Woman Rescued from Gun Safe

**dk99358** · February 21st, 2015, 03:05 PM

Seeing the Tractor Supply/Winchester Safe thread reminded me of this local recent incident:

Firefighters used saws, drills and the Jaws of Life to rescue a woman who was trapped inside a display safe Saturday at Tractor Supply Co. along North Center Avenue in Somerset.
Rachel Mitchell, 33, of Germantown, Maryland, was locked inside the gun safe for 45 minutes.

Somerset fire Chief Stephen Miller said Mitchell became trapped in the safe at approximately 2 p.m. when she was playing a game in the store with her daughters, who closed the door on her. The battery in the combination keypad was dead, and a person in the store tried to pry the keypad off with a crowbar, which made it unusable even after the battery was changed.

Miller said the first thing firefighters did was drill a hole to pump in oxygen. Mitchell had enough air inside the 3-by-5 foot safe, but the enclosed space warmed up quickly. He said crews gave Mitchell water to keep her hydrated.
After drilling a hole, firefighters cut and pried at the top to open up a larger hole.

"The inside (of the safe) is lined with drywall, which got dusty and hard for her to breathe," he said. "We worked with her and made sure she was on the bottom so our saw didn't cut her." After firefighters cut a large enough hole, a locksmith was able to reach in and unscrew the door. Mitchell emerged uninjured at 2:45 p.m.

"It all worked out in the long run," Miller said. "I was pretty surprised . . . she was very good about the whole thing."

According to Somerset County 911, members of Somerset Volunteer Fire Department, Somerset EMS and Jennerstown EMS were on scene.

Employees of Tractor Supply Co. declined to comment.

The above was taken from the Somerset Daily American, they have a couple of pictures and a short version online now. It happened Feb 7th, I was at the store in the AM, too early for the excitement.

Dale

**markshere2** · February 21st, 2015, 03:09 PM

It takes a special kind of stupid to do that to yourself.

**jthrelf** · February 21st, 2015, 03:10 PM

Getting me claustrophobic just reading about it. Not the best place to play hide and seek!

**ungawa** · February 21st, 2015, 03:24 PM

When I saw the thread title I almost drove over to my garage. Don't do that to me.

**Manxdriver** · February 21st, 2015, 05:00 PM

Yeah, one of the things that really gets to me is claustrophobia. Doctor says it's a 'minor' form of PTSD. Screw that! There's nothing minor about being caged into a tight space. I would not have survived that ordeal, but then I wouldn't have climbed in there either. Tractor Supply is going to pay out big-time on this one I suspect.

I had an MRI a couple years ago. Took three attempts to get it done before the tech said, "You need to see your Primary and get a pill. Come back with an escort that can drive you home". He almost fell out of his chair when I said, "I wouldn't let any of the escorts I know drive my car, and I damned sure ain't giving them my address". But, he was right, that was the only way to get the MRI done without giving me a heart attack.

**Statkowski** · February 21st, 2015, 05:15 PM

On one military assignment, I maintained lots of documents kept in safes. When not in use, all our safes had to have their combinations reset to a standard combo (10-20-30 or 15-25-15 or something like that). Then the safe's combo was posted on the outside of the door. Changing the safe's combo can be a pain in the ass, but it usually can be done (if you know what you're doing).

The store, with safes on display, was, I think, somewhat remiss in not having their unchanged combos kept in a safe place (pun intended) just in case.

Oh, once one changes the combination, one should try it at least two or three times before slamming the door shut.

**NathanB** · February 21st, 2015, 05:35 PM

All the safes have the same combo. It was the dumbass who broke the lock who screwed it up. Takes like two minutes to change a battery. Or maybe even find the back up key to open it.

**ShooterInPA1** · February 21st, 2015, 05:42 PM

Ban Gun Safes!

**Gman106** · February 21st, 2015, 05:49 PM

I went through confined space training as a volunteer firefighter. There is a really cool confined space set-up under the Lllanarch firehouse in Havertown, DELCO, where you crawl around a confined space maze in complete darkness in full turnout gear and air pack. There were plenty of wires and other things in which to become entangled and at one point, there was a beam at a 45 degree angle to crawl under like in an attic. Of course, you couldn't see it. I kept trying to get through but kept banging my tank on the low angle side of the beam and I couldn't figure out what was happening. Other guys were behind so there was no going backward or forward. Dark, cramped, sweating, heavy breathing in the mask...I was starting to get that oh shit feeling when I finally turned enough to slip through. I was the one who finally found the "unconscious" victim we sent in to look for, so that was cool, but like tree climbing I used to do, I don't think I would like to do it again today.