How relevant is single pin picking in crimes?

[Robotnik]

There is an old adage that says "locks only keep out honest thieves", in the real world thieves aren't interested in opening a lock without causing damage, they will take the quickest, dirtiest option and not care what damage is left behind. In a world without locks you would be as safe as you are now, when was the last time a home invader tried your front or back door lock? Most doors are assumed to be locked and are treated as if they are locked, in my neighborhood doors could be left open quite safely. Locks provide us with a sense of security rather than keeping thieves out. If they want your stuff they will take it any way they can.

Single pin picking is an enjoyable pastime and makes TV and Movie stars famous but I don't think most thieves would carry around a pick kit just in case they were searched by some suspicious cop.

Ray

While I certainly wouldn't stop you from installing passage latches on all your exterior doors, I'll respectfully disagree with the idea we'd all be just as safe without locking devices.

When was the last time someone tried my locked door? About a year ago. Not the first time it's happened, likely not the last. It's not that I live in some morally abhorrent neighborhood - relatively decent, though people get robbed every now and then - it's just that locks serve a purpose, and I employ them to the fullest extent I can. Keeps me calmer; if someone decides to really put my home security to the test, I'll ideally have the time to call the cops and make a pot of coffee before they're ever halfway done.

I always assume everyone who stands by the 'locks only keep honest people honest' idiom must not password-protect their WiFi router or Facebook account...after all, passwords only keep honest computer users honest.

[billdeserthills]

There is an old adage that says "locks only keep out honest thieves", in the real world thieves aren't interested in opening a lock without causing damage, they will take the quickest, dirtiest option and not care what damage is left behind. In a world without locks you would be as safe as you are now, when was the last time a home invader tried your front or back door lock? Most doors are assumed to be locked and are treated as if they are locked, in my neighborhood doors could be left open quite safely. Locks provide us with a sense of security rather than keeping thieves out. If they want your stuff they will take it any way they can.

Single pin picking is an enjoyable pastime and makes TV and Movie stars famous but I don't think most thieves would carry around a pick kit just in case they were searched by some suspicious cop.

Ray

I would like to add that a good lock will force a thief to make a sign of forcible entry. For example my house was broken into a few years ago,
I had a medeco deadbolt on my front door and someone (I suspect a neighbor brat) chipped away at the latch with a screwdriver and a hammer,
until so mush of the door had been removed, that the latch fell out of the door. I was disappointed that he had found his way past my all-mighty
medeco lock, but it was evident that someone had broken in, immediately upon my seeing the front door damage. The thief hadn't bothered to
take anything I could think of, not even the morphine pills from the medicine cabinet, that I left as bait

[ltdbjd]

I had a question about the bait, but I'll get to that in a second. First, the revenge; muahhaaahhaa ((( evil laugh whilst rubbing hands together in a menacing manner)))

You said "so mush of the door ....". That made me happy to read, because I remembered something from my GM code post:

Except for the part where 'they'll likely have to have the key towed" sentence it is very good

hard for me, I used to be a proof reader

Baahaaaa. Sorry, I couldn't resist (but all in good fun)

Anyway, why do you say you leave it as bait? I've heard of leaving cheap jewelry and the like as bait so thieves think they got something, when the real stuff is safely hidden away. Why is your morphine "bait." Do you have other meds stashed away, or did you fill the bottle with special homemade pills? Something like a combo of ExLax and ipecac? Or botulism and rat poison? Maybe Carolina Reaper powder pressed into pill form?

[GWiens2001]

Why is your morphine "bait." Do you have other meds stashed away, or did you fill the bottle with special homemade pills? Something like a combo of ExLax and ipecac? Or botulism and rat poison? Maybe Carolina Reaper powder pressed into pill form?

The problem with that is that it would be considered intentional poisoning - attempted first degree murder. That is why they can't use the gas cartridges for safe and vault protection anymore. You can't leave booby-traps that might maim someone.

That said, there is something I have done that worked a couple times. Took a cheap jewelry box, cleared out the inside drawers/partitions. Then took aluminum foil and crushed it into a ball, then flattened it out a bit to make it wrinkly. Now hook up a battery and a stack of the old disposable camera flash bulbs and a switch to trigger the bulbs when the lid of the jewelry box is opened.

What happened is when the crook broke into my apartment, he made the mistake of opening the jewelry box. Of course, he was looking right at the opening when 18 camera flash bulbs went off at the same time, at close range, magnified by the foil reflecting the light. Temporary blindness that lasts for an hour or more.

