Comments The Locksmith Journals

day late

money? whats that?
Let me begin by saying that I have done many things in my 62 years on planet Earth. In high school I bagged groceries and washed dishes in various food joints and bars. Later I drove trucks delivering construction materials and I have also worked construction jobs. In the service, I spent my time as an infantry soldier. I spent over twenty-five years as a dental laboratory tech. making dentures and partial dentures for doctors and for students at the University of Florida College of Dentistry. And now, I can honestly say that being a locksmith is the best job I've ever had.

It is a most unusual job. First of all I know that 100% of the time when I arrive at the location, the customer is upset. Most often I hear something like;

"I can't believe that I/ my wife/ my husband/ my girl friend/ my boy friend/ my room mate locked the keys in the trunk."

Or something similar. 98% of the time it doesn't matter if it is a home, a vehicle or a business. As soon as that door comes open I am the greatest thing since sliced bread. Most people are very happy to pay whatever the charge is just to get inside of whatever they are locked out of. Especially if the weather is bad, it's a holiday or the store simply MUST open by 9 A.M. But we will get into that later. I'm sure many of you are wondering about that other 2%.

They usually fall into one of two categories. The first are the ones who think they are special. They seem to believe that I should be paying them for the privilege of working for them, or whatever I do it isn't good enough or done fast enough. Two cases come to mind right away.

"I don't have to pay for this." is the first one. I was kicked out of bed early on a Saturday morning to get a "lady" into her car. I got there and opened the car in a short time, for which she was happy. But when it came time to pay the bill she told me;

"You have to deal with the insurance company."

Ummm no. I deal with you and you deal with the insurance company. She wasn't having any of that and wanted to argue. Well I couldn't take the keys from her, toss them into the car and lock it again. Did I mention this was a low rent neighborhood? I was at the end of a cul-de-sac and at the end of the cul-de-sac on the next road over were two sheriffs officers. I walked over and spoke to one of them and asked for his help. We went back to the "lady" and I was asked to stand by my car, which I did. After a few minutes the officer came to me and said,

"Sir, you are going to have to take her to court to get your $65. But the bad news is it is going to cost $500 to get it."

I called the boss asking what to do. He simply said, leave. I did. An hour later my supervisor told me that the "lady" told the sheriff that when I left, I had taken her keys with me. I never touched her keys. I opened the door, she grabbed them and then refused to pay. The supervisor said not to panic and lets see how this plays out. It was an hour after that I got another call from the supervisor telling me not to worry at all. It seems that when the sheriffs officer arrived to take her statement, not only was she gone but so was her car. Even though I was supposed to have her keys. It didn't take much for the officer to realize she just wanted to ruin my day because I wanted to be paid for services rendered.

We will deal with more of these types later, but I really want to mention the second type. They are the totally brain dead spoiled rotten brats that you meet in a college town. The ones who have never had to take responsibility of anything in their lives because mommy and daddy always handled things. Case in point,

I was awakened at one A.M. on a Saturday morning and told to go get a young "lady" into her apartment. That is not a big deal. It happens all the time. This case was special. The young "lady" had major problems long before I got there. It seems she had stepped outside to talk with a young man in the parking lot at around midnight. While she was outside her two room mates locked the door. They didn't answer her knocks on the door and refused to answer her phone calls. So at 1:30 A.M. I opened her apartment so she could sleep in her own bed that night. I handed her the bill for services provided and she begins wailing at me,

"Nobody told me there'd be a fee."

At which point she turns and goes stomping off across the parking lot into the dark, leaving the front door to the apartment standing wide open. I have no idea what the room mates were doing or thinking. I never saw them. What could I do? If I chase her down and demand payment I'm going to be the one in trouble with the law. Besides while she is playing the victim I had gotten another call to assist someone else. I had to leave. I have sometimes wondered what her room mates had to say about that night and how forcefully they said it. But that's not my problem. Better to lose payment for one job than have to explain to your boss why you need to be bailed out of jail at around 2 A.M.

Then there was the time when I had to open a bedroom. Understand in a college town like Gainesville, people will have something like a four bedroom house. They put locking door knobs on the bedrooms and rent them out to students. I swear that some of the locks I have to deal with look like they were installed about the day after God was born. They are so old the company that made them is no longer in business and nobody makes blank keys to be cut for the locks anymore.

In this case, the person renting the room had never even been given a key for the door. It had been lost a decade ago but nobody had ever locked themselves out before. The only way I'm getting into this room is to destroy the doorknob. Well before I do anything like that I inform the customer of what must be done and let them tell me if they want me to do it. I should have known there would be trouble. Let me say that I'm very happy I didn't get pulled over that night. If I had I would have been taken straight to jail just because of the smell on my clothes. A bunch of real stoners. So they tell me to do whatever it takes to get into the room. The doorknob was destroyed, they told me that they didn't want to pay to have a new one installed and since I had to destroy the doorknob they shouldn't have to pay anything. I don't know what was in that room that was so important that they had to get in at any cost and I don't want to know. But it was one of those times where I had two more customers waiting on me and it just wasn't worth the fight.

As I have said these will be more or less journal entries that will be added to from time to time. And we haven't even touched subjects like pets, cops and other things. I'll try not to bore you and welcome comments.
 
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Ku Commando

Inactive
Good stuff so far.

What a bunch of dullards bad customers are....bummer.

I'm not far from you....Gilchrist county.....what a world of difference from the madhouse in Gainesville !!
 

Jeep

Veteran Member
I have a friend whose BIL is a locksmith. His policy is a base charge paid upfront, and his base charge is 90% of what he is going to charge for the job. That way he is paid for his job and doesn't have to worry someone skipping out on him. And from what my friend has told me, if someone refuses to pay the basic charge, he leaves.
 

20Gauge

TB Fanatic
I have a friend whose BIL is a locksmith. His policy is a base charge paid upfront, and his base charge is 90% of what he is going to charge for the job. That way he is paid for his job and doesn't have to worry someone skipping out on him. And from what my friend has told me, if someone refuses to pay the basic charge, he leaves.

This is how they work in our town. Not a bad policy
 

day late

money? whats that?
Our boss has a different approach. He wants us to get the customer to sign the bill, with the fee listed, before we start. That way they have signed a legally binding contract and can be taken to court if they refuse to pay. He's never done that, it's bad for business. And enough people lock themselves out of something that we can afford the occasional freebie.

One thing for certain is that customers come in all shapes, sizes and flavors. And again I'll address a certain type of customer, the ones you meet just after either happy hour or after the bars close, a bit later. But they don't have to be drunk to be totally helpless. My boss sent a job to me one day and warned me that the customer sounded a bit confused. Remember that I mentioned people will rent out bed rooms to students. Well I get to the job and don't ask me how this guy did it, but he told me,

"The keys to my car are locked in my bed room. And the keys to my bed room are locked in my car."

So I asked him what he wanted me to do. He asked,

"Which one is more expensive?"

I answered,

"They are both the same price."

"Which one is easier?"

"I'm a locksmith. To me they are both the same. But if I open your car that means I don't have to go inside and invade your privacy."

"Open the car."

How do you do something like that? I don't know about you folks but I keep both keys on the same key ring.

But keys are magical things. They appear and disappear at will. I was called to a restaurant to assist an older couple. They told me the keys were locked in the S.U.V. Of course when I opened it, the alarm went off attracting the attention of everyone in the restaurant. The gentleman climbed in and began his search for the keys. The only luck he had was bad. He couldn't find them and during his search the alarm shut off. Now his wife decides to help him and asks him to open the door on the other side. He did and the alarm started again. Her luck was as bad as his, once again (thankfully) the alarm shut off. So it is decided to check the back seat. There goes the alarm again and the folks still in the restaurant are really enjoying the show. After another unsuccessful hunt the only thing left to do is look all the way in the back of the S.U.V. Now we get the alarm one more time. While this is going on I got a text from the boss telling me I had another job to go to. So the gentleman and I are settling accounts while his wife goes back into the restaurant. Just as I finish running the credit card she walks out, calls his name and when he turns to look she holds out the keys.

