Ever hear of a Kill Key?

[Squelchtone]

Ever hear of a Kill Key?

I found one on eBay last night. This is not a destructive entry device. It is a destructive denial-of-entry device. It is a key that can be inserted into a lock but cannot be removed and prevents the lock from operating. To make it even more evil, it is designed so that the bow may be broken off, leaving the shank of the key embedded inside the lock. I have elected not to post a photo of it because it would be way too easy for a mischief-maker to create his own.

The person selling these things claims that they are for landlords and others who need to secure the premises and prevent someone with a key from entering before a locksmith can be summoned to change the locks. Since the lock is now rendered useless, the locksmith will have to destroy the old lock and replace it. To me, that sounds like an expensive way of keeping an old tenant out of what should be a vacant home.

Being neither a locksmith nor a landlord, I have never heard of either this particular device or a legitimate need for it.

[i_b_larry]

Spelled it wrong. It is a "Kill Key."

[easy-e]

Sparrows also sells them as "Lock Busters".

[MBI]

They're removable with a very easy to make tool.
The procedure is basically just a broken key extraction, but you have to hold up the pins while you do it too.

You start with a Weiser shim, or a similar piece of metal.
It's .008" thick, spring steel.

You modify it by making cuts as shown in this diagram.

The two thin cuts along the side should leave you with a couple of very sharp barbs.
Bend those slightly so the points lean towards the key as you slide it in alongside it.
The angled cut on the tip helps lift the pins out of the way as you insert it.
By cutting off the tip, when you insert it alongside the "Kill-Key" you can raise up the lock pins.

Once the shim is fully inserted alongside the key, the barbs should bite into the side of the key, keep the shim at the top of the keyway to hold up the pins, and gently remove the tool.
If the barbs have sufficiently dug in, it should slide the broken key out with it.
If needed, use other key extractor tools to assist the removal, but maintain upward pressure with the shim to keep the pins lifted.

[lunchb0x]

You can make them with grove down the side so you can slide something down to release the trapped pins. Whitco use these for their screen door locks so you can make a double sided lock have a snib on the inside. This way you can lock someone out but not destroy the cylinder.

[lunchb0x]

[i_b_larry]

I see no way to remove this "key" without disassembling the lock. The two for sale on eBay were made from blank Schlage and Kwikset keys, as those are the most common residential locksets.

Each key has a single cut near the center. The cut is straight on its front edge down to the max depth. The trailing edge of the cut is tapered at about 45 degrees. As the key is inserted, the pins will be pushed all the way up until they drop into the cut. Because the leading edge is straight, the key will not come back out due to the pins dropping down into the cut. The key can be inserted all the way because the sloped trailing edge pushes the pins up as it goes in. Once the first pin has dropped into the cut, the key cannot be withdrawn.

If the lock was disassembled it might be possible to push the Kill Key all the way through, depending on the exact design of the lock. If the bible has a removable cover, the pins could be removed allowing the key to be taken out. For many locks, this Kill Key would be fatal.

[i_b_larry]

The cut looks something like this:

|__/
The leading edge is on the left.

Sorry, that's the best I can do on short notice.

[MBI]

i_b_larry, the tool I posted above will defeat it, at least with most residential locks found in the US. The keyways are almost always loose enough and straight enough at the top to allow the shim to be inserted alongside the key.

As I described, the shim lifts the pins so they are no longer trapped by the vertical cut on the key.

[Altashot]

I agree with MBI with the shim pick... I make some of those keys sometimes. I make them removable with a tool I made. very easy. I call them lock-out keys.

M.

[minifhncc]

I've done this once to evict a tenant. Two of the doors were really hard to rekey without taking apart the entire lock (as opposed to just swapping cylinders). We only had 10 minutes to evict, so I swapped the main door cylinders and used a "kill key" for the others, so they couldn't get back in.

[bembel]

http://www.itstactical.com/skillcom/loc ... -lock-kill

[Wizer]

Sometimes when I have a customer that pisses me off, I dream that one day, when I`m about to quit cutting keys, I will make them a key that will get stuck in the lock.
It would be so easy to make, but then I wouldn`t want to pay for the locksmith charges for coming to fix/drill the lock.
Maybe one day, when I`m old and rich enough I will do it...

[i_b_larry]

http://www.itstactical.com/skillcom/lock-picking/permanently-disable-a-household-lock-with-lock-kill

That appears to be the very product I saw on eBay with a slightly different name. Because of the ease of manufacture and potential for abuse I did not want to post a photo. To me, this is in the same category as pumping the lock full of crazy glue without all the mess.

Where I live, such a device would not be legal on a residential rental. Without a court order, a landlord cannot evict a residential tenant but such an order can be obtained in a matter of days. (The word "evict" in this context means to physically remove the tenant and his personal property; it does not mean to take possession of the tenant's personal property.)

Commercial tenants are a different story. If the rent is unpaid the landlord can lock out the tenant and sell off whatever is on the premises to pay for the rent and other costs.

I suspect that these things get used more by guys with a grudge than by landlords.

I noticed on the review of the product that the author did not try inserting shims from the side and lifting the pins, which sounds like it should work.