No one has been able to open this museum safe in 40 years.

Locksmiths tried to break the code but couldn’t. The safe’s previous owners couldn’t remember the combination, and the people who made the safe couldn’t figure out how to reset the lock.

Experts said that it was possible that the safe hadn’t been used in so long that even with the right combination, the gears wouldn’t line up.

Since the safe was said to be “impossible” to open, it was put in the basement of the Vermilion Heritage Museum in Alberta, Canada, where it gathered dust until Stephen Mills and his family went there.

The 36-year-old man and his wife and children went to the museum last week. During their tour of the museum, the guide told the family about the mystery of the safe. Mills couldn’t help but try to figure out the code.

He told The Washington Post, “I thought, I’ve got to get down and try this for a laugh.” “I did it as a joke for the kids, trying to act more or less like I do in the movies.”

Mills, who works as a machinist and welder, squatted down next to the safe and put his ear to the door. He saw that the numbers on the lock went from 0 to 60, so he tried a simple 3-digit combination.

In the next 30 seconds, Mills turned the lock from 20 to 40 to 60, and everyone was shocked when the door opened.

He told The Post, “I just made up the numbers, like right out of my head.” “Right away, I got up and said, “Tonight, I’m going to buy a lottery ticket.””

People in the town had always joked that the safe was full of jewels and gold bricks, but when the tour group opened the safe, they only found old, yellowed papers from the 1970s.

Among them were a waitress’s notepad with an order for a mushroom burger and a pay stub for a hotel worker.

No matter what was in the safe, museum workers were ecstatic. However, they say they have covered the locking mechanism with duct tape so it won’t lock itself again in the future.