Needless to say I was devastated and somewhat ashamed of myself for not remembering such a simple rule of picking American locks. Always make sure it is in the locked position before closing it.
But, all hope is not lost. I was able to fix it and here is how I did it for anyone else who may get themselves into the same situation.
It is quite simple really, I just took my short hook and put it all the way into the lock, and turned it clockwise until it was back into the locked position. I had to wiggle things around a bit, but eventually it worked. The lock that I have does not have a security wafer in it just to let folks know, as I am not sure if this method would work with one.
I then took the lock apart to make sure that nothing had broken in this process and sure enough everything was fine.
I hope this was helpful and any feed back would be great as this is my first post. Sorry if this info is already out there, I was so excited to have learned this trick that I couldn't wait to share. Thanks for reading.
jonnyboy091373
