One in a million

[Engineer]

I realise this is a very old post, but I bet a lot of new members never saw this.

It DOES happen - To me! I was in the Resident's Association house and saw the house keys on the table. I'm a locksmith - I cannot help it! I took a good look at the keys and was alarmed to see the Era lever lock key looked VERY familiar. To all intents and purposes my key and theirs were identical. The only difference was their key was very badly cut. My own key fitted their lock better than their own key did.

I brought this to their attention, but they weren't concerned at all - I'm trustworth!

Erm, yes, but now I wasn't too happy about however many copies there were of the Association's back door key, fitting MY front door. So I had to change my own front door lock then because of that.

I know there are a finate number of possible key variations, but to find one so close to your own house does make you wonder what the probability of it happening is? I bet it might actually be more common than you'd think - Ever heard of the "Birthday Problem"? It's one of the weirder aspects of probabilty that you only need 23 people to have a 50% chance of two of them having been born on the same day AND of the same month (but any year).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_paradox

[ToolyMcgee]

Twice over this Christmas I opened jeeps that weren't the right car on accident. It's a green Jeep, so can you blame me for making this mistake when every other car in the lot is an suv. Also, look at the key bitings on the locks in your hardware store. My Menards has 30 kwiksets on the shelf with the same biting. But while you may have the key to your neighbors door, how many times have you tried your key on your nieghbors door? It's just one of the things that people take for granted, that their key only opens there door.

[TigerDragon]

When we were living in Florida, we accidentally got into the wrong car because it was the same make, model, year, and color as ours, and our key operated the lock. We realized it was the wrong one before we started it up, but not before sitting down in it.

The desks where I work use Steelcase locks, and there is a desk three cubes down from mine that uses the same key as my desk.

I would have thought they would plan the locks better, but they probably didn't pay any attention at all to which combinations went where when installing them.

[weerwolf]

The driving school I went to for my motorcycle licence has 3 Honda CBRs. They ordered all 3 at once. All are operated by the same key. The guys at Honda didn't even notice.

[raimundo]

I was recombinating a schlage knockoff in the C keyway, the lock was a 5 pin in a 6 pin plug, he had a lot of keys out and he was locking out some the the keyholders,

I called a friend of mine and told him I was doing a recomb job and needed some 15 or 20 keys, for all the people who were still coming in.

He found a schlage original and made the copies for me. I got to the job and was working on it when the customer looked at the key, and found that the first 5 cuts were identical to the five cuts on the key I was replaceing, but I was making it a 6 pin. Try to explain that your not up to some trick, and that the old keys will not work as the shoulder stop prevents the key from reaching the pins they are cut too.

It does happen, probably more often that people think, I have known of many instances where old worn car keys will operate cars that are not the one the key is to. but that is probably all about the wear.

[Engineer]

I still have two of the infamous Ford plastic keys

For anyone who doesn't know, getting on for 30 years ago, Readers Digest did a mass mailing with a plastic key. It was a Ford key made from cheap plastic as the prize was a Ford car. Soon after, someone went to the papers, complaining that these plastic keys opened his Ford car. It became a really big story here in the UK as he was not happy that hundreds of thousands of people in the UK could now open his car. Seemed to be pretty soon afterwards the locks on Fords changed to something a lot more secure.

I still have two of those Reader's Digest Ford keys and sometimes wonder what one of them might fetch!

It does happen, probably more often that people think, I have known of many instances where old worn car keys will operate cars that are not the one the key is to. but that is probably all about the wear.

[jimb]

I still have two of the infamous Ford plastic keys

For anyone who doesn't know, getting on for 30 years ago, Readers Digest did a mass mailing with a plastic key. It was a Ford key made from cheap plastic as the prize was a Ford car. Soon after, someone went to the papers, complaining that these plastic keys opened his Ford car. It became a really big story here in the UK as he was not happy that hundreds of thousands of people in the UK could now open his car. Seemed to be pretty soon afterwards the locks on Fords changed to something a lot more secure.

I still have two of those Reader's Digest Ford keys and sometimes wonder what one of them might fetch!

