Robert Rivera at Robbie's Key and Lock shop says he and his crew worked for weeks trying to get the old safe cracked.
"Sometimes it gives up easy, sometimes you've got to work at it," he said. "I was going to get some C4."
Rivera says the customer who brought in the old safe just wanted to know what was inside it before he sold the safe for scrap. So they drilled hole after hole into the safe, which was lined with concrete. Finally their efforts paid off. Inside, they tell us they found box after box filled with what appear to be gold coins.
Rivera said, "We thought it was fake, that it couldn't be real gold."
The coins are now going to be returned apparently to the family of the man who had been saving them for decades, according to their attorney. Mike DeGuerin says that man died recently and someone who was helping his family clear out the garage was given the safe to sell as scrap. He was supposed to return anything inside of value once he figured out a way to get it open.
Houston police seized the coins for a time. But they tell us now that the coins are being returned. The attorney for the family says both sides have now signed a written agreement spelling out that the family of the man who died is the rightful owner of the coins. The attorney couldn't, or wouldn't, tell us how much the coins were worth. The man who brought the safe in to be cracked apparently will get to keep it or sell it for scrap.
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