I remember the money laundering thread from awhile ago, so I’d like to point out that I have no plans to break open a lock. Here’s my question–in movies, people always bust open locks with credit cards. How the hell do they do that!?
It would seem that they can get behind the bolt and turn it. But I am not a locksmith. Once, when I got locked out of my house, my windows were open, and I jimmied the screens with my trusty card. You can also atempt to jimmy locks wit similar-looking keys. There has got to be a locksmith on the forum that can explain better though.
I don’t know about opening a bolt with a credit card, but on many doors, you can move the latch with a flexible card. When I was a teenager, my friend and I could open many doors at our Jr. High with our student ID cards. I would imagine that a credit card would break, or just not be flexible enough to slide around the metal or wood flange that usually protects the latch on most doors. Also, you are talking about the movies, where anything is possible.
Anymore, I find lock picking to be so much easier than using a card. Not that I am breaking into places I should not be…
At our high school band room, students frequently got there to practice before the directors came in to work…so one or the other of us had some sort of driver’s license or ID card to break in to the room. But sshhhhh…they still think it’s pick-proof.
Can’t say I’ve ever tried to pick the lock that way. Haven’t tried it any other way either.
The OP does remind me of an episode of Moonlighting though. David Addison teaches Maddie how to pick the lock by doing it to the hokey pokey.
Hello,
How is a door jimmied with a credit card.
Well, my name IS Jimmy, and I am actually a locksmith so I guess this question is mine.
In RL you can Jimmie any spring latch. Open the nearest door. Look at the latch that is sticking out of the side of the door. Notice it is sloped towards the door jamb? This feature is so the door latch closes automatically when you close the door.Otherwise you would have to turn the knob every time you wanted to close or open the door.
A credit card (or drivers licence) slides in the crack running between the door and the doorjamb and slide up the latches strike, pushing it in until it clears the strike plate(brass plate the latch sticks in when door is closed)
In RL, interior doors are easy to credit card and exterior knob locks are not. Go to the front door, look at that latch.Most exterior doors have an additional piece.It looks much like a pillar that rides behind the latch on the non-sloped side. This piece is SUPPOSED to rest against the strike plate, but, not enter it. When just the pillar is depressed, the latch will not retract or be allowed to be “jimmied” Unofrtunately, poor instalation or changes in the way the door hangs (house settling, door sagging) one of two things happen.One: the latch becomes to far away to completely depress the pillar, allowing the latch to be forced back into the door. Two: the pillar falls into the strike plate and stays extened which allows the latch to be forced back.
Credit cards work best because they are flexable enough to bend and give enough to work around the door frame and strong enough to push the latch back.
I personally hate locking knob locks. they have no real security. A good pipe wrench can twist most residential locks open with ease.
Deadbolts are the real security on a door.
I am glad I am finally able to help out with a topic I am very familar with. (10 years as a locksmith).
So, if anyone else has a question feel free to ask. I will answer as best I can without arming the masses for a massive crime spree.
If no further questions I shall continue following aha around worshiping the posts he deems worthy to share with us.
hope that clears that question up.
I have a question! What (in your opinion) the hardest brand of locks to pick? What are the easiest? The first one I ever picked was a Schlage using improvised materials, and the terrible scrubbing technique. It took me about three minutes to do it. I was told later that they make good locks in fine tolerances. Are there easier ones?
I have no crimes on the agenda; just wondering.
Locks that are hard to pick have one or more of the following.
- extremely high tolerance such as Medeco,Keymark,Best, Sargent Keso.
- an unusual key slot such as Abloy, Keymark
- unusual location or design of pins or wafers such as Sargent Keso, Abloy, ASSA, and Sclage PRIMUS.
Many things can make these locks easier or more difficult to pick.
The higher number of pins/wafer chambers in a lock the harder to pick (and longer the key)
The number of different keys that operate the lock, such as locks that have been mastered. A good example of this would be apratment complexes where the “Master key” works all the apartments (for service personel) and individual keys for each tenet that works only their locks.
How the lock in mounted. A pin tumbler lock found on most homes in the US, is a good example of a pin tumber lock.
If the lock is mounted with the keyblade facing downwards when inserted it becomes more difficult to pick, due to the springs in the “top” chamber getting weaker over time.
The variation in pin length from “cut” to “cut”. Cuts are where the pins rest when the key is inserted. when you have a deep cut next to a high cut, it becomes more difficult to manipulate the pins with picks to all reach the shear line at the same time.
Normal wear and use. The more the lock is used the easier it is to pick. If the lock has been exposed to the weather and not used the pins do not move real easy.
