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repo men

Having read the FAQ's you are still unfulfilled and seek more enlightenment, so post your general lock picking questions here.
Forum rules
Do not post safe related questions in this sub forum! Post them in This Old Safe

The sub forum you are currently in is for asking Beginner Hobby Lock Picking questions only.

repo men

Postby geno » 9 Jul 2005 22:48

I was watching a show called Repossessors on Discovery channel earlier today. They showed a bunch of guys picking doors and ignitions using a rake technique.

The one thing that I found very interesting, was one guy was repoing a large RV and it only took him 1 minute to open the door and start it up and drive away. The cool part was he made a key right there. He had a key blank and impressioned it in the ignition. He used a hand held device that he referred to as a "curtis gun" to cut the guy. It seemed like it acted as a punch to remove material.

Has anyone ever heard of a Curtis gun?
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Postby Grudge » 10 Jul 2005 0:13

They are probably refering to the Curtis Industries model 15 clipper. Some nice pictures on this ebay sale http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=12578&item=7529788095&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

These seem to be a popular manual key cutter, along with the Pak-A-Punch http://www.hawleylock.com/a1.html
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Postby geno » 10 Jul 2005 7:36

That ebay link looks like the one I saw. Looks like those types of tools are pretty expensive. You would probably be much better off having a key machine in the back of your van.
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discovery channel

Postby raimundo » 10 Jul 2005 8:11

I saw that show, in fact I recognized the show from having watched it before, and this time I was watching more carefully. repossers in florida, new york, washington dc, and bend oregon. The main lockpicker guy was called 'john nowatka' or something like that. they always said he did it in under a minute, which is believable, because the lock on that RV was just a simple wafer lock, like on a desk drawer. The film was cut to give just a few good glimpses of the technique, and the techniquie shown was always heavy pressure. the Porsche he picked "in under a minute" was done with jigglers. the only pick tip I was able to catch a quick glimpse of was a hook which the other picker guy was using on a freightliner ignition, and he was using it as a jiggler/rake!!! The picking was all for sexing up the show, most of the repossessing was all about tow truck, and they never showed a thing about the skip tracing or how they developed the 'informants' who told them where the vehicles were and when. I got the idea that either these people had 'informants' around them who either were paid or had some negative motives. I think that the lockpicking while being shot by a camera man whos attention sometimes drifted to the guys hairy legs rather than his hands probably took longer than the 'under a minute' that was always taglined to each instance. Once again, it was a show that was hiding a lot of what it was said to be about.
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Re: discovery channel

Postby geno » 10 Jul 2005 8:58

raimundo wrote:I saw that show, in fact I recognized the show from having watched it before, and this time I was watching more carefully. repossers in florida, new york, washington dc, and bend oregon. The main lockpicker guy was called 'john nowatka' or something like that. they always said he did it in under a minute, which is believable, because the lock on that RV was just a simple wafer lock, like on a desk drawer. The film was cut to give just a few good glimpses of the technique, and the techniquie shown was always heavy pressure. the Porsche he picked "in under a minute" was done with jigglers. the only pick tip I was able to catch a quick glimpse of was a hook which the other picker guy was using on a freightliner ignition, and he was using it as a jiggler/rake!!! The picking was all for sexing up the show, most of the repossessing was all about tow truck, and they never showed a thing about the skip tracing or how they developed the 'informants' who told them where the vehicles were and when. I got the idea that either these people had 'informants' around them who either were paid or had some negative motives. I think that the lockpicking while being shot by a camera man whos attention sometimes drifted to the guys hairy legs rather than his hands probably took longer than the 'under a minute' that was always taglined to each instance. Once again, it was a show that was hiding a lot of what it was said to be about.


HaHa! You noticed that too. Its funny how my point of view changed since that show originally aired a few years back, before I got into picking.

God only know how many car locks will need repair this morning! :lol:
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Postby fixer » 10 Jul 2005 23:10

geno wrote:That ebay link looks like the one I saw. Looks like those types of tools are pretty expensive. You would probably be much better off having a key machine in the back of your van.


The idea of using the cutter when impressioning is that you can sit in the vehicle, get marks on the blank, cut one depth deeper in those positions and repeat. If you were trying to use a machine, you would have to keep running back to your vehicle and cutting a few cuts every time you saw some marks.
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Alot of repo men not that great.

Postby ufd538 » 12 Jul 2005 22:20

yes, repo men don't do too much making keys anymore. Most used car lots keep a spare key. We have alot of places coming to get keys when the car gets sold, because they need a spare before they let the car off the lot.

We have alot of repo men coming in and getting keys cut by code.

One time we got a call through gm's roadside service to open a new colorado. Now when you get a call through gm they give you a key code regardless of the call, so often times for lockouts, we just cut a key, being that the colorado is relatively new and was even newer at the time, and uses a new keyway, we did not have anything to cut it, other than the framon machine at the shop, and was not convenient to go to the shop as opposed to just openning the truck. Well my cousin got out there and the guy was like, where's my key, my cousin told him he was instructed it was a lockout, and he didn't make a key. It turned out the guy was a repo man, and he had all the owners info and was trying to use the owners own roadside to repo the car. Not a skilled repo man, but creative, too bad it didn't work.
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Postby plugaru » 13 Jul 2005 2:13

a quick question How did he get the code from the lock???
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Postby geno » 13 Jul 2005 8:35

plugaru wrote:a quick question How did he get the code from the lock???


He impressioned the lock with a blank key.
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