It does happen, probably more often that people think, I have known of many instances where old worn car keys will operate cars that are not the one the key is to. but that is probably all about the wear.

When I was a kid my parents bought a new 1965 Thunderbird. A few months later a couple moved in next door and had the same car, it was even the same color. We lived in an older neighborhood and did not have driveways and everyone parked at the curb on the street. One day we left the house to go somewhere, we got into the car and started it. She looked back to back up and noticed some laundry in the back set of the car. She then realized we were in the neighbors car.

[NKT]

The clear morale of the story is to fit decent locks, or, dare I say it, good locks. Then this won't happen.

I've got lots of locks that have the same keys or will work with a jiggle, once upon a time I'd have thought it amazing, but it's pretty every day now.

The best one I ever saw, though, was a "near miss" by a lady who used her front door key in the neighbours door whilst trying to feed the cat. It was a different manufacturer, but the cuts were pretty close at exactly the right point in the throw to catch under two of the anti-picks, and bind the lock solid with the key half turned. Took an hour to get the key out, then I picked the lock open and repaired the damage, swapping the two trashed levers, cut a new key from the drilled one, and the job was done.

[mhole]

About a year ago I had to swap two locks on a shop front, a pair of union 2134 5-lever mortice locks. I found I didn't have 2 2134s the right size, so I fitted one from the van, and returned to my shop to get another. I grabbed the first one of the shelf, and when I got back to the job, discovered the customer had got the locks keyed alike for free, courtesy of a 1 in 1000 statical blip.

For this reason I always check the old key when changing locks, and if it's not present check that key section is different for cylinder locks, and read the levers on a lever lock.

[w00tb0t]

I once had 4 master/master clones open with the same key.

It was a master no.3, and shield clone, a Western brothers, and a no.5.

I guess that all had to do with wear and tear, as they had been picked to hell for years. The keys were all similar though, just 1 cut off.

[Wizer]

The clear morale of the story is to fit decent locks, or, dare I say it, good locks. Then this won't happen.

I've got lots of locks that have the same keys or will work with a jiggle, once upon a time I'd have thought it amazing, but it's pretty every day now.

The best one I ever saw, though, was a "near miss" by a lady who used her front door key in the neighbours door whilst trying to feed the cat. It was a different manufacturer, but the cuts were pretty close at exactly the right point in the throw to catch under two of the anti-picks, and bind the lock solid with the key half turned. Took an hour to get the key out, then I picked the lock open and repaired the damage, swapping the two trashed levers, cut a new key from the drilled one, and the job was done.

In my old job a customer came, and wanted an abloy classic copied. I looked at the key, and it had exactly same biting as on all lockers in our shop. Alltho it had only 6 cuts, the possibility is still 46656 / 1.
... I still think that of cheap locks Abloy is one of the safest.

[Scott_93]

When I was on my work experience they had some VERY serious issues with Abloy DLP's as even though they had "key exclusiveness" similar keys would work similar locks (eg MK systems) and had one problem inperticular on quite a large site

Scott.

[LocksmithArmy]

best topic ever... otta b stickied cause every1 needs to read these and share there best stories while on the job

when i was a kid my grandfather told me that his garage could be opened with any key... i was like 6 so i ddnt understand. about 6 years later we were in need to get in and he wasnt home(i dont remember y) when i remembered he said that... long story short... we got in...

looking back at it now... that lock has pins....

only short bottom pins so pretty much any key will open it. and gravaty keeps em down. as long as you dont have a high cut and the keyway is the same or similar youll get in...

not really chance here just odd

he never changed it tho lol

[therackals]

While working as a supply teacher one of the kids nicked my bike motrobuke keys. The AA would not help as they said the bike had not broken down or been in an accident. I tried some random keys from my keyring to find a standard cupboard key (fits every stock cupboard in the school) worked. Later I found out the same key also works in just about every school I have worked in
Hayden

[UEDan]

You guys dont see it as weird that the guy actually tried using his key? Kinda like he already knew it was going to work?