"Where were they?"

"At the register. Someone found them in the rest room."

You know, it wasn't a week later I was called back to the same place to help another young lady. Same as before, the car door comes open, she climbs inside and begins the search, with the same results. (Fortunately this time no alarm.) Well, I've got another job to go to so I can't help her. She reaches into her purse for the wallet with the credit card and just under the wallet are the car keys. Sorry about that my dear, but I did open the car. You still have to pay me.

The company I work for has a policy I agree with 200%. In the case of a child being accidently locked in a home or vehicle, we work for free. It is considered that the health and welfare of a child is more important than any amount of profit. And that happens on a surprisingly regular basis. Usually by the time I reach the location the parent, usually the mother is looking real hard at whatever rocks might be close at hand and the window. One of the real pleasures of my job is after reuniting the parent/s and child I start to pack up my tools and get ready to leave. The conversation usually goes something like this.

"How much do I owe you?"

"Nothing."

"What do you mean? You opened the car."

"It's company policy. If a child is accidently locked in a home or car, we work for free. You don't owe me one red cent."

You would be amazed at how many times I'm on my way home, wiping lipstick off of my face before I meet my wife. But there was one time that Mommy had placed the child in the car seat and the keys under the car seat. When she closed the door, the car locked. I was sent out and when I arrived Mommy was doing exactly the right thing. To keep the child quiet waiting for me to get there, she was playing peek-a-boo through the window. She was on the passenger side of the car and I opened the drivers door, then unlocked the rest of the vehicle by pushing the unlock button. She reached in, picked up the keys and walked around to talk to me about payment. That was when I found out that she was about four months gone with baby number two. When she found out the price for the service she was grateful and that was one of those lipstick removal trips.
 
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seraphima

Veteran Member
I always carry two sets of keys to the car and the house. One set in folded paper in my wallet, and another on a key ring in my pocket. I have gotten locked out of the car by the dogs jumping on the door lock, so try to be very conscious of where the ring key is when i step out of the car initially.
Frantic is when we were having a tsunami evacuation, and i turned on the car with the dogs in it, along with my purse. The dogs locked the door when I got out to warn a neighbor. Both keys locked inside! Fortunately, was able to go back in the house and get another car key, but that was a bad couple of minutes!
 

day late

money? whats that?
I am available for questions. I have already advised an answer to the car lock out problem to another TB'er. Namely get a key made that will open the door. If your ignition key has a computer chip, you can get a door key made for just a few bucks. It doesn't have the chip and won't start the car. But it will unlock the door. I recommend that the key be screwed under the license plate. Preferably with straight blade screws. That way you can unscrew it with a coin if you have to do so. Then it doesn't matter if the ignition key is on the floor, in the ignition or the trunk. You unscrew the plate, the key falls out, you unlock the door and get on down the road.

BTW, dogs are a part of what I have to deal with as well. They are coming later.
 

Texican

Live Free & Die Free.... God Freedom Country....
To be on the safe side, I carry two sets of keys to the auto and a spare auto key in my billfold.... This has saved me pain more than once....

We keep a spare house key hidden in the carport which has come in handy more than once.... The newer fire safe escape passage sets will allow you to open and close the door while the door is locked.... Glad we live out in the sticks when the DW and even I have been in the carport with the necessities covered when we discovered that the door was locked.... That key became an embarrassment saver....

I carry a jimmy stick which has come in very handy in helping others gain entry into their locked cars.... One such incident happened at a big box parking lot where a mom had accidentally locked her very young baby in her car.... The fire department was standing around her car and informed her that they would break the car glass to get the baby out if the baby became distressed (began crying)..... I asked the lead fireman to give me a minute to get the door open and he agreed.... I pulled out my jimmy stick and worked on the passengers door and up flipped the door lock and mom, baby and the firemen were very happy.... Showed the firemen the jimmy stick and told them you can buy them at most auto shops....

Newer cars have theft deterrents built into the door where a plain jimmy stick will not work.... Find this out the hard way on a trip out of town where I rented a car and locked the keys in the rental.... Called a lock smith and he used a special tool with twists and turns in the tool that he pushed down into the window space and popped the lock.... Cost $85 in Atlanta Georgia.... Since then, I request a second key from the rental agency if they do not give me one, I stop and have a second key made for a couple of dollars.... Cheap insurance....

Mother was watching our home in the Dallas Burbs when she went out the patio door and closed the door behind her and the door passage set was a fire safe escape door lock that would open when locked.... She did not have her cell phone with her so a large rock and one pane of glass later, she was back inside.... Replaced that pane of glass with a pane of lexan which did get used several times before we moved....

Do not like these fire safe escape door locks, but it is all you can now purchase....

DL, thanks for the chapter and a few more of your locksmith stories would be great....

Texican....
 

Shooter

Veteran Member
I worked part time as a lock smith after i retired, the best one we ever had, and they had it on the security camera in the store, was the guy with his wife, she was wrapped in a sheet. had jeans and shoes on, seems they had a pair of handcuffs and the key wouldnt open them, so dug thru a box of older handcuff keys, now there all keyed the same, but these were a very old set,

the funniest part is when she asked to buy 2 keys for them, so it always worked, we laughed for days.
 

kyrsyan

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Thank you for the license plate idea. Going to use it. And pass it on to some family members. One of my biggest problems has been where to put a spare that is not typical and easy to locate by thieves. Also not a quick grab by thieves.
 

day late

money? whats that?
Everybody knows, accidents happen. I had a call just last night that proves the point. A young man went to work and he has his keys on a lanyard that you hang around your neck when you aren't driving. Can't lose them that way, right? As he got out of the car to go to work at a local organic food store, he had the lanyard in his hand when the loop of the lanyard hooked it's self on that button on the door that a lot of cars have. The one you use to lock or unlock the door from the inside. Anyway the lanyard hung up there, unnoticed, and as he stepped out and closed the door the keys were yanked out of his hand and were stuck between the door and the door frame. You could see the tips of the keys sticking out, but there was no way he was going to get them out. Time to call the locksmith, which he did at quitting time. But I will say that he was pleased to hear that I've had to offer help to other people that have do the same thing or close to it.

For example there was a lady who had the lanyard in her hand, but some how closed the door a little too quickly. She was left standing there with the lanyard in her hand and the keys trapped in the door. She did try pulling them out, but only succeeded in opening up the key ring and was left with the lanyard dangling in her hand and the end of the keys sticking out of the door, taunting her.

Our customers can be quite amusing, and cars or homes quite stubborn. I arrived and the lady tells me that the keys are on the passengers seat. Well, I can see them very clearly but most of the time that doesn't matter. I just unlock the door and they get their keys back. In this case the car, a Suzuki, refused to open. I pulled the handle on the inside and nothing happened. I pushed the unlock button with the same results. I tried the lock on the door, just above the handle you use to open the door from the inside. It snapped back shut and the door still wouldn't open. What to do? I used the rod I have for unlocking the car, reached over to the passengers seat, hooked the lanyard and pulled the towards me. I got to the point where I had the end of the lanyard in my hand and had put the rod on the ground in order to pull the keys out through the gap between the door and the frame. At this point she notices what I'm doing, looks at me and says,

"Un un, You did not just do that."

I pulled the keys out and handed them to her. And believe me, our customers are not all from the low rent side of town. In fact most of them aren't. I quite often wind up in the better areas of town helping out. It was 2 A.M. on a Saturday night/Sunday morning. I'm called to a nice area of town to get a couple into there home. Accidents happen. They had arrived at the airport at about 1 A.M. Unfortunately their luggage was still in Atlanta. Their house keys were in the luggage. So I look around and find that they have very expensive and secure locks on the front door and back. When I say secure I mean that every time I see one of these locks I put away the picks and reach for the drill. Either that or look for another way to get in. It's amazing how many times I see these locks and start to look around and end up climbing in through an unlocked window. Again, that's another story for later. This couples car is in the driveway, so foolishly I ask them,

"Do you have a remote for the garage door in the car? The door that leads from the garage into the house is always the easiest one to get through."

