Lock Picking – the reality

Lock Picking – the reality

I am an avid reader of Q & A websites. I see lots of questions relating to lock picking and how easy it might be for burglars to pick certain locks. I can say right here, lock picking is not a skill your average burglar possesses. Honestly, I’ve been doing this job for close to 15 years now, and I’m certainly not great at it. Why? Because there are much easier ways to bypass most locks.

Lock picking is a major hobby in some countries and they even have speed picking competitions. They have nice new locks that are well oiled, set up at a comfortable height and they have spent hours every day picking the same locks over and over and over again. What they don’t have is the real world problems of trying to pick locks that are so low, you have to kneel on a wet floor in a howling gale near the sea and the lock is not only rusted, but salt encrusted as well. Strangely, that never happens to the TV hero either who, despite being by-the-book, can suddenly pick any lock in seconds using nothing but a tooth pick or hair pin. Hmmmm.

I was called out to a job in Sheringham the other evening. It was a latch type lock so my first attack was to try and slip the lock. While it would be against common sense to explain how to perform entry methods, I can tell you that in the right circumstances, slipping is a super fast entry method that can take seconds. On this occasion, the door was too tight. This particular door was also devoid of a letter box, meaning I (and potential burglars) could not use a special tool that goes through the letterbox and opens latches easily, again in seconds under the best conditions. At this point, I considered picking the lock. I have picked locks like this in under 20 seconds but I knew this was not going to be on this night. The door being a very tight fit meant the actual latch was pushing hard against the keep in the door frame. Lock picking requires two tools; the pick and a tension tool, which is barely more than an ‘L’ shaped piece of thin metal. It has to be thin, because if it is too thick, it stops the pick doing its’ job. I could pick that lock 50 times and the tension tool would just not be strong enough to rotate the lock.

At this point, as a locksmith, you have to make a decision. Do you persevere possibly for hours, charging the customer a small fortune, or do you break and replace the lock. For this lock, it was a no-brainer. Three of them are equal to my hourly rate, so I went and got my drill. The drill was so fast, neighbours didn’t even bother to come and see what was going on. Had I been a burglar, I would have been in without anyone worrying about the noise made. My customer was happy because after two hours waiting for a locksmith who didn’t show, and then having to wait for me to finish my previous job, getting in quickly and getting a new lock was better than getting in later and being charged more money with no visible gain. I even changed a second lock while I was there.

All the above has a point. Burglars don’t often pick locks. Even easy to pick locks can more effort than they are worth. Burglars snap, slip, drill, smash and use plenty of other methods. But picking is rarely one of the methods they employ; this is why it is important to fit locks that carry the British Standard Kite mark, showing the lock has been tested to attacks that exceed EU regulations. BS3621 locks display the kite mark, showing burglars that they are not going to have an easy time entering your property, no matter what they try.

There is also a second point; please don’t expect your locksmith to have a magic pick that gets you in faster than the TV detective. Locks are designed to be difficult, the better locks get, the harder they are to bypass without damage. When your emergency locksmith reaches for the drill (hopefully they explained why), it’s not because he is unskilled at picking, but more because damage and replace is going to be the best option for you in terms of time and cost. If your lock looks like it will fail in the next twelve months anyway, a new lock now will save money in the near future.

If you have any questions about the above, please contact me through any method on the home page.

Thanks for reading.