[masraum]

there are definitely different levels of safes. I don't know how upgradeable they are. It would probably depend a lot on your safe.

Wow, I'm betting it was someone that knew that your friend had a safe. I doubt that most thieves carry the gear and know how to get into a safe.

I suspect that the entry level safes may be a lot easier to get into than the next level up. You'd probably want something that had a burglary-resistance rating, and you probably need to spend a lot more than the entry level $ to get a safe that can't be "picked" by a big hammer.