"Oh, that door isn't even locked. But the keys to the car are on the ring with the keys to the house."

I'm a locksmith. This isn't a problem. I put away the house breaking tools, grab the car breaking tools and they were inside in about two minutes. They were very pleased and somewhat generous. I wound up with a $20 tip for that one.

Then there was the time the customer was a middle aged physician. The car has the keys right there on the front seat and like the lady I mentioned before, his car just did not want to open. So I hooked the keys and started to bring them out thought the window. He had a massive key collection on that ring. In a case like that I have to work the keys out between the door and frame one or two at a time, until the bundle has been gotten down to a small enough package that the rest come out. The good doctor decided, unasked, to assist me. He grabbed the edge of the window and began to pull it towards him to give me more room. I had to tell him.

"Don't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because you could bend the frame that goes around the window."

"Oh. O.K."

I got the keys, gave them to the doctor he paid the bill without a qualm and headed back to the school where his young son was involved with some school program. As I was taking care of my paperwork before going to the next job I noticed. The doctor had done just what I had warned him against. The top edge of the door was now just slightly out of alignment with the rest of the frame. Well, I did tell him not to do it.

We even have the famous and near famous get themselves into trouble. I will not mention the gentleman's name, but back when Mr. Obama was running for re-election we had a local man running for county commissioner. He won and has since risen higher in Florida politics. At any rate he and his wife were doing a little last minute politicking at a nearby library. His wife asked him to run to the nearest convenience store and get her something to drink. He went to the store and here's the thing about vehicles that they say won't lock with the key fob inside. If the battery in that fob is weak or dead, they WILL lock. His car locked. So he is standing there with a cold drink in his hand watching it get warmer. I opened the vehicle and I admit I couldn't allow the chance to pass. As we were settling the bill we had a short but important conversation about politics and most importantly the 2nd Amendment. Turns out we are in complete agreement on the subject and I was happy to vote for him. Twice now.

When it comes to those who serve the public interest, cops are my favorite subject. People will call us from work with the request that we meet them at a certain place, and a certain time and get them into their home, car or whatever. I'm sitting there when a car pulls up. The gentleman who gets out is a county sheriff. The lady who gets out on the other side of the car is in the same uniform. Please understand that with many cars these days when I open the door the computer thinks the car is being stolen. The first thing it does is to shut off the ignition and the trunk release. If the keys are in the trunk, it only makes sense to open the trunk with the trunk release inside the car. So I always ask the customer,

"Where are the keys?"

"They're in the trunk."

No problem. I reach inside, grab the handle on the floor and open the trunk. The officer reaches in, gets his keys, closes the trunk and walks over to stand next to me as I'm collecting my tools. And HERE'S where it gets fun. The officer looks at the young female officer and says,

"I left my wallet at the house. Can you pay him?"

YES, he actually said that. It is clear to me that the lady had things on the mind the gentleman never considered. She looked him straight in the eye and told him,

"I want three dinners."

"I can pay you back."

"NO! I want three dinners."

"Okay."

At this point I'm thinking to myself, 'Boy, keep your big mouth shut. Get paid and get out. BOTH of these people are wearing badges and guns. DO NOT get between them.'
 

Catshooter

Contributing Member
Excellent stories Day Late.

So tell me, what is the household high security door lock that makes you put away the picks and pull out the drill?

:)


Cat
 

Millwright

Knuckle Dragger
_______________
I've always kept a toolbox key that will open the door...10bux or so.

This truck has a key with the squiggely slot in each side.

There aren't any un-chipped blanks available.

I really don't want to spend the time to build a blank and a key on the mill.
 

day late

money? whats that?
Excellent stories Day Late.

So tell me, what is the household high security door lock that makes you put away the picks and pull out the drill?

:)


Cat

They are called "Smartkey" locks. They are easily identified by a small vertical slot next to the key hole. I won't say they can't be picked, but there may be 1 in 5,000 locksmiths who can do it. And I'm not him. I've got one at the house I practiced on for 2 years and never did get it. The bad thing about Smartkey locks is that when they die they do so all at once and with no warning. A regular dead bolt warns you when you start to have to wiggle and jiggle the key to get the lock to turn. Smartkeys, don't do that. They just die. I would not recommend them unless you have two outside doors. That way you can still get in and the lock can be removed and replaced from the inside. If you have only one outside door, you're going to be calling someone like me. They can be keyed alike in a matter of seconds and they come with instructions and the tool needed to do it.
 

day late

money? whats that?
Since I told the story of the officers that seemed to be starting a relationship at her request, it seems like a good time to talk about law enforcement officers in general. Honestly speaking I estimate that law enforcement officers account for about 10% of our business. Now considering they are about 5% of the population of Alachua County, that means they do this kind more often than the rest of us do. I will never forget my first cop. I got to the location and the gentleman said,

"You know, I have a lockout kit in the trunk of my patrol car, downtown. Buuut the keys to my house are on the ring with the keys to my truck. And the keys to my truck are in the ignition, right over there." And he pointed at an F-150.

I've said it is an unusual job. Imagine kneeling down in front of a door, picking the lock. The customer is standing behind you, watching your every move like a hawk. He also happens to be wearing a badge and a gun. The fun part is that he can not wait for you to get that door open and put money in your hand. I actually have law enforcement officers PAY ME to do things that they put other people in jail for doing. I've done that, more than once.

In one case I arrived at the location only to find a sheriffs car parked in the front yard. Naturally I'm concerned. I walked over and asked the officer if there was anything I needed to be concerned about. He told me no. He owned the property and the tenants had left in the middle of the night, owing him two months rent and taking the keys with them. Why, as the landlord he didn't have a spare key, I don't know. But he asked me to accompany him as he looked over the place. He wanted a witness I guess. At any rate it was a weird situation. The interior walls were white, from waist high up. From waist level down they were black with dirt. I'll never understand how some people can live in such absolute filth. On the other hand it felt like I was in an Indiana Jones movie. With each step we took dust blew up off of the floor around our feet.

I also had the the job where when I arrived the officer had no problem with his car, but his wife had locked the keys inside their S. U. V. She needed to get to drop off the kids at daycare in the morning and then go to work. He needed to go on duty at about the same time. Call the locksmith!

Please understand, not every job involving cops is fun. I'm an infantry vet. I have smelled death before. I don't want to smell it again. But things happen. I got to the job to find three people standing in the front yard. One of them wearing a badge and gun. The customer wanted to have the front and back doors rekeyed. Not a problem, I've done this before. The officer left and the customer told me as we walked up to the door.

"I want to apologise for the smell."

"No problem. I've been places where the home owner hasn't changed the cats litter box for a month."

"You don't understand. The home owner was dead for about six or seven days before anyone found him. He isn't here but his smell remains."

We are talking about Florida, in July. It doesn't take long for flesh to begin to decompose. I got to the door, and of course had to step inside to remove the lock from the door. I stepped out onto the porch to a picnic table there. I told the customer,

"If you don't mind, I'm going to work out here."

"I don't blame you."

Being a locksmith is a great job but at times, like above, it can be quite stressful. It doesn't happen often but it does happen. Family members have not seen or heard from 'Aunt Sally' or 'Uncle Joe' for a week or more. They are concerned. I open the door and most often their worst fears are confirmed. I now have to deal with people that have just discovered that their loved one is now with Jesus, and has been for several days. I also have to wait for local law enforcement because they are going to have questions for me. Needless to say, there is no charge for the customer in a case like this. They have enough problems, we are not going to add to them.

Sometimes, I open the door, the cops go in and find that 'Aunt Sally' or 'Uncle Joe' is in bed, after an attack of some kind, badly dehydrated and very hungry, but still breathing. In such a case, there is still no bill, but it is nice to know that we got there in time.

