Master safecracker opens antique safe

The Barry Callebaut company donated the Bensdorp family's personal safe that was in the basement of the old factory in Bussum to the  Chocolate factory. However, the combination to the safe was missing. After an announcement in the Telegraaf newspaper, Wim van den Hoogen, the only person in the Netherlands who can call himself a master safecracker, answered the call. In 2005, Van den Hoogen was able to open the huge vault door of the Nederlandsche Bank in Arnhem. He succeeded in deciphering the combination of the Bensdorp safe. After a long search, the key to the lock was found in a drawer at the home of Louis Bensdorp's 95-year-old mother. It was his honour to turn the key in the safe.

After opening the 35 cm- thick safe door, only a few recent contracts were revealed. But the safe turned out to have yet another safe door. The master safecracker needed just 21 minutes and 30 seconds to open this door as well and that's where the true treasure lay: deeds from 100 years ago for all the grounds and buildings of the famous Bensdorp chocolate factory. Could the Chocolate factory now be the true owner of 12,000 m2 of land and buildings smack in the middle of Amsterdam and Bussum?




 Master safecracker Wim van den Hoogen opens the antique Bensdorp safe