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When he took office earlier this year, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop found two old safes that have't been opened in decades

(Jersey City)

Jersey City is known for its 'colorful' political past.

There's Frank Hague, known as "the granddaddy of New Jersey Bosses," whose political machine was unrivaled in its day. There was Bernard Berry, who made his reputation banning rock and roll music from within the city limits. And there was Anthony Cucci, who threatened to foreclose on the Statue of Liberty due to an unpaid water bill.

So when newly elected Mayor Steve Fulop found a pair of safes in the municipal building that had not been opened in a generation or more, he was understandably intrigued.

The safes are in an old vault that has been turned into a storage and file room. City officials say they were likely installed sometime in the middle part of the last century, but they have no idea exactly when, or which mayor ordered their installation.

Fulop said he has spoken to former Mayors Gerry McCann and Jerry Healy, who each said they knew nothing about the history of the safe and never tried to open it.

"We don't know when the safes were installed or what they were used for but they are quite old," Fulop said. "None of the living mayors we spoke to recall them ever being opened or used. We thought it would be interesting to find out what may be inside and will have a professional open the safes. Jersey City's political history makes you wonder why a safe -- much less two -- was installed in the mayor's office."

Former city employees say the safes always had rumors around them, one being that Hague used them to store kickbacks received from city workers.

Healy, who preceded Fulop as mayor and served two terms, said he never gave the safes much thought and never tried to open them. As far as he knows, none of his predecessors did either.

"I've never been in the safe and I have no idea how far back it goes," Healy said. "I don't think anybody's been in it in years. That was from the good old days or 'bad' old days when there was more money floating around city hall."

Former Mayor Gerry McCann, who served two non-consecutive terms in office first in the early 1980s and later in the early 1990s said he remembers the safes but has no idea what might be in them.

He's not sure if he opened either of them during his tenure, but if he did, it didn't leave an impression.

"I don't know if we opened them, I don't remember. If we did, I don't remember anything in it," McCann said.

He said the safes were much like Hague's desk, which still sits in city hall. The desk, which has a two way drawer that opens outward to anyone facing its occupant – rumored to be Hague's preferred way to collect cash payouts – has been in use in the municipal building for the better part of a century.

"Everybody thought Hague's desk was a big deal, but I didn't want it, it was a ratty old desk," he said.

Healy said, while definitely intriguing it's probably not wise to go all Geraldo Rivera over them.

"They're probably empty," he said. "That's my guess."

Fulop said the city will contract a locksmith to open them sometime next month.