I don't blame anyone in such cases, but it would be nice if they at least called to say thank you. But they don't. Other things are more important and I can't say that I wouldn't feel the same way under those circumstances. It happens.

I have gotten to the scene of a car accident. We were called by the local law enforcement because the injured party had locked the keys inside while inspecting the damage after the accident. I have two choices. I can unlock and force open the damaged drivers door for the person, or I can stand there on the edge of traffic and open the undamaged door and hope I don't get run over. I have this odd aversion to meeting fast moving pieces of metal with nothing more than my body. It seems like it would be a painful experience. So I fight with the damaged door.

There is nothing like being on the job, getting the car open and when you turn around you find someone with a badge and gun looking at you asking,

"Is there a problem here?"

Ummm, no officer. I'm just the locksmith.
 

Texican

Live Free & Die Free.... God Freedom Country....
There is nothing like being on the job, getting the car open and when you turn around you find someone with a badge and gun looking at you asking,

"Is there a problem here?"

Ummm, no officer. I'm just the locksmith.


Prime example of what causes a serious case of on damn....

Thanks DL for the chapter....

Texican....
Born Free, Live Free, Die Free....
 

Catshooter

Contributing Member
Thanks Day Late. That just happens to be the locks I have. I love the re-key feature. And yes, I have more than one door. :)


Cat
 

day late

money? whats that?
Animals, especially dogs, are a natural hazard of the profession. Walter is the first one to come mind. I arrived at a local food joint called "Wing Zone" and was greeted by the customer with a warning.

"I have a pit bull in the car."

No problem. the dog is inside, I'm outside and the window is rolled up. This car had one of those buttons on the door you push down to lock and pull up to unlock. That makes my job easy. I put the air jack in the door, pump it up, reach inside with my tool, grab the button, pull it up and the door is unlocked. Did I mention that Walter is VERY protective? I remove the tool and that was when Walter decided he wanted to eat my face. He charges over from the passengers seat and is right on the other side of the window barking and snarling at me. Of course, he stepped on the button and relocked the door. The lady starts yelling at him;

"Walter! Get in the other seat. Go on, get over there."

Eventually Walter does as he is told. I reach inside again and unlock the door. Walter once more simply has to eat my face and charges back over towards me like before and again locks the door. Which calls for another round of orders from the lady. To make a long story short, I had to unlock that car four times before Walter would do as he was told and stay in the passengers seat. In the mean time the lady's chicken wings are sitting on the roof of the car getting cold.

Fortunately most dogs are not so protective. One night when I arrive the lady has the garage door open, which I'm happy to see. The door that leads from the garage into the house is always the easiest to get through. As I'm kneeling there picking the lock I hear a bark. Obviously we have a furry friend on the inside. The lock turned, I open the door for the customer and discover we don't have A furry friend, there are three of them. There is big dog, medium sized dog and ankle biter. All three are well behaved, but the problem is that they are just inside the door, I'm still kneeling down in front of the door and Mommy is standing behind me. These guys REALLY wanted to see Mommy. I ended up walking around with three different sized paw prints going up my chest. They simply ran right over me like I wasn't even there.

Dogs can also cause problems for dog sitters. This place was a little bit out of town. The dog sitter had lost the key to the front door. And she was supposed to have taken the dog out for a walk and to feed him the night before. She also told me to be careful as the dog was rather protective. Well, I pick the lock she opens the door and one of the largest German Shepards I have ever seen comes bounding out the door straight at me. However this protective dog was so happy to finally get outside he raises up, putting his front paws on my chest and proceeds to try to lick me to death. In the process one of his claws put a nice little three inch long gouge in my right forearm. I still have the scar.

And may I suggest NEVER put the dog in the R.V. and go for a walk at the camp grounds you're staying in. Many is the time I get there and find that when Mommy and Daddy go for that walk, Fido gets excited then jumps up against the door and locks the dead bolt. When Mommy and Daddy return and can't get in, Fido gets even more excited and begins to try to get out ending up clawing the screen door inside the R.V. to shreads. So now they not only have to pay me to open the thing, they have to pay to repair or replace the screen door.

Once I got to the location and the guy tells me that the dog stepped on the door lock button in the center console. No problem. I get inside, grab the door lock and pull. The door is unlocked. Now the customer gets around to telling me that he left his wallet at the house. So I have to follow him there to get paid. Well that's happened before. We get to his apartment and he runs inside to get his wallet, he pays me and I'm sitting in my vehicle doing the paperwork. There is a knock on the window and I find this guy standing there.

"The dog locked me out again."

So I unlock it a second time. As I'm gathering my tools I hear a 'click' and the dog has done it again. I look at the dog and say;

"You did not just do that to me."

I tried the door, yup it's locked. Now I'm going in for the third time and hear 'click'. The dog has this time unlocked the door. I snatched that thing open before he could do it again.

Even if the dog seems to be well behaved, they can turn on you in a heartbeat. I'm sent to a retirement community to find two elderly men and a woman. There are two empty wiskey bottles on the table and a third one that has had some serious damage done to it. These folks are having a fine time and feeling no pain. I proceed to open the door and hear a bark inside. Once the door is open The lady who owned the place invites me in to get out of the heat (It was July) and run the credit card. The bark had come from one of those fuzzy walking pillow sized ankle biters and he didn't like or trust me. That stupid thing bit me. Of course the lady proceeded to scold the dog telling him he had to be nice to me because now she could feed him. He wasn't having any of that. He never got far from me and growled at me the rest of the time I was there.

I went to a home one night to get some students in and was told;

"We'll hold onto this dog because he can be a little aggressive. But the other one is friendly."

Well, thank very much. I start to pick the lock when the friendly pooch walks over to check out what I'm doing. I smile, reach down and scratch him between the ears. He accepts the gesture and starts the tail wagging. I go back to work and our furry friend now really wants to see what I'm doing and starts getting in the way. I again scratch him and then gently place my hand on his chest to move him back a little. The stupid thing bit me. it wasn't bad. Sometimes I can move pretty fast. Especially when I am inspired to do so. The owners were shocked at what happened, assuring me that the dog never behaves like that. Maybe not, but I still had tooth punctures on my arm.

One of the oddest things to happen with a dog was when I was installing a new door knob and dead bolt on a ladies home and she asked me to keep an eye out. She had two dogs, one large and one small. They were both old and not in the best of shape. In fact the little one was blind. The big dog was happy to just lay there on the floor and watch T.V. with Mommy. The little one was wandering around not doing much. But he could hear me. He knew I was there. He almost stepped on my tools so I spoke to him first and then reached out to gently move him back. He tried to bite me. However without eyesight, he missed. All the lady had to say about it was;

"I told you he is blind."

Like that is supposed to warn me he bites.

Our feline friends don't cause as many problems as the canines do, but the have their own ways of causing trouble. I was sent to a job where these two ladies lived together, along with eight cats. Seven of them were perfectly happy to stay inside and enjoy the air conditioning. But one of them was an escape artist. He would actually climb up the screen door and somehow open it. Naturally with cats being as curious as they are, once he was outside some of the others would wander out to see what he was up to. This lead to the ladies now having to chase them all over the neighborhood rounding them up and getting them back inside, until next time. I wound up installing one of those hook and eye type locks with a spring loaded arm on the hook preventing the escape artist from opening the door.

From time to time when I open a door the home owner will warn me not to open it too far, the last time that happened he and the locksmith spent half an hour trying to catch the cat.

It truth about the only pets I haven't had and problems with are birds. But they are almost always in a cage anyway. But there was one. Sometimes I have to open an interior door. On this occasion the lady had a parakeet that she let fly around the house. Silly thing thought my head, sholders and back were his new perch. He'd fly over, land on me and the lady would shoo him off. He'd fly away, only to return a minute later to try a different location on me as a perch.
 

