Commonwealth v. Difalco

This appeal presents the question whether the opening of a locked container, a small safe, to which the police found the key in the course of an inventory search of an automobile, requires suppression of a gun discovered inside the safe. We conclude suppression is required.

This interlocutory appeal by the Commonwealth from a decision of a District Court judge was allowed by a single justice of *402the Supreme Judicial Court, pursuant to Mass.R.Crim.P. 15(b), as appearing in 422 Mass. 1501 (1996), and reported to this court for determination. The background facts as found by the judge after a…