opening car doors

Once my friend locked his keys in his car. He called AAA, and they sent a guy in a tow truck who opened the door by sticking a coat hanger type thing between the window and the doorframe and using it to flip the lock.

What controls are there on the sale of this device? It seems like a rather simple and inexpensive tool (just a long metal rod with strategic bends). There has to be something or cars would be broken into left and right.

Why would car theives bother getting a special device when they could use a coathanger? I have heard that you can get into many cars in less than a minute with one.

My Dad can open some car doors faster with a coathanger than he can with a key. Most of it goes back to when he hauled cars for a living, some times he didn’t have access to the keys when he needed to load them on the truck. A lot of newer cars are a lot harder to do that way, though, and require more time and specialized tools.

One of the tools you can use to get into a car is called a slim jim. It’s a flexible flat strip of metal with a hook-like notch cut in one end. On older cars (the kind that my Dad can easily open with a coathanger) all you have to do is slide it in the door, between the window and it’s liner, and catch a latch and pull. On some models of cars you have to turn the thing around so the notch faces the other way - the back of the package tells you which cars need what.

Some newer cars are made differently, and they are damn hard to unlock with a slim jim or a coathanger. Those require special tools that locksmiths carry…I’m not sure if there are any restrictions to prevent criminals from buying those.

The device in question is commonly referred to as a “slim-jim”.

AFAIK, The same restrictions apply on the purchace/sale of them as apply to lock picking tools. You must prove you have a legitimate use for them before you can get them.

These legal restrictions are, IMHO, pretty meaningless, since you can make one pretty easily. The real restriction is: just as with lock picking tools (or any tool), you have to know how to use them. It’s not as easy as it looks.

FWIW, newer cars are harder to get into. Twenty years ago, I could get into any car in less than 10 seconds with a single tool. Now I first have to figure out what kind of locking mechanism the car uses, which tool will allow me to access it, and it still takes me 10 minutes most times (I fought with one for 3 hours).

Try this site out for the latest in slim jim technology:

If you want to be further enlightened (scared?), check out their items under the “Cool” section. Blowdarts, garrottes, grappling hooks, swords in canes, etc.

I used to break into cars with a slimjim, but I quit after I got the jimmy stuck in the door. It got stuck and I tried to yank it out. When it came free, it got lodged in my skull, through the muscle tissue of my eyebrow, right beside my eye. If it was 1/4 inch further over, I’d have popped my eye.

It didn’t hurt, just stunned me. I pulled it out of my head (it was just the corner, not the whole thing) and touched my face as I said “Am I bleeding?” right about then the blood started spilling out of my face.

We bandaged it up with a bandaid and I was on my way.

No permanant damage.

Never did it again, gave my slimjim away to some other knucklehead later that week.

Now, whenever my friends lock their keys in their car, I kind of wish I had it back. Then, I touch my eye and I’m glad I don’t.
–Tim

** HOMER ** Are you sure there is no permanent damage? :smiley:

Well…

–Tim

The basics of opening a car door is this:
Between the latch and inner door lock is a rod, take tool and grasp rod and push/pull in correct direction and it opens.
Getting to the correct rod can be a trial with newer cars because they design them to make them difficult.
When I was apprenticed as a locksmith many moons ago, My boss would send me to the salvage yard and practice unlocking cars. I would pull the door panel off a car, find the correct linkage then make a tool out of heavey welding rods and practice unlocking it.
Newer cars can be damaged quite easy with a slim jim and/or someone not knowing what they are doing trying to unlock it.
last month I went out to unlock a car where the local mall cops tried to “help” a lady. They had disconnected both exterior door handles from the latch, both interior door handles as well.
As to the availiblity of the tools, it all depends where in the US you live and your state and local laws.

Osip

It’s been getting progressively harder to get into a car with a slimjim. I had a rental car 10 years ago that I locked the keys inside of. The guy from the Auto Club came and tried to use the slimjim to open the driver side door. After 10 minutes, he gave up and tried the passenger side door and it finally opened.

However, you couldn’t use the door handle on the passenger side anymore.

If anyone from Alamo Rental cars in Boston is reading this, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about that.

Woo-hoo for slim jims! I am an idiot about locking my keys in my car. (One would think I would learn…but no, I don’t)

It really annoys my parents. Random punks with slim jims make my life so much easier. Crud…my new car probably is harder to get into than my old Corsica. Drat. I’ll have to be careful.

I was watching “Gone in 60 seconds” They guys took off a front tail light & shorted it to bypass the electrical lock, I guess. Clever.

I was down in Simi Valley and I locked my keys in the car at a haunted house (with the lights on and the windsheild wipers going - yea I know I’m a moron) anyway I called triple A and they took about 15 minutes and couldn’t get the slim jim thingy to work so he flagged down a cop ( 3 or so must have passed in that 15 minute period) and the cop tried for 5 minutes took my licence, got called to a break in and forgot to give me my licence back. he came back 20 minutes later and finally got the car open but by that time the battery was deal :frowning:

Okay, has anyone come up with an alternate way that we can break into Homer’s head? Slim Jim’s apparently are ineffective.

Tim: kidding aside, glad you didn’t pop your eye.
:slight_smile: