Reddit mentions of Locks, Safes and Security: An International Police Reference (2 volume set)

As unorthodox as it may seem, you can learn a lot from places where people discuss "hypothetical" criminal activities. Totse spinoff boards (see totse2, zoklet, rorta) have forums/archives for this purpose. Though take everything you learn there with a grain of salt, since most people on these are living in a fantasy world. You'd be surprised, however, how many problems have really simple solutions. Though while the methods would be very different at the level of international espionage, you learn that a lot of solutions can be found by combining critical thinking with common sense.

EDIT: You may also want to try and get a hold of a copy of Locks, Safes, and Security (Could be outdated, since the past 10 years have been good for science) it's over a thousand pages and it's an incredibly in depth reference for security systems and the like. I had some other good references somewhere but I can't seem to remember/find them. If I do I'll be sure to put them here.

The gold standard of books on the subject is this one-

http://www.amazon.com/Locks-Safes-Security-International-Reference/dp/0398070792/ref=sr_1_1/105-3769004-8970845?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1186337821&sr=1-1

The author has also been known to visit DefCon. You might travel there to learn a bit from him. He taught a 12 year old how to pick a Medeco, one of the most secure locks in the world, in minutes.

• Practical Lockpicking - highly recommended, covers almost everything
  
  
• Keys to the Kingdom - great book on impressioning
  
  
• Complete Book of Locksmithing - highly recommended
  
  
• Locks Safes & Security - If you want to go off the deep end
  
  These books combined with the eBooks / resources in the stickied post will keep you busy for the next 10 years or so.

Locks, Safes and Security: An International Police Reference (2 volume set) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0398070792/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_eXW-zb5BDJHVY


Don’t steal things.