Texican

Live Free & Die Free.... God Freedom Country....
Of course the lady proceeded to scold the dog telling him he had to be nice to me because now she could feed him. He wasn't having any of that. He never got far from me and growled at me the rest of the time I was there.

DL,

Don't you think it is the sweet aroma of your bubbly attitude that makes dogs want to be around you and taste that sweetness????:lkick::lkick::lkick::lkick:

Thanks for the chapter....

Texican....
Born Free, Live Free and Die Free....
 

day late

money? whats that?
Of course the lady proceeded to scold the dog telling him he had to be nice to me because now she could feed him. He wasn't having any of that. He never got far from me and growled at me the rest of the time I was there.

DL,

Don't you think it is the sweet aroma of your bubbly attitude that makes dogs want to be around you and taste that sweetness????:lkick::lkick::lkick::lkick:

Thanks for the chapter....

Texican....
Born Free, Live Free and Die Free....

Would you tell my wife that?
 

Texican

Live Free & Die Free.... God Freedom Country....
Quote Originally Posted by Texican View Post
Of course the lady proceeded to scold the dog telling him he had to be nice to me because now she could feed him. He wasn't having any of that. He never got far from me and growled at me the rest of the time I was there.

DL,

Don't you think it is the sweet aroma of your bubbly attitude that makes dogs want to be around you and taste that sweetness????

Thanks for the chapter....

Texican....
Born Free, Live Free and Die Free....

Would you tell my wife that?

Would be as effective as me telling my DW the same thing.... My DW still cooks food, cleans house and other things which would come to a screeching halt.... Its the other things that concern me the most....

Texican....
Born Free, Live Free and Die Free....
 

day late

money? whats that?
Every once in a while you get called on not to get someone into something, but to get them out. It happened again today. When I get there the man is outside of the apartment. The problem is that his wife and baby are inside. The key and lock work just fine but the latch has failed completely. There is a method to open a door without picking the lock. I insert the air jacks into the area between the door and frame. As I pump them up the bags inflate and push the door back towards the hinges. By creating the small gap I can usually stick a shim in there and tap it with a hammer. Something like the trick you see people use in the movies where they use a credit card to open a door. That forces the latch back and the door pops open. I wish that would have worked today. That door was so tight in the frame I couldn't get the air jacks in. At this point the only thing I can do is cut the door knob off and manipulate the broken latch from the inside. The customer isn't too sure how the land lord is going to take this, so we call him. I explained the problem and he said go ahead. It took a little doing but husband, wife and baby were reunited and the knob replaced with a new one.

There was another time I went to a local business that manufactures asphalt. They have a tower they use to direct traffic in the yard. Two people had gone into the tower to work and when they closed the door, the door knob failed. So here it is, quitting time and they can't leave. I had to force the door open and then replace the handle on it. Of course it is an industrial handle that we keep in the shop but nobody told me that before I got there. All I could do was give them a temporary replacement and the boss went out the next day with the one they wanted.

As we all know, alcohol does strange things to people. It seems this one young lady had one of those door handles with the button you push down with your thumb. She arrived at her apartment around 2 A.M. unlocked the dead bolt but when she pushed the button down the whole thing just fell apart in her hand. Not wanting to spend the night in her car she contacted her neighbor who was an Arnold wanna-be. She had him kick the door open. She thanked him, went inside, locked the dead bolt and to bed. The next morning when she was ready to go out the inside door knob didn't work. Go figure. Thank The Lord, there was no drilling or cutting this time. The outside handle was hanging upside down so I reached into the hole and moved the latch by hand. At the time we didn't carry those types of handles so again it was replaced with a standard door knob. I was also able to help her by writing on the bill that this was a case of maintainence failure. What that means is that since the locks and door knobs are owned by the apartment complex, they are responsible for repaying the customer for what I did. The customer pays me at the time and then gets a discount on next months rent.

I have written such notes many times and to date only once has management called for an explanation. On that occasion when I arrived the customer looked at me and said;

"I don't know if this will help you, but it came out of the lock."

He then handed me the part we call the plug. That is the part your key actually fits into and turns with the key. It helped alright. It told me there wasn't going to be any picking of this lock. When the plug came out every spring and pin inside that lock went everywhere. I went back to the car and grabbed a new lock to install. The good part for me was that with the plug in my hand, I only needed to turn the tailpiece that was still inside the dead bold and open the door. As I was removing the remains of the lock I found out what happened and I've never even heard of this happening before, let alone seen it. The tailpiece I mentioned is held in place on the back of the plug by a sort of nut. That way when you put in the key and turn the plug, the tailpiece moves the bolt. This nut had broken into four pieces, so the tailpiece was no longer attached to the plug and there is nothing to keep the plug in place.The customer took pictures of the broken nut in my hand and gave them to the management. The call I got from them basicly wanted to know if there was anything the customer could have done to cause this to happen.

"No Ma'am. That nut is internal to the lock. The customer couldn't even reach it, unless he took the lock apart. If he had taken the lock apart to do that for some reason, he wouldn't have been able to lock the door when he and his wife left the apartment. I've never seen this happen before and can not tell you how it happened this time. But there is no chance the customer is responsible for what happened."

The lady thanked me for the information and hung up.

This is an interesting job, but some days just get down right bizarre. Two nights ago I got a call just after supper. A lady is locked out of her home. I find the location on the map app on my phone, call her to let her know my ETA by leaving a message when she didn't answer, and then sent a text with the same information. Before I could get to the car I get another call about a car lock out, five miles in the other direction. I'm getting ready to call the car lock out and explain the delay when the lady sends a text telling me that another locksmith is already on the way, but thank you for calling me back. O.K. cancel the call. Before I can call the car lock out, I'm told there is another house lock out. I call the car lock out first and the guy tells me;

"A friend of mine is coming by with a slim jim and we are going to get it open that way."

O.K. cancel the second call. As I'm dialing the second house lock out I receive another call for a second car lock out. This one is on the northbound side of I-75 at the rest area. The problem with that is I have to drive south about fifteen miles on I-75 to get to a place I can turn around. First come, first served. I called the second house lock out. I'm told;

"Never mind I think we found a way in."

RIGHT! Cancel the third call. Now I call the second car lock out to give him an ETA and explain my need to go past him and turn around before I can get there. The guy is fine with that and finally I start the car to get on my way. ALL of the above happened in a time span of less than ten minutes. This is also the same day as the wife and baby being locked inside with the husband outside.

I finally get to the guy on I-75 to find out he isn't locked out of his car. The keys are locked in the trunk. The vehicle is a 2008 Mustang convertible. It doesn't have a trunk release on the inside of the car. Normally that isn't a problem, I just find a way to lower the back seat and use the emergency trunk release inside the trunk, or just grab the keys and hand them to the customer. There is no way to lower the back seat in that car. I called one of my bosses, explained what was going on and he told me he was sending another technician with the van that has a special tool for picking the trunk lock. He asked me to stay with the customer until the van got there. I had arrived at 7:25 P.M. I left before the other tech. did and that was at 10 P.M. I had spent two and one half hours on the side of I-75 with this guy waiting for a van that should have been there within twenty to thirty minutes.

It seems the other guy was on a house lock out and the only way to get in was to remove the back door from the hinges. His problem was the door was eight feet high with a great big piece of glass in it. He got the door off alright but the thing was so heavy he had to get his brother out to the job so that the two of them could lift it high enough to get it back in place.

I had to go to the shop this morning to take care of some paperwork. That done, I'm on my way home when one of the bosses calls.

"Are you home yet?"

"No, I'm two blocks from the shop at this traffic circle. I can turn around if you need me to come back."

"No. The other boss's son has locked himself out of his car at the McDonalds across the street from your house. Go get him in."

The funny thing is the son of my other boss is also a locksmith. Because he is the son of the boss, he is better trained than I am. The other funny thing is that I have gotten him into one of our work vans twice before this. And while I was there this morning he confessed that two other times he called the cops and borrowed their lock out kits.
 
