any good locky tales ?

[milsbon]

anyone got any good stories while they been out on the job, c'mon lets hear them

[jeremy]

I was once told by my employer that a rental agency wanted me to rekey the house at a particular address. He said they had no keys. We regularly did work for this agency. I went to the address that I was given.

I tried picking the locks at the front of the house but they were toughies. I didn't try long at all before looking around for other options. I climbed the fence and entered through a well-barricaded doggy-door in the back. Not an easy task, but not hard enough, I guess.

This house sure had more stuff left behind by the previous tenants than usual. It almost looked like there could still be someone living in it!

I removed all the locks from the doors and took them out to the van. I disassembled one of the easier ones, made a key to it, used it to open some others, picked some that that key didn't work in, and replaced one stubborn lock with a comparable used lock. All locks were now keyed alike to a new key. Beautiful!

I unplugged the garage door opener, barricaded the doggy door extra well, locked all the doors, and left with the keys, which I delivered to the rental agency along with the bill.

The next day, after the boss had gone home early as usual, a co-worker called me. I call him "old man Jim", to distinguish him from "good Jim", "little Jim", and "fat Jim". Old man Jim said that the rental agency called and said the keys don't work in the house I rekeyed at yada-yada address. Yada-yada address didn't sound right to me. I swung by their on my way back to the shop and saw that Yada-yada was next door to the yada-yang address that I had been given and had rekeyed.

I imagined the sequence of thoughts the homeowner at yada-yang must have had when arriving at home the previous day. We certainly had some corrections to make.

Old man Jim says everyone who's been a locksmith for long has done it, whether they'll admit to it or not. Perhaps. Anyway, I learned to go to more trouble to confirm that I'm at the correct place.

[Mutzy]

I rekeyed a rental property a couple of weeks ago, and the land owner said he had evicted the previous tennants for doing drugs and burning stuff (i saw the burn marks on the carpet in the master bedroom).

The front door was a Lockwood Nightlatch - easily altered. I went to the back door, hoping it was the same profile lock. -WHich is Wasn't... - It was a mortice lock. For the people who don't know, there arn't many options on altering a mortice lock (which was locked BTW...) so i told him it needed to be replaced. To make a long story short, i rekeyed the front door, had a senior serviceman bring me a replacement mortice lock and unlock the existing one and replaced it. Job done.

...Or so I thought.

We get a call a week later, it's the owner saying the tennants have gotten back in through the mortice lock. It seemed the old keys *worked* in the new lock. What had really happened was they were forcing the key into the lock and unlocking it, effectively destroying the wards that govern the keys that go in (unless they're forced ). So we had to go out again, supply and fit a deadbolt and do it for a reduced price 'cause we had allready been out there.

The moral? Mortice locks Suck.

(as a side note, i've atually figured out how to make quick and easy mortice lock picks. When I figure out how to host the pictures, i'll put up a guide for it.)

Has anyone relocked a door they've picked open and driven off when not given payment?

[LockNewbie21]

I would, or have them sign a precontract stating if theres a non payment that charges will be pressed, i have never done an actual locksmith call, but in my years working with a general contractor i have riped out picked and replaced many locks, mostly commercial some residential, and its funny how people dont pay, or offer a hard time for something stupid. So my boss drew up a contract stating there binded to pay for the job and if not charges will be pressed. ofcourse people still tryed but it helped.

Andy

[jeremy]

You are assuming that the wrong address was given by the rental agency. I'm not sure that's true.

[jeremy]

LockNewbie, I thought your post was in reply to mine. Mistakenly, I think now.

[Chrispy]

It was a mortice lock. For the people who don't know, there arn't many options on altering a mortice lock (which was locked BTW...)....

replacement mortice lock ......

gotten back in through the mortice lock....

The moral? Mortice locks Suck.

(as a side note, i've atually figured out how to make quick and easy mortice lock picks. When I figure out how to host the pictures, i'll put up a guide for it.)

What do you mean by mortice lock? Are you referring to a lever lock (the old skeleton key type of lock)? Because 'mortice' only refers to the fact that the lock is recessed or 'morticed' into the door/frame/box/whatever.

