What's behind 'Door No. 2'?

It was built in 1927 and it became the local Sandpoint post office. Everyone knows that a post office has stamps that are worth money and there is always money in the cash drawers from stamp sales and money orders. The amount of money and valuables in any post office, at any given time, must vary but the need to protect against a robbery was a constant necessity.

The post office at 419 N. Second Avenue in Sandpoint was no exception. Their method of protecting their valuables stayed hidden for many years but a few years ago, it was discovered, and what a surprise it was.

Many people had visited the old building when it was the East Bonner County Library. The children's section of the library was a room just off the main floor area. In this room, a huge walk-in vault had been open since the days of the post office.

The door to the vault was massive and, as expected, had a large combination lock on the door. No one paid much attention to the vault, as the combination had long ago been lost.

A few years back, the old post office/library was sold and became, for a short span of time, an antique mall. Everyone that saw the old vault wondered if a combination to the lock could be obtained.

A local locksmith was called and he felt sure that he could make the lock work again. He first removed the plate from the inside of the door and that is where the fun began.

Inside the cavity of the door were several wires that ran through a hinge, over the top of the doorframe to the other side of the door. There the wires connected to a small glass enclosed unit that looked like a trip hammer. From this the wires continued on the inside of the vault casing and disappeared into an innocent metal box with no bottom. All of this was placed so that one would not notice anything out of the ordinary. But there was something there that was far from the ordinary.

When the locksmith removed the front of the metal box, he was confronted with three canisters of gas. They were about eight inches long and had retained their shine over the years.

Here is how it worked. If someone tampered with the combination lock on the door then a signal traveled over the wires and the gas was released protecting the contents of the vault.

The canisters were carefully removed and taken to the Bonner County Sheriff's Office for disposal. If the canisters were placed in the vault at the time of construction then they were about 74 years old when detected by the locksmith. No one could predict just how volatile they were and extreme caution was exercised.

The original combination to the old lock finally was known but one question still remains about the gas. If that sort of security was used today just how extremely dangerous would it be? Not from the gas but from the lawsuits that would occur when the gas inconvenienced the robber.