Several times I’ve seen threads started asking about the mechanics of picking locks, or where to obtain a set of picks. These always get shut down pretty quickly by the moderators.
Are they being overly paranoid? Are lockpicks really used much by burglars?
ISTM that lockpicks are only useful if you want to open a lock without damaging it, which would hardly be a concern to a thief. Wouldn’t a burglar be more likely to break the door than pick the lock?
What proportion of burglaries or other crimes are committed:
a) when someone forgets to lock the door
b) when someone breaks down a locked door with a hammer or a crowbar
c) when someone carefully picks a lock.
Lockpicking is pretty rare in most burglaries; locks are usually forced, bypassed, or avoided by going in by an easier vector. (If you think “The Club” is going to stop someone from stealing your car the you’re living the dream of Larry King endorsements.) However, in many localities the possession of lockpicks and “burglar’s tools” is itself a crime. For instance, in Missouri–hardly the most restrictive of states, *[569.180. 1. A person commits the crime of possession of burglar’s tools if he possesses any tool, instrument or other article adapted, designed or commonly used for committing or facilitating offenses involving forcible entry into premises, with a purpose to use or knowledge that some person has the purpose of using the same in making an unlawful forcible entry into a building or inhabitable structure or a room thereof.
Possession of burglar’s tools is a class D felony.](http://www.moga.mo.gov/statutes/C500-599/5690000180.HTM)*The Reader probably doesn’t want discussion about it–just as they wouldn’t want hypothetical discussions on, say, current drug use or how to dispose of a body–out of liability concerns, which is a reasonable position to take.
What constitutes “burglar’s tools” is pretty subjective, and it’s easy to make tools in a decently equipped workshop that are superior to those you can purchase commercially, so it would hardly prevent anyone from obtaining such tools, but it does give police and prosecutors an excuse to charge someone, or a way to plead them down in absense of clear evidence of another crime.
I’m not going to point to any sites, but you can find virtually anything you want to know about locks, lockpicking, bypass techniques, et cetera online, so there’s little reason to moan loudly about repression. I’m sure somewhere there’s a message board or a few dedicated to lock hacking.
My son did locksmithing for a few years. His experience was that when people were locked out of their houses he could nearly always count on getting in through an unlocked window. He had lock picks but had to practice on his own locks to stay proficient.
On time a store owner was locked out of his store. His key wouldn’t work. The front door lock was in pretty bad shape so my son asked the guy if he didn’t think a new lock was in order. When the guy said yes, my son took his heavy hammer, smacked the doorknow on the top which broke the bar between inside and outside knobs exposing the inner works, turned the bolt mechanism and walked in. This won’t work with a good lock or a deadbolt lock but many houses don’t have either. He laughed about the expression on the guy’s face at the thought of how easy it would have been at 3 A.M. to get at his merchandise.
Heh. Without going into any detail, I’ll just say that very few locking systems are anywhere nearly as effective as people imagine them to be. This is especially true with electronic systems that use swipe cards or prox cards. One of the big security deals in pin tumbler locks were spool or mushroom tumblers, which would jam tight if you attempted a crude lock picking technique like raking or snapping. They certainly did make locks harder to pick (though an experienced hacker could identify them almost immediately and use techniques to get aroudn these features), but honestly, a real thief is just going to bust the lock with simple tools that can be had at any hardware or auto parts store and move on with his business. Home grade security systems are even worse. Fortunately, the vast majority of the people in the criminal element aren’t any sharper than a box of bowling balls and are easily frightened by the appearance of security.
When my house was broken into several years ago, the thief simply kicked with the flat of his shoe just below the lock mechanism, and smashed out part of the wood frame that the (short) bolt went into. Then he just walked into the house and stole things.
The police told me that this was the most common method (other than finding unlocked doors) and that most thieves can open most doors this way without even breaking stride. (This seems to match with Bagistan’s statistics above.)
So why would they bother with a slower, more complicated, more illegal method like picking the lock?
Yeah, I’ve always wondered about this. If they can just kick open your door, what good is a lock anyway?
The police (or FBI) often do this on TV and in movies. But if THEY can do it, why can’t burglars do it when no one is listening?
The real question here is this: Can I–practically, as a citizen–install a door that neither a burglar, nor an FBI agent, could kick down or pick the lock?