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Texican

Live Free & Die Free.... God Freedom Country....
The funny thing is the son of my other boss is also a locksmith. Because he is the son of the boss, he is better trained than I am. The other funny thing is that I have gotten him into one of out work vans twice before this. And while I was there this morning he confessed that two other times he called the cops and borrowed their lock out kits.

The boss's son not wanting for his dad to know that he locked himself out of his vehicle....

This is why you always carry extra vehicle keys....

DL,

You definitely live an interesting life with a little bit of humor thrown in...

Thanks for the chapter....

Texican....
 

day late

money? whats that?
The reactions that I get from people before, during and after doing the job can also be most interesting and amusing. More than once I have gotten to the site of an eviction. If I arrive first, I have to wait for law enforcement to get there. They have to be given the chance to bang on the door, announce themselves and if someone is actually inside give them a chance to open the door. If no one answers, then I have the legal right to open the door with the property owners permission. Which is something they readily give, but always dread doing. In most cases the tenants have left in the middle of the night, owing two or three months rent. Sometimes they have simply picked up, packed up and pulled out. Sometimes they have chosen to abandon what looks like everything except the clothes they are wearing and got out in a hurry. And then you always have the ones that either take what they can't live without and leave everything else which is always smelly, dirty and strewn all over the place, or they are indignant at the thought that should actually be required to pay rent and trash the place out of spite on their way out. Really, you never know what to expect.

My first time in dealing with law enforcement in a situation where they were called was one Saturday night. The apartment is on the second floor and I find the lady almost in tears over the situation. She pointed out the door and it has a relatively easy lock to pick. I pull out my picks and get ready to go to work when she surprises me.

"You might want to wait for the sheriff to get here."

"Excuse me?"

"My boyfriend is inside. He won't answer my knocks on the door or his phone. And he is probably stoned."

She then goes on to tell me that her boyfriend and she had gone to Tampa for some reason and he just dumped her there. He returned to Gainesville and she hadn't eaten all day because she only had enough money to buy a bus ticket back here. Now he is inside with all of her stuff including her credit cards, check book, clothes and everything. So a couple of sheriff's deputies get there and tell us to wait down on the first floor level. Of course we go down stairs. After several loud knocks on the door and a couple of announcements;

"Alachua County Sheriff, open the door."

Soon the door opened and voices were heard upstairs. After a few minutes one of the deputies came down to speak with the lady. He noticed me standing there and informed me;

"Sir, your services are no longer needed."

I left.

Another time the owners of the property knew the tenant had left, owing them money and didn't want me to open the door until the sheriff got there. They wanted an official witness of what the place looked like when they got there. If I had to open the door, there was no contamination of the scene. The tenant had moved and taken their stuff, but thankfully hadn't trashed the home. But they did leave it absolutely filthy. I remember the deputy saying;

"I don't know how she gets away with it. We have papers on her from three other places that she has lived."

The place wasn't torn apart, but it was quite clear that no care had been taken in maintaining the property while she was there. The tile was torn up in several places at about the size of a large egg. the walls and floors were dirty. And for someone who seemed to have an aversion to losing money I don't know why I saw several dollars worth of change on the floor. Maybe she just wanted out before the flashing red and blue lights showed up in the driveway.

Recently I was called to open a place where the apartment owner had every reason to believe the tenants were already gone. The sheriff and I arrived at the same time. As per procedure he banged on the door and announced himself. No answer. He tried the door knob. The door was open. No need for my services, right? Not quite. I would call the place trashed, but without damage. Meaning these people never took their pets outside. They just cleaned up after them inside. The pet's mess might be gone, but the smell remains. The apartment owner knew they hadn't left the keys so instead of getting her in, I had to rekey the lock. At least it wasn't a wasted trip. However as I'm re-keying the lock there is a three way discussion between myself, the owner and the deputy. The owner is worried that there might be something dead inside. I'm an infantry vet. I've smelled death before. I assure her that this doesn't smell like death to me, just filth. She askes what I mean. I kicked the abandoned pet bed next to my foot sitting on a pile of abandoned trash and told her;

"I don't think they ever took their pets outside."

The officer left, I finished my job and got paid. The owner did complain that the price was higher this time than last time, but was still pleased that I had arrived in a timely manner and had done all I could to help her in the situation.

Once in a great long while you wind up with jobs that get a little spooky. And on this one I NEED to ask the ladies. WHY??? I can not understand why some ladies stay in this situation. I get there and I have to re-key the front and back doors. At 10 P.M. and get out as soon as possible. The reason? I needed to get out before the husband made bail. It was a spousal abuse situation. I will never understand why a woman, in this case a very attractive woman who is about three or four months gone with child, would want to stay in a situation where her so called "man" proves his so called "manhood" by beating her at all, let alone to the point where the law has to be called for her protection. As for myself, it is a good thing for him that I was not her father, brother, uncle or cousin. Her suffering would have been nothing compared with what I would have done to him. As a grunt I am sworn to protect and defend and even The Bible calls for real men to protect their families. As a grunt I am trained to get information from captured enemy soldiers. If I think they have information that would save the lives of my brothers and sisters in arms, they WILL tell me what I want to know. Of that there is no question. When I see things like this I swear I just about lose it. These scum almost make me want to take up my former profession.
 

day late

money? whats that?
I must admit, Gainesville is a college town. People here, especially the students, tend to party hardy. I can't say about locksmiths in other towns, but here the busy time starts around the beginning of happy hour. Many folks are very keen to get away from work and drown their sorrows at their nearest or favorite watering hole. There are times when I can't get from one lockout to the next fast enough. I've gotten calls at around five P.M. to go to a place of work. I call the customer at 5:02 to let them know I'm on my way and should get there by 5:20. They thank me and hang up. I get a call back from them at 5:07 wanting to know if I'm in or near the parking lot yet.

"Sir, I did say I should be there by 5:20 if there are no problems with traffic."

"I thought you would be here by now."

"I'm sorry Sir, but I am on my way and should be there soon."

This is followed either with thanks for trying to get there through rush hour traffic or complaints that I told them I would be there sooner than I actually did say.

While I haven't felt the need to do it yet, there has been more than one time I've come very close to leaving a customer standing on the side of the road. The way I see it, if I knowingly put a drunk behind the wheel that makes me at least partially responsible for any damage, injury or death that might occur. That is a responsibility I'm not willing to accept. But there was one drunk that I actually respect. I was called at about four in the morning to go to a location on the University of Florida campus. I called him when I was getting close to his location. After all it is a big campus and he knew where his truck was parked and I didn't. He had obviously had a few and I questioned myself about getting him into that F-150. He seemed pretty stable and so I opened the truck. He grabbed the keys, locked the door and closed it. After paying me he started to walk away. I questioned him.

"Sir your truck is over here."

"I know but the bench I'm sleeping this off on is over there."

Smart man. Another time the job involved getting two men into their home, at 2 A.M. They had the unpickable locks on the front and back doors, which they didn't want drilled. I checked and all of the windows and they were all locked. All of the doors opened inwards which means the hinge pins are on the inside of the door. I can't take them out and remove the door from the frame to get them into the house. I noticed that the home had a garage and asked;

"Is there a remote for the garage door in your truck? The door that leads from the garage into the house is always the easiest to get through."

"It's not even locked. But the keys to the truck are locked in the house."

As before, I'm a locksmith. This is not a problem. I opened the truck, the VERY loud alarm goes off waking the neighbors, the man pushes the button and the garage door goes up. He runs in, gets the key and comes back out. He hits the remote for the truck and shuts off the alarm. Well, you're inside now. That will be $75 thank you very much. He was happy to pay it. It was a lot cheaper than paying for a new window on the house.

