Small safe (laptop & documents) suggestions?

[fustigate]

I'm going to be relocating and will be in an extended stay hotel for 6 months. So my stuff will be in a room where I'm not the only one with a key :-(

I want to get a small safe/vault/case to hold some personal items (perhaps two laptops and a pistol). I don't really want one of those larger cubes (gotta load/unload in my trunk when I move), but those small "fire safes" for documents etc. are easy to open, from videos I've seen. (Small ones like this

While I could get a couple cable locks for the laptops and sign up for one of those property tracking services with the indelible stickers, and then a nightstand pistol safe, I'd like something a little bigger so I can put several things all in one place.

Maybe something like this.

Any suggestions on brands?

 

[BallisticGuy]

I don't like the small safes, only protection is fire. Then again every safe is just to add time. I cut my $200 sentry safe open with a skill saw in about 10secs just went around the body. Then I realized zero safety and bought a liberty fatboy! At least I know the fatboy can't be dragged off as easy! The factors your adding with the tracking is better layered security. It all adds up and helps out.

 

[Honeybee]

Most hotels have safes for your use, just ask for one.

 

[fustigate]

I don't like the small safes, only protection is fire. Then again every safe is just to add time.

It also provides concealment. Someone else doesn't know exactly what's in there. But...it's a fair assumption it's important/expensive.
Also, someone (maid, maintenance guy, etc.) walking out of a room with a laptop wouldn't be too suspicious. But hopefully if they're lugging a small safe out someone might raise an eyebrow. Hopefully.... A safe would be a little harder to stash in a bag, than a laptop itself, at least.

Also, if my work laptop gets stolen, I can say, "But I even had it in a safe!" That defers a little of the risk off me.

I cut my $200 sentry safe open with a skill saw in about 10secs just went around the body. Then I realized zero safety and bought a liberty fatboy! At least I know the fatboy can't be dragged off as easy!

10 seconds? Yikes! Even if I got a real safe, like a Liberty home safe, I'd either have to sell it when I left or transport an extra 175 lbs back halfway across the country :-(

The factors your adding with the tracking is better layered security. It all adds up and helps out.

I'm not so concerned with the laptop as the data on it. I can encrypt and register/track my personal laptop, clearly. But I'm still trying to get guidance about what my company is doing, security-wise. :-/

 

[rhodesbe]

Most hotels have safes for your use, just ask for one.

They have keys to those, too.

 

[rhodesbe]

Consider something like this: LINK

Stick two short shackle, high security padlocks on it. LINK

[Broken External Image]

 

[fustigate]

Most hotels have safes for your use, just ask for one.

Yes, but I saw a hack online once where the default code (for that model, at least) was just 0-0-0-0!
So now I'm paranoid about that.


And locking up my laptop with the front desk everyday would be a pain.

 

[fustigate]

Consider something like this: LINK

I'd thought about something ruggedized, like a big Pelican case. [Checks link.] Oh. It is Pelican. How's the resistance to breaking in on those? As long as it's about the same as the other options mentioned.

 

[rhodesbe]

I'd thought about something ruggedized, like a big Pelican case. [Checks link.] Oh. It is Pelican. How's the resistance to breaking in on those? As long as it's about the same as the other options mentioned.

The hinge is the weakspot. However with all the structural ribbing back there, it would still take you time to cut through it. The way the lid mates to the case makes it hard to open unless you also remove the padlocks. I imagine a guy with hydraulic shears or power saw could cut it easy, but it still would be hard to get open. Being plastic, you could always stick an alerting tag in the thing. (Its not a faraday cage.) New, cheap example of this: http://supermechanical.com/twine/ Use the hotel's internet to connect the device for notification. That way if the case moved, it could bark at you through a text or email to your phone.

 

[fustigate]

The hinge is the weakspot. However with all the structural ribbing back there, it would still take you time to cut through it. The way the lid mates to the case makes it hard to open unless you also remove the padlocks. I imagine a guy with hydraulic shears or power saw could cut it easy, but it still would be hard to get open. Being plastic, you could always stick an alerting tag in the thing. (Its not a faraday cage.) New, cheap example of this: http://supermechanical.com/twine/ Use the hotel's internet to connect the device for notification. That way if the case moved, it could bark at you through a text or email to your phone.

I wondered about the hinges and thought about the cases with a removable top (so four locks would or space for prying open would be the weakness). But it goes back to just putting time between a determined thief and my property and dissuading a causal thief-of-opportunity.

I showed that WiFi sensor/tag to my fellow computer engineers. We decided that was pretty cool!


Thanks for the tips and for letting me bounce some ideas off you, OSA!