Your good deed for the day:

[Fisher711]

Your good deed for the day:

I thought I would start a place where you can post about opening locks as a good deed for friends or family etc… I know it sounds kind of silly, but I thought it might be interesting to see what members are doing with their lock picking skills (If this has already been done, sorry I have not seen the post).

Last night a good friend of mine mentioned he had lost his trailer keys. He told me he was going to have to take is car to a locksmith to get his trailer hitch lock removed. The trip would have consisted of driving about 50 miles each direction, as we live in a small town with out a local locksmith. I told him I could probably open the lock, saving him the trip into the “big city”. Well this morning I stopped by, and after several cups of coffee I opened the lock.

Note: Always get the coffee first incase you can’t get the lock open.

Lock: Phillips trailer hitch lock
Pin tumbler

Pick: Rake

Time: About three minutes

Note: Lock was very dirty and grimy, tried to spp but lock was so dirty could not feel
binding pin. So rake it was and it open right up.

Mike

[jimb]

Note: Always get the coffee first incase you can’t get the lock open.

I have teenage kids so I won't bore you with how many of their friends cars I've opened w/o charge. Some of them more than once + a couple of houses.

[jdislandlock]

i work in a locksmith shop/security shop. Mainly i just open locks and vehicles
that come in. the odd time ill go out with our locksmith in the feild and do things that would not normally come up in the shop so i have more of an idea. i am trying to learn as much as possible and feel comfortable pickin locks

[raimundo]

It took about three minutes to open that lock, with the grime inside. Actually, those wafer trailer hitch locks are so easy,the first two and a half minutes are spent trying to pick it clockwise, after that, 20 seconds to open it ccw. the only way it will open.

[immolate]

I have averaged about 2-3 per month of good deeds in regards to my lockpicking skills.

My most recent deed being a young gentleman working for a water delivery company. He locked his keys in the truck with his ignition running. This was a 2007-08 GMC 3 ton truck for anyone who is curious.

I didn't have a slim jim handy at the time, so I picked his passenger lock open instead. Needless to say he was quite happy to get on with his day. According to him, he would have had to wait ~2 hours for a rep from his company to drop off some keys.

[prag]

I hope this does not sound too negative but I sometimes do get a bit cheesed off when you get to a job and some smart amateur has just opened the door. Or the good Samaritan that wants to compete with the bad locksmith. This has happened before.

But, If I may add, I have done work for nothing for people I feel don't have the money for the job. Usually little old ladies, well not all that little. In return I sometimes get a cake or some thing cool to drink. It is good for the Karma.

I think what erks me is that some people make a living from this trade. Just my two cents, and hope I didn't rub somebody up the wrong way.

[dev070]

Prag, I certainly see the dilemma here, but let me give you an example that may shed some light on another perspective:

A friend of mine recently locked himself out of his apartment. He actually closed the door while simultaneously telling me that he forgot his keys--kinda funny. Now, I'm confident that I could have picked the lock pretty easily, but I chose not to for two reasons: 1) because it was an in-use lock and 2) for the exact reason you point out here. The locksmith is based less than 10 miles away, but took 1.5 hours to get to the site causing my friend to call off work. The 'smith then opened the lock in 3 seconds with his pickgun and charged my friend $130US for the job. My friend is a single guy living from paycheck to paycheck, so 130 bucks isn't easy for him to dish out.

I'm not saying I have the answers, or that either side is right in the debate. I'm just saying that there are two sides to every story.

[Safety0ff]

A friend of mine recently locked himself out of his apartment. He actually closed the door while simultaneously telling me that he forgot his keys--kinda funny. Now, I'm confident that I could have picked the lock pretty easily, but I chose not to for two reasons: 1) because it was an in-use lock and 2) for the exact reason you point out here. The locksmith is based less than 10 miles away, but took 1.5 hours to get to the site causing my friend to call off work. The 'smith then opened the lock in 3 seconds with his pickgun and charged my friend $130US for the job. My friend is a single guy living from paycheck to paycheck, so 130 bucks isn't easy for him to dish out.

I think prag might have been talking about being called out and then being told that his services are no longer required because someone else has done his job. When that happens there's two problems, some people won't pay the charge for him coming out (call out charge?) and he also loses the money he would have made by completing the job (being a complete waste of time and gas.) So your reason #2 only makes sens if a locksmith has been called.

If I was in your place and it was a cheap lock and I had my tools, I would have had him wait before calling the locky so that I could give it a shot.

[dev070]

I think prag might have been talking about being called out and then being told that his services are no longer required because someone else has done his job. When that happens there's two problems, some people won't pay the charge for him coming out (call out charge?) and he also loses the money he would have made by completing the job (being a complete waste of time and gas.) So your reason #2 only makes sens if a locksmith has been called.

