# How does the locksmith know it's your house?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-locksmith-know-its-your-house/535563
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 9, 2010, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-locksmith-know-its-your-house/535563 "2010-04-09T18:35:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2010, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-locksmith-know-its-your-house/535563/41 "2010-09-09T19:03:25Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#):
>
> > [@DCnDC](#):
> >
> > …[A]sk questions like… “You’re **sure** you don’t have your keys on you?” stuff like that. That second question may sound like a strange thing to ask, but trust me, on at least a couple of jobs the person actually **did** have their keys in a back pocket, or sitting on their car seat or something…
>
> My Aunt Jody, a dear lady but a little scatterbrained sometimes, called the police one hot summer day many years ago because she’d locked herself out of her car with her baby still inside. The cop looked at her, walked around to the other side of the car, and opened the unlocked door there. 😃
Another anecdote…
My wife called me one day years ago to tell me to get my butt over to the daycare center ASAP as she had locked the keys in the car with our 3 YO child inside. So I get to the daycare and I see a cop standing next to the car. Oh boy, I think, someone reported this and she’s in trouble…turns out she called the cops when I didn’t get there fast enough for her liking.
Then I notice he’s laughing his ass off, and my wife is screaming hysterically at the rear window of the car - odd I thought.
Well it happened to be about a week before Halloween and while locked in the car our little angel had managed to open several large bags of candy. She was sitting in her car seat, about a pound of chocolate on her face, munching away as my wife loudly scolded her and the cop just wiped tears from his eyes.
Good times 😃
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### Author:  [@CutterJohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CutterJohn)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2010, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-locksmith-know-its-your-house/535563/42 "2010-09-09T21:39:34Z")
Whats a locksmith opinion on electric keypad deadbolts? I picked one up a couple years back, and I consider it one of the best purchases I ever made.
And my aunt locked her keys in her truck. I drove out, and using a simple coat hangar, got it open in about 15 seconds. She was all :o, and i was all :D.
Pre 97 F150s are stupidly easy to break into.
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### Author:  [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2010, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-locksmith-know-its-your-house/535563/43 "2010-09-09T22:22:27Z")
> [@CutterJohn](#):
>
> Whats a locksmith opinion on electric keypad deadbolts?
How do those work? Are they wired into the house electrical system, meaning you can’t get in during a power outage? Or do they have their own batteries, meaning you can’t get in if the battery dies?
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### Author:  [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2010, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-locksmith-know-its-your-house/535563/44 "2010-09-09T22:47:58Z")
> [@CutterJohn](#):
>
> Whats a locksmith opinion on electric keypad deadbolts?
I assume you’re talking about something like [this](http://www.keypaddeadbolt.com/images/keypad-deadbolt-schlage-25.jpg).
They’re decent. See a lot of them on rental properties. Just as simple to install as a normal mechanical one.
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:43, topic:535563”]
How do those work? Are they wired into the house electrical system, meaning you can’t get in during a power outage? Or do they have their own batteries, meaning you can’t get in if the battery dies?
[/QUOTE]
Most of them are battery powered, with indicators when the power is running low. As you can see in the pic, it does take a key for instances that the batteries totally die or if you forget the passcode. There are more complicated (and extremely expensive) systems that would be hard-wired into a building’s security/surveillance system, but unless you have a large estate or are building a large apartment or office building, you’ll never need to know about them.
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### Author:  [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2010, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-locksmith-know-its-your-house/535563/45 "2010-09-10T02:35:31Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#):
>
> Hijack question for the locksmiths: How do you become one? Is there a school?
My son is a locksmith.
He got his start by working as a utility engineer aat a college event center. He helped his boss with locks. Asked me questions. When he left he went to work at q hotel. Helped with some locks there. After he left the hotel he got a job with a large locksmith company. Started working in the shop. In a short time he was the shop forman. From there he started to work out of a truck with one of the old guys, and in a short period of time was working by himself. When he moved to the Denver area he got a job with a locksmith co there.
I am bragging but what the heck. I been working with machinery since 1968 and have never met a more natural wrench turner then my son. Got unkles and a Grandfather that are close so I guess it is in the blood. Normally it takes several years to learn the trade, you will never know it all though.
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### Author:  [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2010, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-locksmith-know-its-your-house/535563/46 "2010-09-10T03:04:01Z")
> [@Leaffan](#):
>
> I don’t have an answer for you, but this reminds me of the Police Squad TV series where Frank Drebin (Leslie Neilsen) is undercover as a locksmith and breaks into someone’s house. So, the owner says “who are you and how did you get in here?”
>
> Sergeant Frank Drebin, Detective Lieutenant Police Squad answers “I’m a locksmith. And I’m a locksmith.”
>
> Comedic genius that series was.
From the files of [YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HWQt-w39HY&#t=m09s)!
> [@Markxxx](#):
>
> Then Mary explains to the locksmith that it’s not Rhoda’s flat…
>
> OK, but then I’m gonna memorize your face [stares intensely at Rhoda]
[MTM](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUXVNYithis&#t=2m09s)!
😃
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2011, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-locksmith-know-its-your-house/535563/48 "2011-05-04T04:03:47Z")
Reported.
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### Author:  [@llocks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/llocks)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2017, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-locksmith-know-its-your-house/535563/50 "2017-05-12T12:27:49Z")
I have been locksmithing for 30 years and the answer is simple, I look for red flags. Anything that don’t look or smell right ,so to speak. If you had a deadbolt locked , not a latch, and you said you locked your keys inside , I’d be suspect fowl play. Alot of things come into play I’m not even aware of till it happens. Sure I.D. is a good idea but it is probably locked inside too. If someone is going to steal they won’t worry about anything but getting in and out quick, not having witnesses and making it worth their wild . Not fooling a locksmith.
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### Author:  [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2017, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-locksmith-know-its-your-house/535563/51 "2017-05-12T13:20:25Z")
> [@llocks](#):
>
> I have been locksmithing for 30 years and the answer is simple, I look for red flags. Anything that don’t look or smell right ,so to speak. If you had a deadbolt locked , not a latch, and you said you locked your keys inside , I’d be suspect fowl play. Alot of things come into play I’m not even aware of till it happens. Sure I.D. is a good idea but it is probably locked inside too. If someone is going to steal they won’t worry about anything but getting in and out quick, not having witnesses and making it worth their wild . Not fooling a locksmith.
I was gonna try getting into a place like this once, but I chickened out.
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### Author:  [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2017, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-locksmith-know-its-your-house/535563/52 "2017-05-12T13:37:31Z")
Zombies just lean against the door for years until it just caves in.
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### Author:  [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2017, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-locksmith-know-its-your-house/535563/53 "2017-05-12T15:47:15Z")
> [@Chickie](#):
>
> …locked myself out…
> [@llocks](#):
>
> … suspect fowl play…
Nice original-poster-name/typo combination there.
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