There was one time I was called to the parking lot of a bar to assist a very attractive young lady. I noticed that as she came across the parking lot she was a bit unstable. I was concerned and asked if she felt she was alright to drive. She assured me she was and I admit I took my time about opening her car. I wanted to observe her to assure myself I wasn't putting a drunk behind the wheel. She didn't seem to be that far gone and then I noticed. She's wearing six inch heels and walking across a red brick parking lot that was laid down possibly a hundred years ago. It isn't flat any more.

Some people are just impatient. I informed the customer that I was only ten to fifteen minutes away. As long as it didn't involve flashing red and blue lights in my mirror I would try to shave that down a bit. I had the window down on my car as I got there and for once the addresses were clearly marked, even in the dark. No doubt this is the place. As I hit the brakes I hear, CRASH! TINKLE, TINKLE, TINKLE. I looked and the lady had just broken the window leading into her bed room. But it was higher than she was comfortable in trying to climb and there were broken pieces of glass right where she would have to climb through. I think she was looking for a stick or something to break them off and keep them from cutting her as she tried to climb through. I asked,

"Excuse me Ma'am. Did you call for a locksmith?"

"Yes. But I thought it was going to take you an hour to get here."

"Ma'am I did say I'd be here in about ten or fifteen minutes."

"I know, but I thought it would take you longer and I just got out of the hospital. I want to sleep in my own bed."

Poor thing. She not only paid me for opening the door she had to pay someone else to fix the window. The good thing is it wasn't cold. The bad thing was the mosquitoes now had easy access to her home. While I was working I noticed that another window had been broken out and boarded over. She told me that, that had been from the last time this had happened. Okay, time to keep my big mouth shut, do the job and get out.

And some customers are just down right delusional. I was called to first get a lady into her home and then re-key the locks. While there she told me that she had just been released from the hospital after her latest round of chemo. She was certain that someone had somehow gotten one of her house keys and was bit by bit taking valuables from her. Well, this kind of thing has happened before as we all know. Family members or friends and possibly employees stealing from older or invalid people, so this is no surprise. But then things took a turn for the unreal. She told me that she had been an employee of the government, involved in all kinds of things that never happened. Kind of like Area 51. I personally know such places exist no matter what the government says. However, she informs me that government agents are using a high energy weapon to give her cancer and kill her before she can reveal their secrets. While I'm kneeling down re-keying the locks in the garage, in the dark with only my flash light to guide me I hear her speaking to the hidden microphones asking for the government agents to take the laser sights off of my back because I'm only the locksmith called there to do a job. Once the job was done she refused to let me run the credit card anywhere near the house. The hidden cameras might get her information, don't you know. She insisted that we walk out to my car to pay for the work I had done.
 

Texican

Live Free & Die Free.... God Freedom Country....
DL,

You lead a very interesting life....

The Bible calls for real men to protect their families

There are bastards, boys, men and then real men.... Real men do what is right and correct regardless of the impact on them personally.... Have used the term real men on many occasions with boys, guys and men that were not yet mature even though fully grown. Now the b's had two choices, leave and be healthy or be hauled off by cops to the hospital....

While I'm kneeling down re-keying the locks in the garage, in the dark with only my flash light to guide me I hear her speaking to the hidden microphones asking for the government agents to take the laser sights off of my back because I'm only the locksmith called there to do a job.

Now that would definitely cause some pucker power and speed up the work....

Thanks for the chapters....

Texican....
 

day late

money? whats that?
DL,

You lead a very interesting life....

The Bible calls for real men to protect their families

There are bastards, boys, men and then real men.... Real men do what is right and correct regardless of the impact on them personally.... Have used the term real men on many occasions with boys, guys and men that were not yet mature even though fully grown. Now the b's had two choices, leave and be healthy or be hauled off by cops to the hospital....

While I'm kneeling down re-keying the locks in the garage, in the dark with only my flash light to guide me I hear her speaking to the hidden microphones asking for the government agents to take the laser sights off of my back because I'm only the locksmith called there to do a job.

Now that would definitely cause some pucker power and speed up the work....

Thanks for the chapters....

Texican....

If you ask me, and I'm glad you did, there are 5 kinds of people on planet Earth.

1. Children

2. Men

3. Adult males

4. Women

5. Adult females

Because I have always been this gender and not confused about it I will restrict my comment to my own kind. But I'm certain that everyone knows the compliment in the fairer sex. The difference between a man and an adult male is easily spotted. Take any social occasion, be it a party, a marriage, a funeral or whatever. When the adult male walks into the room everyone says "oh it's him" in a depressed way. When the man walks in the room everyone says "OH it's HIM." in a happy frame of reference. The same three words and two totally different meanings. At this same occasion when the adult male is leaving, people can't wait to see the back of his neck. When the man is ready to leave, people try to convince him to stay longer. The adult male will give his word 6 times before breakfast, and break it 12 times before lunch. And he will have what he believes is justification for it. The man doesn't often give his word. But when he does you can take it to the bank. You KNOW he will keep his word or die in the attempt.
 

Siskiyoumom

Veteran Member
Such interesting stories. Long ago I rented a car to take our son to the SF Bay Area to see his numerologist for a brain shunt.It was an unusually hot day. On the way home we stopped at the Williams and Sonoma outlet store in Berkeley. Did the shopping and after I loaded our son, his oxygen tank and suction machine in the car I tossed the car keys on the drivers seat. Closed the passenger door and as I walked around the car I hear the lock clicked. This was pre cell phone days. My purse with my AAA card was locked in the car. Thankfully the store let me use their phone to call AAA. AAA refused to take a service ticket because I could not give them my member number. Our son was sweating and crying in the car. Called 911 for help. The locksmith showed up seconds after the fire department. The fire department wanted to break a window. I did not want that because we so very broke at the time and I did not buy the additional insurance for the rental. Thankfully the lock Smith was able to open the door. He was shaking and very upset when he did his job. He told me after we got my son out and EMS checked him over, that he had earlier in the day opened a car door for a family. Their infant child had died of heat stroke before he could get the door open. Yep, it is amazing how easily one can get locked out. I took wearing my keys on a neck lanyard after that day.
 

day late

money? whats that?
Be cautious about the lanyard. More than once I have arrived at a job and the customer has the lanyard in their hand, but the keys are between the door and the door frame.
 

day late

money? whats that?
While I'm still on the subject of odd people and places I have to talk about one night in particular. Now I get called to some pretty spooky places at the wee hours of the morning, sometimes. When I arrive two things get my attention right away. First, I know if I stand in the parking lot of this apartment complex long enough I'm going to drive away stoned. I mean at two o'clock in the morning there is a virtual haze of pot smoke in the air. The second thing is that there are a number of Arnold wannabe's standing around. Just as I get out of the car this skinny little guy comes up and tells me that one of these guys used a coat hanger and got him into his car. So there is no further need for my services. Then he tells the guy who got him into the car;

"My girl friend will be out in a minute. I don't have any cash but we can go to the ATM and get some for you."

The Hulk seemed satisfied with that, but I just didn't like the idea of leaving this little guy on the parking lot at this time of night all alone. So I hung around for a few minutes. The girl friend came out and she was shapely, long hair halfway down her back. Rather well endowed in the upper chest area and when she spoke I knew I had to get out NOW. This "girl" had a voice like Barry White. That was when I noticed this "girl" had a bulge in the front of her dress that no woman is supposed to have. They say not everything is as it appears. That is true in this job.

There used to be a place here in town that by the size of the building I would say the fire marshal probably put a limit of fifty people max. on the inside at any time. On average I would say there had to be three times that many inside and just about that same number in the parking lot. I was called there a total of three times while it was open. Twice I'm guessing the music was so loud the customer couldn't her their own phone ring and never answered when I got there, so I left. One time the guy did answer the phone but we had to walk about a block from the bar to his car and I was not happy leaving my car in the parking lot with signs on it that clearly say 'locksmith'. I'm also talking about a place that the police department had every road to it blocked off at least two or three blocks away from it. They also had a really heavy presence in the area, especially on the weekends. Eventually the bosses declared that place off limits and we never went there again.

