A ten-year-old boy of my acquaintance recently developed an affinity for my lock picks. After a bit of instruction he is well on his way to an exciting career as an international jewel thief. He told me he had found his passion.
OK, so what would be a nice gift to further worry his mother? I am thinking about one of those books cut out to hold a gun.
Any ideas?
A drum set?
A set of syringes?
Tattoo gun
Surgical bone saw
after unleashing upon him your code of ethics … give him a pi-kit. probably wouldn’t be able to infiltrate fort-knox … but, am sure he could synthesize an alert for you, as to who’s at the front door … or signal an alarm, if the carbon-monoxide levels in your garage increase too high.
pi … as in raspberry-pi.
(down-arrow any of the six links below for reveal.)
I got my son a lock picking set and he also loved it. Eventually he was able to pick the clear plastic instructional lock in about 30 seconds. He then moved onto real pad locks and door locks and as expected, the novelty wore off after a couples hours of frustration. He hasn’t touched them in years. 
Based on the other posts, there’s no lack of humourous options available to worry his mother. However if he is good with his hands (as a locksmith might be), I got my son a book on basic wood carving and a good carving knife. He did develop an interest in carving as a hobby from that.
https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/tools/books-and-dvds/55741-carving-for-kids?item=49L2726
Regarding the gun book safe, as the old saying goes “Give a man a gun book safe, and he has a gun book safe. Teach a man to make a gun book safe and he can do videos for YouTube or sell them on Etsy”
I’m actually making regular (non-gun) book safes for friends for Xmas gifts.
Thank you all.
Cyanide capsule? (Be sure to stencil CYANIDE in big letters on the side.)
Maybe one of those “Mission: Impossible,” Tom Cruise suspension harness dealies.
I would suggest a course of rappelling lessons.
Don’t they go together naturally?
Chemistry set, with chemicals and recipes
Set of throwing knives
Condoms, lots and lots of condoms
Throwing axes
Rock climbing pinions
Pocket flask
Marked cards
In seriousness, a cool gift would be a mocked up door, mounted vertically. Different locks can be installed and he can practice on them in a more realistic setting. It’s one thing to pick a lock at the comfort of your desk or bench from above, another on your knees working horizontally. Also, picking can damage the lock*, especially for someone learning and his family will appreciate their real locks continuing to function. You basically just need a piece of wood about door-thickness and about 12 x 6 inches with a knob -sized hole.
*When I was in college, some friends and I lived in a building scattered among a few different units. We’d prank each other in various ways and I once picked my buddy’s apartment’s lock for a reason I now longer recall. The building manager pulled me aside shortly after and mentioned that he had reason to believe that there was a lock pick operating in the building damaging locks and gave me a sideways glance. I put the picks away, the building super was cool and I didn’t want to break anything.
Marked cards and a shaved deck sound like just the ticket.
Thanks again.
In Illinois (and some other states), locksmiths have to be licensed by the state, and guess which profession has the most infractions by far? Yep.
You’d think it would be something like nurses or barbers/beauticians, because there are so many of them, but they’re in 2nd or 3rd place. The most common reason a locksmith got in trouble? They lied about their criminal record.
I told that story to an elderly woman in my old town, and she replied that her late husband’s family had been in the hardware business and they both worked at the store off and on in the early years of their marriage. All of a sudden, there were certain tools they could no longer legally sell, and had to send to a certain address. She did recall that they were lockpicking tools.
As for annoying gifts, how about some Moon Sand, or the chips-and-salsa dish my sister got my brother and his wife when their daughter, who turns 21 today (HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?) was a toddler. It was shaped like a sombrero with the salsa cup in the middle, and on that cup was button that when pushed, played a few seconds of “The Mexican Hat Dance.” Of course, my niece thought that was The Greatest Thing Ever and they took the battery out shortly afterwards.