I’ve picked cabinet and drawer locks frequently, as far back as junior high. I’ve only picked door locks a few times (all legitimate occasions, unlocking facilities I was supposed to open up when the person with the key was running late). The cabinet and drawer locks have consistently been the easiest, usually yielding to a couple of paperclips, as well as the most useful–people in offices often misplace their keys or otherwise lose access to their own storage space.
I’ve also removed and swapped all the lock cylinders in a cubicle with those from an adjacent cube, just to disabuse a coworker of his faith in the security of those locks.
I’ve picked a fair number of locks. Not for any practical reason. Just goofing around. Some are incredibly easy, but some took me quite a while.
Locks are usually designed to keep out casual opportunists. If someone is really determined to gain access (eg not afraid to cause overt damage) the lock itself won’t do much to stop them.
I have been interested in locks and how they work since childhood, so in recent years as lock sport videos became common on YouTube and tools readily available, I bought some tools and practice locks and set to work.
Unfortunately, it really is a skill that needs to be practiced regularly, just like mastering a musical instrument. I am able to open simple padlocks easily enough (“Master” is the biggest joke in the lock sport community), but more serious locks require more finesse than I have.
At one point I realized that if I am going to be spending an hour a day practicing something I’d rather it be the bass guitar and not lock picking. So my skillz never did progress beyond raking open locks by chance and single-pin-picking of cheap padlocks.
This thread came to mind when I got to work this morning. The lock on the side door where a bunch of us come in is notoriously, um, weird. The first 3 days this week, it worked for me as one would expect. But this morning, I had to back the key out a full 1/4" before I could turn it and get into the building. Last week, a coworker gave up and went around to the main door, where the lock seems a bit more consistent.
I’m guessing the inconsistencies would make it really easy to pick. Multiple reports to TPTB have been ignored. I guess when someone breaks in and steals all our computers, that’ll change.
I have never done it but I have often thought it would be an interesting skill to learn. My mother has fallen at her home before, and I of course have akey. But I have told her if the ambulance was closer they could break in. She said she would not want the door broken but I offered her even odds they had someone on staff who knew how to pick locks, in the vent of such an emergency.
Yes, way back in the dark ages of the early 70s I learned to turn a soda can and pocket knife into a set of shims for ‘masterlock’ type padlocks, and how to use bobby pins or the large heavy paper clips or even the little coping saw blades into picks.
My current watch band has a hidden handcuff key in the buckle.
Now I feel really dumb. It’s something I’ve tried to do, but the only time I succeed was with a lucite “training lock” where you could see what you were doing as you raked the pins.
I’ve broken into lots of place in other ways (not for nefarious reasons) but wasn’t able to pick the low-security lock on my front door.
My funniest breaking-in story was when I rented a church’s social hall for a party. The next day, I found that someone had included some of their silverware (available to us in the attached kitchen) with my dishes. So I went to the church to return it, but they had locked up.
The door to the kitchen had a screen door that had been locked the night before, and behind it, a wooden door that had been unlocked. The screen door was mounted backwards, so it was easy to remove the screen. I did that, reached in, unlocked it, and returned the (now clean) flatware. Then I locked up behind me and replaced the screen.
I never have. Idle conversation over beer with a locksmith did give me this factoid: The most difficult locks to pick are the locks on old mausoleums. Apparently the locks are pretty complex and the doors, themselves, are valuable. So, according to him, just drilling the bastid out isn’t an option. Supposedly, this becomes necessary when an unusually elderly person dies and neither the surviving family, nor the deceased’s lawyer, nor the BOD of the cemetery are able to locate keys they are supposed to have, but haven’t been needed in decades.
I work at a prison, so very few employees have keys to any given lock. Occasionally, I’ll need to get into a locked filing cabinet or something, and whoever has the key isn’t there that day.
I’ve got an inmate who I can count on to pick any lock whenever I need him. His skills are very impressive, and a bit disturbing.
In my yellow state, the statute (and I’ve read it, though in legalese) says that if we stop you, it prima facie means you’re up to no good. So I would probably be okay shipping to my house, but would never take it out of the house.
In my green state (and someone I trust read the statutes recently) lockpicks are legal, but if you are are stopped inside a place you aren’t supposed to be, the state will assume you used them to get there.
So, it’s fine to carry them in public, or to try to pick locks if you have a right to open that door, but there are some legal considerations.
Man, could they have made those two shades of green even closer together? I mean, I can distinguish them, but , damn, they are not making it easy on me. Stripes or another color or something at least!
I’m surprised it hasn’t been mentioned yet; but there’s a youtube channel called LockPickingLawyer, where picks almost every kind of lock imaginable. It’s become a guilty pleasure of mine almost on par with Dr. Pimple Popper.
There’s a great story about Richard Feynman picking locks and driving his supervisor crazy during the building of the atomic bomb. I’ve tried without success and have thought about getting more serious about learning as one of my Useless Skills (Things that may indeed have a purpose but you wouldn’t put them on a CV , per se. So far, origami, blues harmonica, tin whistle, intro calculus, knot tying, and a few more). RF is one of the people in history I would have loved to go drinking with. Also, Ben Franklin and Marie Curie.
