Amusing locksmith story

[Jim Palmer]

This comes from Dallas Morning News story dated June 26, 2008, via Associated Press. DPS is abbreviation for Texas state police:

HUMBLE, Texas--The Texas Department of Public Safety's woes continue after a malfunctioning door lock trapped two men inside a bathroom at the Humble DPS for nearly an hour.

The incident happened a day after the head of Texas' troubled top law enforcement agency pledged Tuesday to make significant reforms after coming under fire from critical lawmakers.

On Wednesday, 41-year-old Christin Perry needed a quick restroom break while renewing his license at the Humble DPS. That break turned into a lengthy ordeal when Perry tried to leave, the Houston Chronicle reported in its online editions on Thursday.

"What I think is, the lock mechanism broke, because the handle just goes up and down and it doesn't move," he said form his cellphone in the restroom Wednesday afternoon. DPS workers tried to jiggle the door open, but couldn't. They eventually summoned a locksmith, who freed Perry and another man after about an hour.

"It was just a malfunction," Sgt. Delvin Davis said. "It could happen to anyone. They're fine."

[MacGnG1]

hey at least it was only an hour. coulda been worse

[BraveHeart.]

ya.
at least he has his phone with him

[globallockytoo]

You wanna hope that locksmith they called was suitably licensed.

And they checked it.

[Archive555]

That would suck.
But most definitely it could have been worse.
And public bathrooms usually stink

[raimundo]

how do ya escape from an airplane thats sitting on the ramp for 12 hours?
wheres the cord for the emergency slides?

[fsdhy]

I had a maintenance guy, last month, who had to sleep in a classroom overnight. The teacher found him sleeping ontop of her desk the next morning.

They were using Schlage AL70PD locks. The lock had been "catching", and the maintenance guy figured he could somehow fix it by forcing the door shut/forcing the door open repeatedly. In the process, he bent the latch to the point that it barely connected to the lever handle. One night, he went in the class to clean, door closed behind him, and the latch slipped a bit more... No longer connected to the lever handle. He tries to get out, handle turns, latch doesn't retract. Instead of trying to disassemble the lock and find that the latch wasn't connected... like most of us would do... he tried to call his boss on the cell... No answer. So he went to sleep.