Ah, I see what you're saying. It is irritating because the locksmith has already been called and is on his way. During the locksmith's travel to the site, someone comes by and picks the lock. Once the smith gets there the potential client no longer needs their help thereby wasting the smith's gas and time while simultaneously ruining a job. I think you're probably right, sorry for the misunderstanding. Still, I'm not at a skill level yet where I would feel comfortable messing with a lock that is in use and not mine...though it was tempting

[Fisher711]

I hope this does not sound too negative but I sometimes do get a bit cheesed off when you get to a job and some smart amateur has just opened the door. Or the good Samaritan that wants to compete with the bad locksmith. This has happened before.

But, If I may add, I have done work for nothing for people I feel don't have the money for the job. Usually little old ladies, well not all that little. In return I sometimes get a cake or some thing cool to drink. It is good for the Karma.

I think what erks me is that some people make a living from this trade. Just my two cents, and hope I didn't rub somebody up the wrong way.

As I posted in the OP we live about 100 miles (round trip) from the closest city, and the closest locksmith. My friend would have wasted a day driving all the way into the city to get a $15 dollar lock removed, not to mention the cost of gas. Now, if he had already called a locksmith I would not have opened the lock, as I don’t agree to calling for ones service and then telling them you don’t need them when they arrive. I believe in small businesses and I know how hard it is to make a living running one, I once owned one (not a locksmith business). I would not advocate going out and taking work away from a locksmith. In the big picture they probably make more money repairing broken locks that armatures damage while trying to open (lol).

I’m a public servant, and I’m called upon all the time to open cars and houses that people are locked out of. The only time I attempt to unlock the cars and houses is if it is an emergency, and if it’s a real emergency I carry a glass punch, bolt cutters, and a 10 pound sledgehammer (in my car, not in my pocket). Otherwise I call the tow truck to open the cars (local tow company do our vehicle lockouts), and a locksmith to open the locks. Now with that said; if one of my good friends needs help I will help them, not to save them money, but because they are my friend.

Just my thoughts
Mike

[Fisher711]

OK so it’s not technically lock picking but I just had to post a picture. The “Copper” is a friend of mine, and called me this morning and sheepishly asked if I could come up to his house and open his car. Not only did he lock the keys in the vehicle, he also locked the spare set in there as well (what a way to start your shift). Well I only live about five minutes away, so I ran up there and opened the vehicle. I guess you could justify this as a public emergency? I won’t go into details about how I opened it (although by looking at the picture it’s not hard to figure out), and it only took about two minutes. To save face just in case any LP101 members live in our area, I removed the county name from the photo; you know to protect the innocent.

Mike

[Zero-K]

I haven't been picking long, maybe a few dozen small locks so far, but still trying to get the hang of it.

I helped a friend get into his toolbox. It was one of the full sized ones that locks all of the drawers. He lost his keys somewhere on his way to work and had a few customers lined up waiting. Took me a total of maybe 10 seconds. In return he took me to lunch
And when my sister was visiting, we took my dog out the country to let her run around, then when we went to leave, we realized she locked her keys in her car. Her spare set was cross country since she was just visiting and the closest house was about 4km away with no cell reception. Thank god I had my kit in my pocket. Took about 10-15 minutes, but was a lot faster than a 4km walk.

I don't like to have too many people know my hobby since I'll probably have friends bugging me so they can try to save a buck.

[Fisher711]

Zero-K

Welcome to Lockpicking 101…

Mike

[prag]

Yesterday my job was a freebie job. It felt good to leave and say "no payment required"!

It was 2 little jobs and took me about 20 min to finish and no raw materials were used, just some tools.

I've done my good deed for this century and now I can go back to being evil again

[raimundo]

Small time locksmiths may depend on the individual jobs that come in on the phone, but the larger shops in cities will make most of their money on large corporate clients who require service every month and run and account with the company, These are the best clients because of the amount of money they spend, the distant from the service area individual client with a simple small job and the particularity of some clients who may be a bit difficult to deal with, or may poormouth the locksmith after the opening are well, lets just say that people will be doing their own coathanger jobs, that won't stop and of course you can inherit the job after they screw it up. Aint that fun. There are people with more money who would be better clients, pay better and call back again and there are the people who really can't afford to call a locksmith and you will see them driving around with the busted side window. I don't think amatuer lockpickers are taking real business from locksmiths, they may even be creating it if they screw up the job. In this country there are not seals with crown and griffiths that say "by appointment to the queen". Anyone can become a locksmith at their own choseing. When I do a job, I ask for pay.