THIS IS A SECURITY HEADS UP!

[C. F. 'Charley' Eckhardt]

IF YOU SECURE ANY VALUABLES USING A DIAL-FRONT COMBINATION LOCK, GET RID OF IT & PUT A KEY LOCK IN ITS PLACE! A KID HAS DEVISED A WAY OF OPENING THOSE THINGS WITH A PIECE OF ALUMINUM FROM A BEER CAN!  USING THAT THIN ALUM;INUM AND A PAIR OF SCISSORS, HE CAN, IN ABT 30 SECONDS, MAKE A TOOL THAT HE WRAPS AROUND THE LOCK'S SHANK & TWISTS. IT OPENS THE LOCK WITHOUT EVEN TOUCHING THE COMBINATION DIAL ON THE FACE.  HE HAS POSTED A 'HOW-TO' VIDEO ON THE WEB.  THE PROCEDURE DOESN'T DAMAGE THE LOCK & IT CAN BE RELOCKED..  uSING THIS TOOL, A PERSON CAN OPEN A BUILDING'S LOCK, CLEAN THE PLACE OUT, THEN RE-LOCK THE DOOR.  THE OWNER WON'T EVEN KNOW THE BUILDING HAS BEEN BURGLED UNTIL HE OPENS IT HIMSELF & FINDS ALL HIS STUFF GONE. MY EX-SON-IN-LAW HAS ONE OF THOSE LOCKS ON HIS TACK SHED & HE'S GOT SOME EXPENSIVE SADDLES IN THERE.

[Buck Grizzly]

Come on Charley you should be old enough to know that locks only keep the honest, honest. If there is a lock made that doesn't have a way of getting into them, I haven't seen it yet. A hammer is the best master key ever made. ;-)

[C. F. 'Charley' Eckhardt]

True enough--but if the lock's busted, at least you know somebody did it.  With this trick, you won't know somebody's stolen your stuff until the next time you open that lock.  That might be a week--or even months, in the case of a mini-storage building--later.  By that time the case is cold, your stuff has long been sold, & you're left with explaining to an insurance adjuster why you didn't find out about it for all that time.  After my folks died I had some of their stuff in a mini-storage for a while, until I could look at it without bawlin' like a baby & coulld bring myself to part with it.  My unit was broken into, but because the lock was broken the owner of the place called me.  They'd broken the locks on several units, but mine didn't have anything at the front they figured they could sell, so I didn't actually lose anything.  I had a good, big, Master lock on that thing, but they apparenly cut it with bolt cutters.  I got a high-security lock after that.  We had one of a mini-storage with some of my wife's folks in it & lost the key.  It took a locksmith with a power saw nearly an hour to cut that lock off.

[Buck Grizzly]

Hadn't thought of that angle. Yep better they have to at least break it to get in if possible.

A locksmith eh, they get paid by the hour right?

　

　

When I was a youngin I used to go to work with my grandpa who was a carpenter/handyman. He showed me every trick to getting into homes since he was called regularly to get into a locked house. It's shocking how many people lock themselves out of their own homes. Anyway as a teen we lived in a rather large community of ranch homes all built on individual acres. It was hard enough to get a locksmith out there but while riding my bike or motorcycle you come across people in this kind of distress. Well I became known for someone who could "help". I neve really thought anything of it since I was simply helping. It's not like I was stealing things. Well one day a neighbor came over and my dad answered the door, she told my dad she had locked herself out and wondered if I would come over and break into her house for her. My dad went ballistic. He couldn't believe I was doing this. You know what will happen doncha, something will get broken into an you will become the prime suspect, and in no uncertain terms told me to never do it again. Another time I wasn't taking into account all the variables involved.

　

If a house has a sliding door or sliding windows I can still get in them in just a couple minutes. It's amazing how secure people feel when they have a lock on something.

[C. F. 'Charley' Eckhardt]

Yeah, locksmiths do work by the hour--& they don't work cheap!  It cost us nearly a C-note to get the lock cut off.  Those locks are circular & they've only been out abt 20 yrs.  I know you can get 'em from U-Haul, but you ought to be able to get them other places, too.  JUST DON'T LOSE THE KEY! 

When we lived in an apartment that had a sliding glass door on the back, I took out my electric drill & drilled a small hole in the top & bottom of the framing. They didn't go all the way thru to the outsice, but they went completely thru the sliding part & into the rigid part.  I stuck 16d hardened nails into the holes.  You couldn't slide the door without removing the nails, but you also couldn't lift it out of the frame without removing the nails. I heard the door rattle late one night, got up, picked up my shotgun, and went into the living room.  I turned on the porch light & the living room light at the same time.  The guy saw a man in his pajamas with a 12 double in his hands, but what I saw was a streak.  He took off like his britches were on fire. This thing's stuck in italic again.