The mystery of the uncovered safe at Theatre New Brunswick in Fredericton.
No, that’s not the name of an upcoming production, it really happened.
Director of Development and Communications Matt Carter said they were having a new floor put in this week in their lobby when the Contractor spotted a combination lock poking up from something encased in the floor.
“So we’re doing a lot of major renovations and discovering lots of fun stuff. So when you find the safe, you don’t just cover it over again. You kind of investigate a little further. The first thing was, how do we get that out of the floor? Who do we know who is a safe cracker?” Carter noted.
The Contractor started chipping away and Carter added they began thinking, “Well, I can’t I can’t carry on with my day until I get to the bottom of this mystery. So he kept at it, with a jackhammer and finally got the cement from all the way around and got the safe out. It was very rusted.”
He says it was around 18 inches high, and probably about 10 inches around in diameter.
(Photo: submitted)
The Contractor then used a steel saw to get it open.
But what was inside?
“I was there taking some videos because it was so fascinating,” mentioned Carter. “It was full of disgusting dark gray, dirty water. We kicked it over and all of the water drained out. And there was a compartment inside the safe so the Contractor actually got a pry bar and smashed through. He tipped it over and low and behold, inside was a compartment with four quarters and a button. A lot of people wanted to know the dates on the quarters. There’s no gold in there and there’s no treasure map, so how old are the quarters? They were very black, from years of sitting in in gunk. The dates on the quarters were 1975, which really isn’t a big deal.”
Carter went on to say, “We might use it in our lobby renovation. We might put the story together and some kind of visual that we can hang on the wall with the quarters. It’s just funny enough of the story that we should do something.”
(Photo: submitted)
(Photo: submitted)
