You'll Never Be Able To Unlock The Secrets In These Boxes

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By By John Sharify

Summary

A local entepreneur has designed the Cryptex -- a cylindrical lock box featured in the book 'The Da Vinci Code.'

Story Published: Feb 21, 2005 at 11:40 AM PDT

Story Updated: Jul 24, 2009 at 11:50 AM PDT

You'll Never Be Able To Unlock The Secrets In These Boxes
TACOMA - In a quiet neighborhood -- quiet until Justin Nevins moved back with his parents -- a 37-year-old is making a name for himself.

He's creating out of wood, and stone, and brass, something people want.

"I get about 200 visits to my Web site every day," says Nevins. "Here's one I did for Dan Brown!"

What he's referring to is the Cryptex. It's featured in Dan Brown's best selling novel, "The Da Vinci Code". It's a cylindrical lock box that only the owner can open, because he or she knows the code. That is, he or she -- or the guy who makes them.

Justin Nevins has figured out what no one else could.

"What would be the mechanical device that if you spin these rings around, that if you get them lined up, you can open the box? How would the lock itself work?" says Nevins.

He knows. He's not telling. "I probably shouldn't even be showing you this stuff!"

It's Justin's little secret, how he creates them. But it's no secret anymore that Justin has heard from Dan Brown, the author of The Da Vinci Code.

In a letter to Nevins, Brown calls him "A modern day Leonardo."

Don't worry, it's not going to his head. Justin Nevins is too busy for that. He has to fill orders for clients all over the world.

"I build in these false codes in each of the rings, so that if you're trying to pick the lock, you'll go 'ahhh' that's where it is," says Nevins.

Truth is, false codes guarantee the secret you have stashed inside the lock box will remain a secret. Things like "Love letters or whatever you want to keep in it," Nevins chuckles.

Justin Nevins has managed to take from fiction, and make it. "I just made it into reality," Nevins says.

The reality will cost you several hundred to several thousand dollars a pop.

For More Information:

www.cryptex.org