So, you want to be the next Houdini. Shoving your younger brother into a safe inside a busy department store may not be the best way to practice.

Just ask 11-year-old A.J. Jackson.

It happened earlier this month at Wal-Mart in Auburn. Jackson and his 13-year-old brother Devlin used a generic code to open a gun safe on display in the sporting goods department.

What happened next is predictable.

A.J. thought it would be a hoot to step inside the upright safe and try it on for size. The older boy thought it would be even funnier if the door was closed.

“We were just playing around,” A.J. said. “I stepped in and he slammed the door shut.”

Suddenly, the 11-year-old was stuck inside a dark space just barely large enough for his body.

It’s OK, you’re thinking. The older kid had the combination to open it, right? No problem, right?

Wrong. The safe in question has a safety device that prevents it from being opened twice in a short span of time. While Devlin scrambled to free his little brother, the 11-year-old struggled in the confined space of the safe.

“It was dark in there. It was really hot,” A.J. said. “There wasn’t a lot of space. I kept looking through a hole but I couldn’t see anything.”

As will happen when boys get up to mischief, their mom arrived shortly after. Frantic, she called for help. Police and fire crews arrived and a rescue got under way.

It wasn’t as easy as it sounds. The lock could not be smashed open because an additional security measure would have sprung pins to prevent the door from being opened. Rescuers could have waited for the delay function to time out, but they were not sure the 11-year-old was getting enough air inside the safe.

“He told us he could see light coming in and that gave us an idea that he was getting oxygen,” said police Lt. Scott Watkins. “But, we didn’t want to waste any time.”

While police officers Dan Davies, Eric Bell and Tony Harrington kept mom and her trapped son calm, firefighters contacted the safe manufacturer and hatched a plan. The safe was loaded onto a dolly and wheeled outside, where fire crews had access to emergency equipment.

“There was a lot of rattling,” A.J. said of the dolly ride out of the store.

Outside, fire crews had easier access to their emergency equipment. But there were more problems with plans to crack the safe. Hydraulic equipment might have proved dangerous. Torches might have caused fire or explosion.

While a nervous crowd watched, rescuers called for expert help. He came in the form of locksmith and off-duty firefighter Jayme French. After just a couple of minutes with the lock, French got the door open. The cramped 11-year-old stepped out into the world unharmed.

“My eyes felt weird,” A.J. said. “My pupils felt weird because of all the light.”

Free at last, A.J. thanked the rescuers, who had talked to him and kept him calm throughout the ordeal. He was looked over by paramedics but he was unharmed by the ordeal.

“He was quite relieved to be out,” Watkins said. “He’d been in there approximately 30 minutes.”

A happy ending and a lesson learned. A.J. said his days of exploring confined spaces from the inside are over. Police and firefighters learned a bit about the mechanics of a gun safe.

“I can’t say enough about how awesome the firefighters were working with our guys,” Watkins said. “It was a great team effort.”