MONROE, Conn. (AP) - The mystery what a locked antique safe found behind a historical society's furnace might hold had this town abuzz until a locksmith got it open. Its contents: the safe's long-lost combination.
"Like we need this now," Monroe Historical Society President Nancy Zorena joked after the 204-kilogram safe was unlocked Thursday.
The Victorian-era safe was discovered in an old building owned by the society. Its manufacturer was long out of business, and nothing was available to indicate who had owned the massive iron chest before the town donated it to the historical society decades ago.
The safe itself is worth about US$300 - likely more than its contents.
Along with the combination was a yellowed newspaper clipping, believed to be from the 1930s; an anonymously written poem; and four wooden tokens from Missouri that apparently were issued during the Great Depression and commemorated contributions to a fund for the needy and unemployed.
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