anything that bounced around,” he said.
Sure enough, when Acas opened the safe, there was absolutely nothing inside, which was fine with both the teacher and his student.
“I didn’t expect anything in it, anyway,” Acas said. “Who would leave a safe behind that was filled with diamonds and gold? I was just happy that I was able to open it.”
For DiNovo, the reward was the $400 he saved had he gotten the safe opened by a professional.
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For Acas, it was just a matter of pride and the discovery of something new.
“It was fun. I’m always interested in things I can’t really understand and want to get a grasp on. I just kept saying, ‘This has to work. It has to work. I have to try it.’ I enjoyed it, honestly,” she said.
DiNovo said he would gladly have given Acas extra credit for her safecracking skills, but there was a problem.
“She already has 125 percent in my class,” he said. “I didn’t know how to give her extra credit. So she gets a high-five. It’s a great accomplishment.”
Patricia Trebe is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.