Need Help with Lock Picking in Novel

[kitster_kosh]

Hey everyone,

I don't pick locks, but I'm a writer, and need a character to pick a lock. Thought I would ask some people more experienced than me for some help. Say the credit card trick doesn't work (I realize that's not really picking a lock), and he has no bobby pins, he has no picks or anything. Is it possible to pick a lock with windshield wiper blade inserts? Without needed to "make" the pick beforehand? He doesn't have time to leave the place and make something. I realize it's not ideal, but could you manage to use the blade inserts as a tension wrench and pick without needed to file down the pick? If you had to? My character has a friend who knows how to pick locks he can call and get directions from.

Thanks.

[Squelchtone]

How are you painting lock picking in your book? as a skill of necessity? as a criminal skill? a useful life skill? a parlor trick?

Where is the person in the book picking into? is it for good or bad? to help someone? to get something back that was taken from him? to steal?

What kind of lock is it? a cheap padlock? a new deadbolt? Go ahead and walk up to the nearest deadbolt you can, get two windshield wiper inserts, insert one into the lock and bend it a little and make that the tension wrench, now go ahead and *try* to insert the 2nd piece of metal, it will probably not go in far, and if it does, it's useless without some sort of shaping in order to lift the pins up 1 by 1, not just inserting the flat stainless steel into the lock and lifting all the pins at once, that doesn't pick locks normally.

This character could get ridiculously lucky by using one wiper insert with a bend at the end as a tension wrench, and by inserting the other wiper insert, and shaking or jiggling it up and down while it is inserted about an inch or so into the lock, he may get lucky and the lock may open but the chances of this are slim.

Squelchtone

[kwoswalt99-]

Go ahead and walk up to the nearest deadbolt you can, get two windshield wiper inserts, insert one into the lock and bend it a little and make that the tension wrench, now go ahead and *try* to insert the 2nd piece of metal, it will probably not go in far, and if it does, it's useless without some sort of shaping in order to lift the pins up 1 by 1, not just inserting the flat stainless steel into the lock and lifting all the pins at once, that doesn't pick locks normally.

I thought we don't pick locks in use.

I just picked a bunch of Kwiksets and a couple Schlages with street sweeper bristles. Some will open quickly, but some won't at all.

[MBI]

My character has a friend who knows how to pick locks he can call and get directions from.

Thanks.

Are you saying your character doesn't know how to pick locks, but he's going to improvise a set of lockpicks on site, then phone a friend who will talk him through picking the lock? If that's the case, it's not terribly likely. I mean, I can't say never, but that's a one in... many thousands, in terms of odds that that's ever going to work. Especially if he's in a hurry as you imply.

Even if he had real picks that would be petty tough to talk someone who has never picked a lock, how to do it over the phone in a hurry. Very occasionally you'll run across a lock that practically falls open when you put the pick in, but it's the very rare exception to the rule and is more likely to happen with a low quality padlock than with a deadbolt or knob lock.

Doing all of the above with just unmodified wiper inserts? Bloody unlikely. As mentioned by the Squelch, it's just too big to be able to manipulate pins. If he's using the really really small wiper inserts that aren't very common AND he's picking a lock with a very "flat" bitting (very little difference in height between cuts on the key) there is a small chance he could get it to work. But at that point you're talking about a combination of circumstances that is astronomically improbable.

[Jacob Morgan]

How about making the lock a warded lock on an old door, instead of a modern pin tumbler? It would be more believable for a person with little experience and improvised tools to manipulate open an old warded "skeleton key" lock. Even these days there are a few of those locks still in use.

[Joshua904]

This character has nothing on hand, but windshield wiper inserts?
Would sound like he has access to a car, can he not find something else on it to pick with?
The chrome metal trim around stuff is usually soft enough you can bend it a few times and snap it off. Might be possible to fold it and get a skinny piece and just bend it enough to pick,(or most likely rake) a crappy lock open.

[Mighty]

Perhaps the end of an old car antenna if it was a big lock? I don't have a lot of experience bending them or trying to fit them inside locks, but it seems more reasonable than a wiper insert.

[jimu57]

Use the temple pieces from the wireframe glasses that he is wearing to form a tension wrench and pick. It's fiction, right?

[billdeserthills]

Simply remove a tension wrench & a pick from your character's hidden flap of scar tissue, which he carefully keeps open as a hide away

[Jacob Morgan]

Maybe there is a way to make something more believable: maybe he sees a key on the floor or on a nearby table and uses a coat hanger to retrieve it through the mail slot.

[billdeserthills]

Maybe there is a way to make something more believable: maybe he sees a key on the floor or on a nearby table and uses a coat hanger to retrieve it through the mail slot.

Yes, have the character simply consume some God's Food (magic mushrooms) and then he can move about freely without the confines of time & space

[jimu57]

Photon torpedo pick set.

[Jacob Morgan]

Wire coat hanger, mail slot. Use your imagination how that could work.

We can leave the mushrooms for Alice.

[kitster_kosh]

Thanks guys for all of the feedback. I knew I needed to talk to some people who actually do lock picking. I'll ditch the windshield wiper blades. Basically he's in a back parking lot--I guess he could find something else to use?? It is fiction and the lock picking part is not going to be detailed, so I don't mind if I need to "cheat" reality a little bit. But it would be cool if it were closer to probable. This character has seen his friend pick locks before, but hasn't done it himself--not sure if that helps his likelihood of getting it right.

I'll give you more details, but I sincerely apologize if I sound like an idiot to everyone here, but I know next to nothing about this stuff, which is why I'm here. Basically my character is trying to get inside a trailer, something like this: http://www.dhmco.com/trailer.asp?id=5269#MorePhotos But it's all locked up because the villians have something important in it. My character *has* to get in through the "dressing room" door, not any of the parts that turn into a ramp. He could maybe try to get in through a window, but most of those windows are bared, and I would think that the villains would make sure they can't open if they have something so important inside.

I mean, if I *have* to, I can change things around so he has access to a tension wrench and pick (from his lock picking friend). Anyway, I'm open to more ideas.

[Joshua904]

That door you specified in the pictures has the locking bar like the back of semi truck trailers. You lift the handle and rotate it, and a hasp drops over the handle to secure it in place (which in turn you put a padlock on).
For clarification purposes- this is what you are aiming for? He needs to open a padlock?

They do make credit card break out pick sets, since you mentioned he has friends that picked locks.
If it's a cheap padlock, he could shim it with a discarded Coke can.