I picked a lock and now it's not working... Help

[Batmansinabind]

So, I am very new to the hobby of lock picking and did not know the generally accepted "rule" of not picking locks in use (lesson already learned now, unfortunately). Anyway, I am sort of like an unofficial TA in this dance class I take at my local community college. One night before a performance the teacher was late and the latch had been fixed on the window we normally went through to open the room with the dance floor when we wanted to practice early etc. so I decided to try and pick the lock (stupid me). I was a little surprised that it actually worked, (and secretly delighted and a little terrified). At the end of the night when the teacher went to lock the door the key would only go halfway in... So I went online and read that the pins could have fallen back down into the lock, so I went back and tried pushing the pins up and turning. It worked. The door was now locked. Fast-forward to the next night (performance two) my friend texts me and tells me the same problem is happening. At least at this point they don't have to worry about the door being unlocked, and they can open the other door and then open it from the back, but the lock is not working. Is there anything I can do to get it working again without taking it apart. I am assuming it is a master key system and something went wrong with one of the master key pins, but I can't really figure out what...

[Raymond]

You really screwed the pooch on this one! Now you have to listen to all the "we told you so's."
Don't pick locks you have to use and especially don't pick locks that are not yours.

Despite the commonly accepted right to enter the room due to past acceptance of entering by the window, you have probably, technically committed a crime of breaking and entering.

I dare say that most colleges will be using masterkeyed locks. This means that when you picked it, and turned the plug 180 degrees, one or more of the master wafers fell out into the keyway (since there was no key to hold them in). After rotating the lock back to normal, the next time any key was inserted, the wafers have probably been pushed to the back of the keyway where they will remain uselessly, prevent the key from going in all the way, or no longer allow the master or change key to turn.

Since you apparently do not fully understand the technical aspects, the lock will have to be rekeyed by the school's or a commercial locksmith.

[billdeserthills]

Sad fact is, even if you did understand the technical aspects, you don't have access to the master key or the change
key, so even if you had a pin kit and took the lock apart, there is no way for you to restore it to it's original key bitting,
because you won't know what it was.

[PowerHaus930]

I'm not sure what advice I could give you as far as what to do to get the lock working again. However I would like to say that we are all human and we all make mistakes sometimes. You know now that you shouldn't pick locks that are in use or locks that you aren't given explicit permission to pick from the owner. I hope this negative experience doesn't turn you away from the hobby. Good luck with the lock and I hope things work out okay.