What a difference a day makes...(Nick the "Newbie"

[Nickythenaz]

I first started playing around with lock-picking while I was in Iraq last year. A fellow reservist, who is a professional magician when not on active duty would give various magic shows to the unit to give us a laugh while deployed. Among his mini shows he was also the guy you went to when you locked your keys in your foot locker / wall lockers. Being the motivated Marine he would share his tricks of the trade whith anyone interested he deemed responsible. I got off of Marine active duty June 2005. Fast forward 3 months and I got a job as a LEO in Eastern Pa ( I had got my ACT 120 prior to the Marines) The majority of my field training was done during day work and during day work you get the most vehicle lock outs.

At first I had no idea what to do with the slim jim, (haha I'm still not really sure how I it get it to work) but I have some successes with it. Per-policy we don't even attempt vehicles with side air bags. One day I was out with a Toyota, Slim-Jimmying away aimlessly when the neighborhood Locksmith stop, parked and came over to me. Now he knew I was never going to get a Toyota with a slim-jim, but i didn't know that. So instead of watching me fish and fish, he came over with the proper tool. in 3 sec flat he had it. I was very impressed. I thanked him very much, and the owners of the Toyota thanked him even more because he did it free of charge. I asked for wad of his business cards to keep in the car for every other job that would need a professional locksmith. He was happy to give me a generous supply.

Over the weeks I did a couple more lockouts real easy ones, American cars, but I still had this urge to learn more. So one day I asked the Pro if he could show me something. The Pro started to laugh, I didn't relies the magnitude of what I was asking. The Pro, who is a true professional gave me out of his own pocket a rake and a tension bar. Immediately recognizing what they were from my deployment crash course I was all smiles. He told me to stop by his house sometime for a lesson. This was 4 months ago and I still have not gotten back over.

I did, however, carry that rake and tension bar in my left breast pocket every hour of every shift I have worked since then. Just last week I was driving and got waived down by a fellow who had locked himself out of his apartment. He was panicking because he was afraid he was going to miss his train. Without even flinching I reached up and grabbed the Pros card and gave it to him. The fellow had one of looks like 20 min was not fast enough. So I asked him what kind of lock he had. He said it was a crappy dead bolt. A glimmer of hope lit up in me. Maybe I could handle crappy..

So up the stairs we went. This poor guy in desperation had taken out all the pins to his door, and dismantled his door knob in an effort to get in. The only thing holding the door was the "Crappy Dead Bolt". Only ever seeing it once i did what i remembered. Tension bar goes here..... and rake goes like this.....and bam it opened. I could not believe it. Like a divine gift from God to this guy, I got it with beginners luck. He put his door back together while he thanked me. I told the guy that was the first time I had ever tried that and he could not believe it. I could not believe it either.

So on the next shift I brought some Master lock Number 3s. Three different ones. Like a machine I sat in my squad car successfully raking all 3 in a row and starting over again while I watched traffic. Before I went home I raked my locker... success! I was on a roll. I got home and changed the order up and just keep going though them. I would play little games where I would not do a unrelated task unless I did all 3 in a row. Before I had dinner i had to rake all three all the way up to going to bed. I laid in bed with the three locks and i would not go to bed until I had them all done. I did and then went to bed.

The Next morning I woke up and grabbed the locks and got the first 2 but a little slower but not the third one. I tryed and tryed multiple times over the day and now had trouble with them all. It was like in one day I had lost all luck and what little skill I had. Yesterday was my day off and not even kidding I could not get the one in over 14 hours of trying. MASTER LOCK "COMMERCIAL" No 3. Just the day before is was no problem and not even once was I able to get it today...

My hands are sore, I have burses on my finger from where the rake goes. Man what happened..??

I just ordered a bunch of Sourhord stuff. Their is a ton of good info on this site.

My goal is to better my understanding of all locks, becoming proficient in as many vehicle lockouts as possible, and picking that Commercial Master lock that mocked me for 14 hours yesterday. If I can make some new buddies thats great too.

Any other LEO's on this site?


Nick

[CPLP]

The problem about picking locks... don't worry, you just have to practice a lot more. You have to be peacefull to open them, try to have good control over your tension wrench and tools.

PS: What's a LEO?

[pickmonger]

As a mater of fact most of the users on this site are Virgos I believe .
Personally I am am Aries.