The first time, the guy did get out of my apartment, but someone saw him stumbling around and called for help. After being taken to the hospital, he was arrested for B&E. The second time, the guy did not even get out of my apartment before I returned. Another arrest.

Too bad those bulbs are not around anymore.

Gordon

[Jacob Morgan]

Not nearly as creative as Gordon, but inherited one of those portable fire safes. Sans key of course. Picked it open and put an old stapler in it. I figure if someone breaks in that they will grab it and run out to open it later.

More to the original post, our own Tyler Thomas had an article printed in the National Locksmith last month. It referenced a Univ. of North Carolina study where convicted burglars were surveyed. Now, I would not bank much on the honesty of convicts, but 1 in 8 claimed to have carried lock picking tools at one time or another.

I think the phenomenon has to do with what type of burglar?

1) Heroin addict looking for cash or drugs, no.

2) Good for nothing bum, burglar of opportunity, no.

3) Bored teenage brat, maybe. They think they can play James Bond and won't go to jail for a first offense. May be more likely to bump.

4) Professional burglar. Targets commercial buildings with high price goods, or homes of the well-to-do. I suspect they would know something of picking, and might resort to it if there was no good bypass method. I doubt that there are many of these criminals out there.

[ltdbjd]

We used to take the bulbs out of flash cubes and throw them on the ground at night to "blind" our friends.

[mhole]

A turned plug is not a definitive sign of picking - I've seen many worn or poorly cut keys which will pull out of a partially rotated plug. I remember one lock so worn that the key way was at 180, and people were using it like that - inserting and removing keys - to open the door.

In Bill's scenario it seems pretty unlikely to be the cause, but not impossible, especially if there is are suited or mastered locks in use.

[Robotnik]

I agree a turned plug in and of itself isn't a definite, unassailable indicator of picking. That said, in the example I cited, it was an SKD (off master system), there were only a few keys in existence (all of which were in good condition), and the pinning precluded withdrawal of even a worn key. While I didn't pull the lock from service and autopsy it, there aren't too many possibilities outside of picking for that situation.

[MiPo]

Thank you very much for all your feedback. I guess it's very hard for us to get reliable numbers / statistic data of cases where burglars used lockpicking as entry methods. But it seems that your feeling / experience coincidences roughly with mine. Lock picking is possible but if done, it's rare and maybe limited to raking. I agree that for sensitive areas this might be different and here hard to pick locks are more important. Also because here the physical security of door and locking mechanism is probably much better better then for residential situations. And as said, always the easiest way in chosen by the intruder.
So, I conclude that a lock (for door or padlock) is good enough for personal use as long as it cannot be raked / bumped / bypassed. Physical security is much more important if the above criteria are met than striving for extra pick resistance.

[huxleypig]

So I did a bit of research into locksmithing used for bad purposes a while ago and the exact number of burglaries/crimes committed using none-destructive methods is very hard to pin down. The figures I found ranged from between 2-6% but the parameters that different police forces use to define exactly what was included varied a lot. Often I am sure that they had the keys (or maybe copied them). There is a lot of guesswork going on here. In all but the most high profile of cases, the lock will never get forensically examined, even if there is no obvious sign of entry.

Then what if you come home to a burgled house and find no signs of forced entry? You make some signs so the insurance don't weasel out of paying up, right? How many times does that play out?

Despite this, the number will be very low still. To answer the OP's question, SPP will have been used in only a fraction of even these cases. I am sure that they do exist in every level of crime, with the higher percentage being skewed to the more professional end, but still not many at all.

[MiPo]

That was very interesting @huxleypig - thank you very much for the info. I'm a bit shocked to read that not every lock is in-depth examined is case of a burglary if it's unclear how they gained access.

[huxleypig]

What fascinates me is that although the vast, vast majority are forced entry, there is still that small number that are not. So some of that number still have to be considered.

Forensically examining a lock costs more money than the average police force wish to pay out for a run-of-the-mill theft. Hell, in the UK they are hard pushed to come out at all any more. Recently, due to police funding cuts, they came out and declared that the onus was now on the homeowner to install hidden cameras and provide their own evidence in the case of a burglary! Even basic fingerprint dusting is getting rarer, let alone a forensic lock examination!

Plus, what would be the motivation? The nature of lockpicking means it goes unnoticed so then I imagine that they would generally assume an unlocked/open door/window or access to the keys before lockpicking would even be considered.