I’ve seen TV shows (like the first episode of the X-Files, after the pilot) where they used a battering-ram. To enter a home. I can’t imagine having a door that a battering-ram could withstand, but I suppose it’s possible.
It should be fairly easy. My current house was owned by a police officer, who had security doors installed. They have steel frames, multiple bolts when locked and large hinges. I think it would easily resist a ram, and you could not use a shotgun on the hinges. It really would have to be a Primacord job.
My old house in NZ had wooden doors, but when we were burgled (entry via removed louver windows in the loo - must have used a kid) they not only had to break the security stays on another window to get others in, they had to kick out the french doors to get out - top and bottom bolts, reinforced hinges, deadbolts on all doors, locks on all windows. The noise attracted the neighbours, and they had to leave stuff.
Make it hard to get in, make it harder to get out with the stuff they want and always hide the remotes.
Yes (at least to the former); as illustrated by si_blakely, you could certainly install doors which are sufficiently reinforced to prevent forced entry short of using explosives or breaching (“Avon calling!”) rounds. Of course, you’re still going to have windows, right? Unless you turn your home into a fortress, complete with reinforced polycarbonate windows, et cetera, there’s little you can do to prevent a determined individual from entering the home.
However, most house burglars aren’t all that determined; they’re criminals of opportunity. The best burglar deterrent you can have (provided you can care for it) is a largish, somewhat protective dog. I don’t know if a rigorous study has ever been done, but in surveys I’ve read of dogs are the number one concern for home thieves.
If by “easy”, you mean “have to custom-make a tool for a specific lock, which won’t work on well-designed locks, and which is almost guaranteed to damage the mechanism”.
I once saw an edition of the Anarchist’s Cookbook which started the section on lockpicking with the statement “The best lockpick is a quarter-stick of dynamite, followed closely by a heavy crowbar.”. Which is perfectly true, if you’re not worried about subtlety. And the same heavy crowbar will work on almost every lock, and a lot quicker than the bump key.
We replaced our old front door so long ago, I’ve forgotten why.
The other day, I noticed the outside lock of this door was deformed. To my untutored eye, it looks as if it could have been done by a ham handed lock picker.
Methinks I’ll have all the locks changed. With dead bolts installed on the inside locks.
They usually ignore locks. Mostly just kick a door in, break a window, pry a door jam with a jimmy.
Locks are worth a whole lot less than alarms for discouraging break ins. Of course you have to have a sign saying there’s an alarm, and also not have enough goodies for someone to target your house among all your neighbors.
That’s the way I feel. It would be near imposible to secure my house. Lots, and lots of big windows. And lots and lots of big rocks in our ‘yard’ (they call them the rocky mountains for a reason).
I did however just start locking my doors when we leave. If for no other reason that I can say that the house was locked. The only reason I lock our doors is to keep any wayward nut from just walking in while we are away. And that’s a million to one shot.
We have a doggie door that I can get through (6’4” 210 lbs). And two 60 lb dogs that may make a casuall intruder think twice.
As your actual GQ has been well answered, may I address this portion of the OP?
For the sake of argument, say the mods were in the habit of closing threads about shooting up college campuses (and frankly, if they aren’t, I think they should be). Would that be being overly paranoid? I mean, the percentage of people who die, even of people who die violently, because someone lost his marbles but found a whole bunch of ammunition is really, really small. Should we be able to discuss the pros and cons of killing off classmates who offend us, and maybe even getting pointers on how to do it better?
Years ago, when I was but a young pup, I was known among the other latchkey children in my neighborhood as the kid who, when they had mislaid their keys and were unable to get into their houses after school but before their parents came home, was willing and able to climb trees, ladders, gutters, etc., and find a means of entry. It would be different, I suppose, for a thief who didn’t want to attract attention, but I don’t remember a single house resisting a determined attempt to enter it.
Locking your doors and windows and installing and using an alarm will deter virtually all home burglaries. There are too many people who don’t do those simple things that making your home an unattractive target is all you have to do.
As has been said, someone determined to get in will do so. Making your place unattractive to the theif of opportunity is the real goal. Just because you can’t stop everyone is no reason not to stop the ones you can stop.
Please do not discuss the mechanics of picking locks, how bump keys work, or where to get lockpicks from. That risks the thread being closed by the mods.
I wish ONLY to discuss whether burglars ever use them for illegal purposes, or whether most picks are used for legitimate purposes. Please don’t talk about anything else.