Ah no ....... thats not what he was refering to.

Leo = Law Enforcement Officer

I believe its jargon used among the Police to refer to one of their own.

Unless this particular poster is a very new age type and is refering to his astrological sign ..... ie Aries, Vergo

[bonez]

thing is nick once you start trying to hard things
start to get difficult,as said keep it peaceful,keep calm
take your time and above all have the self belief that it
can be done!

[jgencinc]

The same thing happens to me also. I find that taking a long break helps. When I try very hard for too long, I end up using too much tension on the wrench, and I am forcing the rakes and picks. After the break I come back and I am a lot more gentle with them. Then they open right up.

[SteveW]

Ive got to have my head in the right place to get stuff open. I tend to find the more stressed out i am the longer it takes, and the longer it takes the more stressed out i get

Aw hell.. im doomed

The way i deal with this is to have a variety of methods to try in any given situation. If i cant pick it, bump it, if i cant bump it, get the pick gun on it... and so on and so on.

But everyone gets days where the locks just wont open for you, just come back and try again later

Cheers
Steve

[pizarro]

If i'm having a bad day, i make sure that the pressure that I put on the tension wrench is close to the lock. By putting the pressure on the tension wrench that is near the lock as opposed to the other end (farther away from the lock) you get less torque on the lock. This has the same effect as putting less pressure on your tension wrench.

The downside of doing this is that its harder to notice the feedback from the tension wrench. If you were putting the pressure at the end of the ternsion wrench, the slight rotation of the plug as a pin set would be easier to notice, as it would move more.

[vector40]

Yes, LEO means Law Enforcement Officer.

Great story, Nick. Glad thing worked out. Not much I can tell you except to keep practicing; everythings are quirky.

[vector40]

... everythings?

[raimundo]

LEO is the code word used at the airport with the granny gropers, on the street, they say, "im on the job" similiar to what cazarnys say on the midway when a tout is trying to hook them, they say, "I'm with it" LEO is any badger, prison guard, traffic monitor, customs, coast guard etc.
I hope Nickthenazy got id from the guy and didn't just help the ex boyfriend get in, some cities are cool to locksmithing for free by the authorities, as it can be viewed as restraint of trade.

[Nickythenaz]

yeah after I got the door he went inside and got his ID... and It seams like it was a one time thing haha I have not hand much luck with my raking skills lately. I should get my order from Sourthord soon...

Maybe I had the best example of beginners luck or I only have the power when it is given to me on a case by case basis.

Im half tempted to order that course every one has been raving about, but maybe I should just stick to writing vehicle accidents and doing school crossings.. lol

[The_Catz]

One thing, I have heard about picking a lock tooo much, it can cause a pin to flip in the keyway and damage it to the point it won't open. Wether this is the case or not, I don't know and couldn't say without seeing the lock.

Does the key to the lock still work in it? with or without extra force.

Also, if you rake a lock too much, neither the key nor the pick will work efficiently, imagine it if you will, like a saw blade, every rake taking a little bit of the metal off.

Look at your keyring, see your OLDEST key, much thinner and duller than when new ain't it, imagine the same process to the lock, only faster from excessive raking.

When you get your SouthOrd picks (assuming thats what you ordered), I think you will love picking by the pin, less damaging and funner, except more time cunsuming untill you get better. Great job on helping him back in his house, and with the No.3's. You'll get back into the swing, just be patient, the lock afterall is stubborn unless coearsed the right way.

[WizzBang]

Former LEO here. I was USAF Security Forces for 4 yrs while I was in.
Used a few slim jims in my day, but when someone needed to get in and fast for whatever reason, we had another method of doing it. It will sound awful to the seasoned folks here for sure lol, but we would use a spring loaded prick punch and quickly take out the window of your choice if you say left the vehicle running and its -5 out. The 14 hours spent was far too long. I am relativly new to this and suffered that exact same thing the second day, I picked my first master lock, and swore I knew how I did it. I then went to show my mother it can be done and how, and spent the next several hours very frustrated and seemed to get nowhere. Nice reward system for leaning btw, I have a similar setup myself that works well. every 30 mins it's pushup time, so I better pick that lock, or I don't hit the push-ups in time, unable to release my anger and frustration sets in very fast, guess what I get them picked now within a few seconds LOL. best of luck to you bro, and do stay safe on those deployments