[ltdbjd]

In addition to the cost of a forensic examination, you also have to consider the value of the evidence obtained. If you determine the lock was picked, then what? That info doesn't help ID a suspect or solve the case. All you now know is that at some point in time (not necessarily when the burglary occurred), the lock was picked. It could have been picked, or attempted to be picked, by any number of people. This includes the zillions of people who try to learn lock picking by picking their own lock. You'd also have to conduct a forensic exam on every exterior lock in the house. In many homes, that would include the knob and deadbolt from the front door, back door, house to garage and exterior garage - for a total of eight locks.

In addition, your average local crime lab doesn't have forensic people who have training and experience in forensic lock analysis.

It really comes down to a cost-benefit analysis. It just doesn't make fiscal sense.

[Jacob Morgan]

Was looking around for something else and came upon this court case about a pair of bank robbers who knocked over several banks between 1983 and 1997. From http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1418602.html

"They were known as the “Trench Coat Robbers.”   Their last hit, at Seafirst Bank in Lakewood, Washington, netted a record $4.4 million...Both expert locksmiths, they would enter banks just before or just after business hours through locked doors...Twenty minutes before opening on May 28, 1992, Bowman and Kirkpatrick entered a Saginaw branch of Michigan National through a locked door."

"On December 19 the FBI executed a search warrant at Bowman's residence and found ...$89,000 in the basement safe;  a “10 code” list of police radio codes;  makeup, wigs, beards and mustaches ... police scanners with ear pieces;  a bulletproof T-shirt and vest;  locksmith manuals and a key code, key blanks, a key making machine, and lock picking equipment.   He was arrested for possession of an unregistered silencer..."

" Bowman was identified as one of the Hawkeye robbers;  he opened a safe deposit box in Lansing, Michigan the day after the Michigan National bank robbery where the FBI later found almost $12,000 in cash, costumes, guns, and lock picks...On December 2, 1997, Kansas City Detective...found...a portion of a booklet entitled “Locksmith Ledger” depicting “Jimmy Tools”-in particular, a “J” shaped tool."

From another source http://www.alexkotlowitz.com/stories/trenchcoat-robbers:

"in 1989, Kirkpatrick had, in fact, taken a fifty-two-lesson mail-order course through Foley-Belsaw, one of the leading locksmithing schools."

"The following January, Kirkpatrick joined Bowman in Washington, to rob the Seafirst Bank.Using a set of manufacturers’ master keys that Kirkpatrick had bought through the mail by posing as a locksmith, the two men stole a Jeep Grand Cherokee. At six-thirty on the evening of February 10th, just after closing time, Kirkpatrick and Bowman drove to the bank and used a thin, L-shaped tool to open the locked front door. Both men were wearing trenchcoats buttoned at the collar, sunglasses, and baseball caps with the F.B.I. insignia; Kirkpatrick was also wearing an earpiece that was connected to a police scanner in his coat pocket. There were three women in the bank when the men entered with their guns drawn."

According to that source a couple of the videos on locks found were "“Expert Lock Picking,” and “B.& E.: A to Z-How to Get in Anywhere,Anytime,”"

So there were a couple of bad guys, they started out in their teens shoplifting to-order for a smalltime mobster, then they decided to move up and learned how to pick locks. One of them took Foley-Belsaw's claim that one could make good money through part-time locksmithing to heart. After their last, $4M robbery, they were ready to retire. But one of them paid cash for a house and drew the attention of the IRS, and the other had forgotten to pay the rent on a storage locker and when the owner found a silencer and other such things in the locker the ATF got involved, then the FBI, who had really wanted to meet them for a long time, put the pieces together. One got 15 years, the other 25. This is not typical or prevalent, but yes it does happen.

[billdeserthills]

I had a question about the bait,

Baahaaaa. Sorry, I couldn't resist (but all in good fun)

Anyway, why do you say you leave it as bait? I've heard of leaving cheap jewelry and the like as bait so thieves think they got something, when the real stuff is safely hidden away. Why is your morphine "bait." Do you have other meds stashed away, or did you fill the bottle with special homemade pills? Something like a combo of ExLax and ipecac? Or botulism and rat poison? Maybe Carolina Reaper powder pressed into pill form?

At the time I had an extensive collection of medicinal drugs,
and since I had no personal use for the morphine sulphate, I decided it would be good bait.
Now I do much the same thing with my currently unused Kel-Tec P3AT-.380, which is to say I like
to leave it laying out, in plain sight, in the hopes that a thief will simply grab it and go & hopefully
not look further for any of the real treasure, err that is-- my jew gold*


* as seen on SouthPark