A mysterious safe raises controversy in Yemen…and Israel is involved Miscellaneous

Yemeni activists criticized the uproar that arose after an old safe was found in a house in the city of Aden in the south of the country, and considered it a kind of chaos and tampering with the property of others.

During the restoration of an old store that had been closed for a long time due to disputes over inheritance, people found a safe that seemed old and huge to them, and they thought it contained a valuable treasure.

According to the 10/16/2025 episode of the “Shabakat” program, the picture of the safe spread on social media, and speculation and narratives spread about its content and to whom it belongs. News of it occupied Yemenis and the residents of Aden specifically for two days and turned into a confusing and exciting puzzle.

As the noise and controversy escalated, teams from the Public Prosecution, the police, the Antiquities Authority, and specialists and technicians went to the place and opened the safe, but they found nothing in it except papers and documents related to the original owner of the property.

Crater Police Director Nabil Amer told local media that the safe “was officially opened in the presence of all parties, and it was found to be completely empty and did not contain any valuables, except for some old and damaged papers.”

Amer stressed that “there is no truth to the speculation that the safe contains antiquities or collectibles of historical or material value.”

Tampering is unacceptable

After revealing what was inside the safe, comments spread on social media; Many criticized the state of tampering surrounding the safe and the method of opening it, which they said included tampering with the papers that were inside it without verifying its importance.

Tawfiq wrote:

What is this randomness and chaos? For God’s sake, someone opens something like this and scoops up the papers? This may be history or important information, but your concern is just money or gold.

As Shad wrote:

This is private property and certainly contains important things, so why mess with it?

On the other hand, Sami said:

The safe is modern, not old, this is evident from the papers and bags.

Finally, Luqman wrote:

We spoke from the first day, saying that the safe is not old or antique, as they promoted it, and we said that there are unimportant papers inside it that belong to the property owner.

Local media reported, citing the representative of the heirs of the original owner of the store, that the safe belonged to the father of the heirs and that he had bought it in 2002, for use in his commercial store.

The agent denied that the safe was buried under the building as was rumored, and said that it was propped against a wall inside the store, and that the heirs rented the store about a month ago to one of the merchants who began renovation work inside the store and informed them of the existence of the safe, but he was told that it was neglected and that there was nothing inside it.

The story of the mysterious safe did not stop with the Yemenis, as some Israeli media took interest in it, claiming that it might belong to a Jewish merchant who owned the building in the past, considering that Yemen was home to an ancient Jewish community, including Aden.