That should cover that question with mind-numbing detail
**
[/QUOTE]
That should cover that question with mind-numbing detail
**
[/QUOTE]
Thank you. Details are what I wanted. Now for the next question: certain vehicles easier to pick than others? I heard that GM products are simple.
GM products are easy to pick. They just require a specialized set of picks to do it.
Gm car locks have a spring loaded side-bar that drops into place when the correct is inserted.This only happens when all wafers are in the coeecert position. This stops a tension wrench and regualr pick MOST of the time.
The picks used on GM, has a comb like pick that rides up between the wafers and removes the spring tension which allows you to move a wafer to line up with the sidebar.
With no spring tension, the wafers are easy to align with the sidebar, sometimes as a good couble of lite thumps on the door.
I find that picking the 10-cut ford locks the easiest.
these are found on most ford products after 1985.
Chryslers, Nissans, and Hondas are not to bad.
Toyotas can be rough, and I have not even tried to pick the high security locks on some newer verhicles.
For an extremely complete view of locks as a means of self defense, I recommend reading Massad Ayoob’s “The Truth About Self Protection”, especially the chapter on locks (surprise, surprise).
[slight hijack]
I used to drive a 1986 Firebird (looked exactly like the car from Knight Rider :D). One evening, after socializing at a friend’s house, I realized I had locked my keys in. While standing out in the front yard debating which option would be cheaper, a brick or calling a locksmith at 3:00 am (no offense to Osip or his profession), my friend’s neighbor, the helpful juvenille delinquent, came out and opened my door in 10 seconds flat, using only his hands. Apparently, as he was only too happy to explain, Firebirds and Camaros of that era had a lot of play in the side windows, and if one could dig their fingers in around the rubber seal, the glass could be pulled out about 3 inches, then, if one’s arm was skinny enough, one could reach right in and unlock the door. :eek:
[end hijack]
Vera
That works on most Toyota celicas from 78-85.
is probably why I am not asked to unlock many of those.
Back when I was a little smart ass punk, a friend lifted a jimmy stick for me. I got pretty good at breaking into Ford products, and most GMs (not the ones with the side door latches, tho). One day I was demonstrating my technique on a Festiva, and the stick got caught on a lockbox. I, stupidly, stood over the stick as I pulled on it. It slipped out, and embedded itself in my face about 1/16th of an inch from my eye. I narrowly avoided bursting my eyeball, got the worst black eye the world has ever seen, and have a small scar beside my eye now. Needless to say, that was the last time I ever broke into a car.
P.S. I never stole anything from the cars. I just liked knowing I could get in.
–Tim
Who is Jimmy, and why is he being locked up?
–Baglady, pretending to be ignernt.
In Ye Olde Days, a hacker (as distinct from a computer cracker) was expected to be able to pick a lock – or at least be able to talk knowledgeably about it, since actually doing it while being watched invokes evil spirits (I’ve picked countless locks - not that I was great at it or anything, but it was a dimwitted hobby - but never succeeded when someone was watching me do it. The lock always yielded when they wandered off)
General advice: when locked out, always examine the rest of the locking device, not just the lock itself. It’s usually easier to defeat the latch (e.g. the credit card trick or the double-L wire), the knob, the frame, etc.
I used to do this quite frequently when my brother was in a hotel bathroom. How to do it, though, I’m not too sure. All I know is that it was easy, it pissed him off and I was happy.
I’m such a brat.
I used to do that too. Usually all you did was insert a nail file into the narrow slot on the doorknob, and Click!, the door would pop right open.
Another question: How good are pick guns? Do they really open most pin-tumbler locks in under a minute?
try ask.com, search for ‘how do you pick a lock’:
http://www.lysator.liu.se/mit-guide/mit-guide.html
“pick guns jacknife pick lock picks hand pick lock tubular picks electric lock pick high tech lock pick mini pick
slim jim car openers pad lock shims tension wrenches professional pin kits and many other lock picking tools
and locksmith equipment.”
Have fun.
Osip wrote:
Thomas Plate, in the book Crime Pays! refers to something called a lock puller, which sounds substantially simpler than even the slim jim as a method of gaining access to a car. But it’s unclear from his description what this tool looks like and how it would work. Could you explain this to me?
Also, I’ve seen a locksmith create a duplicate ignition key by inserting a blank, wiggling it, and then filing the blank down with a hand file. It took him about half an hour to do this. I understand that the pins put scratches on the blank, but how did he know how deep to file the notches on the key?