Sinatra’s vault challenges Camas safecracker

Dave McComie hired to unlock late singer's safe

By Scott Hewitt, Staff writer

July 3, 2025 8:03 am

Camas, Life, News

The innermost Diebold “cannonball” safe. “You can see how thick it is,” Dave McOmie said. “A monster. I’ve drilled about a half-dozen, and none of them went well.” Fortunately, he found Frank Sinatra’s unlocked. (Photo contributed by Dave McOmie)

Aidan McOmie, Dave McOmie’s son, did the hard work of drilling through the inner door and “scoping” its rare five-tumbler combination lock. (Photos contributed by Dave McOmie)

Master safecracker Dave McOmie, left, and son Aidan on the job at Frank Sinatra’s former resort and casino Cal Neva in Tahoe, Nev. (Photo contributed by Dave McOmie)

Across 53 years of cracking open safes, Dave McOmie of Camas said he’s never faced one like the late Frank Sinatra’s at the Cal Neva resort in Tahoe, Nev. It’s the heaviest-duty fire safe ever produced by safe manufacturer Herring-Hall-Marvin. (Photo contributed by Dave McOmie)

Inside the outer safe, Dave McOmie discovered a bank vault used as an inner door. “First one like this I have ever seen,” he said. (Photo contributed by Dave McOmie)

It took three hours of drilling and meticulous manipulation of combination-lock tumblers, but Frank Sinatra’s bank vault door eventually opened. (Photo contributed by Dave McOmie)

“Like Russian dolls, there is yet another safe inside the inner vault,” Dave McOmie said. This one is a so-called “cannonball” vault and incredibly thick to drill through. Fortunately, it was unlocked. (Photo contributed by Dave McOmie)

This is the “unique 70# dial” that controlled the innermost vault door, Dave McOmie said. (Photo contributed by Dave McOmie)

Dave McOmie of Camas doesn’t claim to be a big Frank Sinatra fan. If he was, he might have hummed a Sinatra ballad of longing and uncertainty — “Maybe You’ll Be There” or “If I Had You” — while cracking a spectacularly difficult safe at a Tahoe resort a few weeks ago.

But McOmie, one of the world’s most successful and storied professional safecrackers, doesn’t allow himself to be distracted by celebrities, media scrums, security guards or emotional families desperate to uncover riches when he’s working, he said.

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