Modern mortice locks have no cylinder, this must be added to complete the lock, therefore almost any type of cylinder system can be used. Examples of the types of cylinders could be standard pin tumblers (Lockwood, Efco, generic, etc.) especially ones with restricted cores., discs (Abloy, especially the restricted systems), and things like BiLock and Kaba Gemini/Quattro, etc.

Other types of mortice locks use euro cylinders which can be all of the above as well.

[skold]

It was a mortice lock. For the people who don't know, there arn't many options on altering a mortice lock (which was locked BTW...)....

replacement mortice lock ......

gotten back in through the mortice lock....

The moral? Mortice locks Suck.

(as a side note, i've atually figured out how to make quick and easy mortice lock picks. When I figure out how to host the pictures, i'll put up a guide for it.)

What do you mean by mortice lock? Are you referring to a lever lock (the old skeleton key type of lock)? Because 'mortice' only refers to the fact that the lock is recessed or 'morticed' into the door/frame/box/whatever.

Modern mortice locks have no cylinder, this must be added to complete the lock, therefore almost any type of cylinder system can be used. Examples of the types of cylinders could be standard pin tumblers (Lockwood, Efco, generic, etc.) especially ones with restricted cores., discs (Abloy, especially the restricted systems), and things like BiLock and Kaba Gemini/Quattro, etc.

Other types of mortice locks use euro cylinders which can be all of the above as well.

You beat me to it.

I was getting a bit lost in what mutzy was on about, i will assume it was a leverlock.

[keysman]

Ok Ok enough with the technical details; what we all want is the JUICEY stories .. the ones where you are called out to open the door of a car or house and the customer turns out to be a beautiful, single, wealthy ( and lonely ) young lady .
Or the nephew who has to clean out the deceased uncles house / garage, he doesn’t want to pay a lot of money but will let you take any of those “ stupid tools “ Uncle Harry kept for all these years if you will just make a key to this 1980 Ford Truck

[quicklocks]

a beautiful, single, wealthy ( and lonely ) young lady .
Or the nephew who has to clean out the deceased uncles house / garage, he doesn’t want to pay a lot of money but will let you take any of those “ stupid tools “ Uncle Harry kept for all these years if you will just make a key to this 1980 Ford Truck

would you beleave it it happend to me yesterday
i went to a job to open up and change the locks, got there and a stunning blonde bit got out her car skirt barely covering her knickers and a low cut top got to be DD (they were like two puppys fighting in a sack)
so i opened up for her picked three yale euros and replaced them so she had new keys it turns out that she had split from hubby and wanted to get back in her own house (she had id ect to put her there and all checked ok i even rang the police). glad i did cus about a day after i left the house caught fire!!!!! a mate of mine is a fire man and he went to this fire and told me someone had left oily rags on the cooker and turned it on!! the place was gutted.

[illusion]

What Quicklocks hasn't told us is that the attractive woman refused him payment, and it was HE who started the fire.

[quicklocks]

thats a nauty rumor i was wishing she had no money and was going to pay in kindness
it was realy hard to concentate on the picking when all i could see in the reflection on the glass door was her puppys..
but as we are now all modern day men we arnt allowed to think of women like that

[illusion]

Oh dear... gone are the days guys like Quicklocks would club the women they found attractive over the head, and dragged them back to their caves.

[HeadHunterCEO]

have seen some interesting things play out doing repos for a national rent to own company.

vicious dogs, people hiding in the house,people drunk or high or both

nothing too crazy though

[Mr. Lock Pick]

Well this isnt really on the job, i was at school and one of my teachers had locked is keys in his personal cabinet and he knew i was a lock picker becuase we talked about lock picking once, i had showed him a some of my skills.

So then i was called down to the v.p's office and when i got there the he said "go get your lock pick set in your locker", so then i tought i was in trouble for bringing a pick set to school, i thougth he would take them from me , so then i got to the office and he said "one of your teachers locked is keys in his cabinet and he would like you to pick the lock for him"
i said sure, it was one of my first picking jobs for someone else

So i get in the class room and my teacher showed me the lock to pick and i had never picked one of those locks befor, so i tried raking it, didnt work, then tried with a half dimond, didnt work so then i take out my hook and try, it Worked!!! but then the security pin got in the way so then i take out my feather weight tension wrench, and i picked it in a matter of seconds, it took me about 5 seconds to pick, i was so happy i had succesfully picked my teachers lock

hope you liked my story.