Schlage Lock Picking

[JimmyT1950]

I had a normal locksmith call this morning to unlock a house. The lock was a grade 3 Schlage leverset. I put my tension wrench in the keyhole and as I put tension on it, the lock core started to turn and unlocked the lock. I hadn't ran my rake through the lock prior to this. Once I go t inside, I asked the owner for their working key. I tried it and it worked. The only thing I could figure at the time was that there were no tumblers in the lock but as I looked into the keyhole I could see a tumbler in chamber number one. Just out of curiosity, I tried a non-working key. When I turned it, the lock didn't turn. Continuing on, I inserted a flat screwdriver in the keyhole about 1/16" of an inch and was able to turn the lock and lock and unlock the door.

In 20 plus years, I have never seen this. I didn't have time to take the lock apart but am still curious as to why this happened.

[somenewguy]

Did you tension from the top of the keyway?

[mseifert]

Maybe a shallow bidding.. Maybe on the Master Key (if equipped) bidding

[JimmyT1950]

Tensioned from the bottom of the keyway

[cledry]

Was the key stair stepped, meaning lower toward the tip than the bow. If so it may be possible on a worn lock and key to remove the key even when the bottom and top pins are aligned. If so it is essentially already picked.

[somenewguy]

Was it mounted typical US style (pins on top) or Euro style (pins on the bottom)?

[JimmyT1950]

The bitting was 56374 and being a lever lock, the pins were on the right, mounted on a right hand door

[billdeserthills]

I suspect this is due to the general crappiness of the new grade 3 schlage hardware
Not the same thing exactly, but I recall years ago I did a job that involved making a key to a double sided chevy p/u. Just for yukks I gave the ignition a turn, even though there was no key & It Turned! I had it apart in short order and cut a key by code. The lock was full of the red grease that comes from the factory, with the lock package. I stopped using the grease immediately and went back to graphite, as the grease was apparently holding the wafers in place, even when the key was removed.

[JimmyT1950]

Not the case here because the correct key did work when we were able to retrieve it but a key with different bitting did not work and it worked repeatedly with no key.

[billdeserthills]

So, no time to take it apart and find out why, eh Jimmy?