The spare key, marked 'Rød-Larsen bolig' and belonging to a Jøli 5B safe, was found in a cabinet that had been there since at least 1997. The ministry believes the safe was likely issued to Rød-Larsen in 1993 or 1994 when he served as a Middle East advisor, but it has not found documentation detailing the issuance. Rød-Larsen is sure he has not had any safe privately.
The Jøli 5B model, weighing about 450 kilograms, has been widely used by the ministry to store H-documents, which are classified materials. Investigations into the safe's current location remain inconclusive. During a search of Rød-Larsen's home in February, Økokrim did not observe any safe.
The agency cannot rule out a safe was present if hidden. In that search, Økokrim found documents from the Oslo process marked 'strictly confidential' and 'secret' in Rød-Larsen's basement storage, though the agency quickly dismissed any link to the corruption investigation. The ministry and the National Archives have discussed which archive the documents belong in after the search.
Expert insights highlight the security implications of the missing safe. Atle Solheim, a safe cracker among the last in Norway with expertise on Jøli 5B safes, described that these safes are specially produced for the state with Defense involvement to ensure standards, featuring both key and code locks and being explosion-proof. He noted it is very rare for people to have such safes at home, as one should not carry classified documents around, and he has never heard of a safe going missing, calling it very strange.
Solheim added that the ministry should have a serial number on the key that could help trace the safe's fate. It is not standard practice in the ministry to issue safes for use in employees' residences, and there are no routines for such issuance. Ongoing uncertainty surrounds the safe's fate and institutional response.
The whereabouts of the Jøli 5B safe marked 'Rød-Larsen bolig' remain unknown, as do any documents that may have been stored inside. It is unclear whether the safe was ever actually issued to Rød-Larsen, given the lack of documentation, or why the ministry did not notice it was missing for approximately 30 years until finding the spare key.