There is also an apartment complex that we no longer visit because of unacceptable risk. Shall we just say that I believe that a number of the units are available by the hour? I was there in the early afternoon one time. I had to get a guy of about fifty I would guess into his pickup truck. When I opened the door I noticed a .357 stuck in the door pocket. The man saw me looking and just said;

"You have to carry one of those in this neighborhood."

He was with a young lady that was MUCH too young for him and she told me;

"Lock your car around here, even if you are standing next to it."

I won't say she was a "working girl" but it did seem that way to me. But there was one "working girl" who made no bones about it. She told me that she locked herself out of her car on a fairly regular basis. And she was looking for someone who could come to her rescue at any time, day or night, that would be willing to accept payment in some other means rather than debit, credit or cash. Something a bit more personal and a lot more fun. The "gentleman" she was with at the time told me;

"You can ask her for ANYTHING. I mean she will do ANYTHING."

Ummm sorry, but that would be a little hard to explain to the boss. Besides I don't think that risking a marriage that has lasted over thirty-five years is worth just a short amount of pleasure.

And it isn't just the street walkers that come up with this idea of payment. I have been offered the same type of payment, usually by drunk college girls, during my later night trips. One in particular was extremely happy to get into her apartment and before I can even get the picks put away, she is hanging on my neck, rubbing herself up against me asking if I really have to accept cash or cards. My answer to her was the same as above.

Once I had to drive nearly twenty miles to open a pickup truck for a man. It was in one of those neighborhoods where either the cops patrol in twos or threes, or they don't patrol them at all. Looking back I can see what went wrong and to my embarrassment it was my fault. You see for once I forgot to lock my car. As I'm doing my best to open the truck I'm surrounded by several large men who are asking questions making useless suggestions and generally getting in the way. Once the truck was open, I got paid and got out. I pulled over a couple of miles down the road to take care of paper work. That is when I found out that the reason for all the distractions was so one of them could go around to the passenger side of my car and steal the money the boss tells me to carry for making change. They also got about eight or nine dollars in quarters I kept in the ash tray. But in the long run, the joke was on them. The cash was all they got. All of my tools were still there and the boss says to only carry about $20 in change. So put together they got less than thirty bucks and it cost $65 to open the truck.

Before this I mentioned the "Smart Key" locks. The ones you can't pick, you can only drill them. The apartment complexes love them because they are so very simple to re-key. They also tend to be a bit more pricey than a regular dead bolt. There is one local complex that will re-key the locks on the apartment while the students renting them are out of town for summer break. They inform the students by e-mail they when they get back to town their new door key will be in their mail box. There was one night that between two and four A.M. one of the bosses and I drilled and replaced six of those locks. The student arrives here from the airport in say Orlando at two in the morning and there is no key in the box. They have just finished a two hour drive to get here and that is after spending who knows how much time in the air. They don't want to spend either the night or most of the weekend living and sleeping in their car. They call us. To get someone inside is $75. To replace the "Smart Key" lock as an additional $65. When you add in tax the bill is now nearly $150. We did six in one night. The good news for the returning student is that since they were promised a key in the mail box and there wasn't one, the complex is responsible for paying the bill. Regrettably the student has to pay us on the spot, but they get a nice little break in their rent for the following month. They must have learned their lesson or found someone cheaper. We haven't had to go back out there for something like that in a couple of years now.

There is one other story where we have a dog and a not so nice area. This young couple decided they were going to take the dog to the local dog walk, let him run around and socialize with the other dogs. It wasn't that the dog walk was in such a bad area, but it was known for the occasional break in. And the lady DID leave her purse sitting on the front seat. When fido had gotten enough excersize and was taken back to the car for the trip home, the passengers window was smashed out and the purse gone. Of course, it had everything in it. I.D., house keys, money, cards and all the rest of it. I had to run out there and re-key all of the locks on their house. As I was finishing up a neighbor dropped by and wanted to know who was that strange looking guy standing at the end of their driveway? This house was a couple of miles out of town and there were only two houses on that driveway. When I left I found the neighbor was right. He was dirty looking, ragged clothes, unkempt hair and totally out of place standing on the side of an empty road as if waiting for someone. I don't know what he was doing there, but I do hope that nothing further happened.
 
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Freebirde

Senior Member
I am not a locksmith, but have installed several while working construction. I have also replace some for myself and for landlords over the years. But what your stories trigger flashback to was when working pest control or termite control. Going into what was suppose to be an empty apartments or hotel rooms and finding someone asleep. One apartment had a guy sleeping with a pistol on the nightstand. I let myself out and beat on the door until he woke up and answered the door. Found moldy bags of plant material under houses while doing termite inspections and several pots of pot outside of another. One apartment I had to spray myself and my equipment off outside because the roaches were so bad. I won't talk about surprising personal items found in some respectable home or where people left keys for me to let myself in and treat their homes. One house had a chow that when I got there acted like he knew me but later when I got back to the office, I heard that dog had terrorized other techs.
 

Texican

Live Free & Die Free.... God Freedom Country....
When I left I found the neighbor was right. He was dirty looking, ragged clothes, unkempt hair and totally out of place standing on the side of an empty road as if waiting for someone. I don't know what he was doing there, but I do hope that nothing further happened.

DL,

The couple have been robbed and a piece of scum is standing at the entry to their drive....

Probably would have been a good idea to call it in and let the LEO's sort it out....

Or the other property owner should have armed up and checked the guy out, but this is not Okieland or Texas.... What can we say....

Thanks DL for the chapter....

Texican....
 

day late

money? whats that?
When I left I found the neighbor was right. He was dirty looking, ragged clothes, unkempt hair and totally out of place standing on the side of an empty road as if waiting for someone. I don't know what he was doing there, but I do hope that nothing further happened.

DL,

The couple have been robbed and a piece of scum is standing at the entry to their drive....

Probably would have been a good idea to call it in and let the LEO's sort it out....

Or the other property owner should have armed up and checked the guy out, but this is not Okieland or Texas.... What can we say....

Thanks DL for the chapter....

Texican....

Not much I could really do. I'd already changed the locks. The couple and at least one neighbor knew he was there and out of place. If I had stopped to question him, standing on the side of a public roadway, I could be charged with harassment. A man on the side of a public road minding his own business is not a criminal. There was nothing I could do. I could be mistaken, but the people on the inside were on alert.
 

Texican

Live Free & Die Free.... God Freedom Country....
Not much I could really do. I'd already changed the locks. The couple and at least one neighbor knew he was there and out of place. If I had stopped to question him, standing on the side of a public roadway, I could be charged with harassment. A man on the side of a public road minding his own business is not a criminal. There was nothing I could do. I could be mistaken, but the people on the inside were on alert.

And hindsight is always 20/20....

Texican....
 

day late

money? whats that?
OH BOY, this kind of thing doesn't happen often, but it does happen. Thank The Lord I have always been on the right side of it. Last week I was called to open a home for a couple. When I arrived there was a realtors lock box on the front door. This is not uncommon. The couple informed me that they had just gotten the okay to move into their new home. Unfortunately the guy who sold them the house lived in Utah and would have to mail them the keys. Well, they already had a trailer full of stuff in the driveway and wanted to move in right now. They were very excited about it, as anyone would be. Instead of opening the front door, I went to the side door. Mainly because that lock box always gets in the way. The side door was easy to open and soon the couple were in their new home talking about where they were going to put what and which child got which room. A very happy scene. Since they didn't yet have the keys they asked if I could re-key at least one door so they could do what they had to do and still be able to secure their new home while they were out. That's not a problem but I did tell them;

"The more I do, the more it costs."

They asked how much to re-key the door knob on the door I had opened. I told them and the price was agreeable to them, so I did it.

Two days later I got a call from the boss.

"The sheriffs department is going to call you. They just called us. There is a problem with the job you did."

GREAT! What is this all about?

While I was talking to the boss, I got another phone call. I let it go to voice mail and finished with him first. I checked the voice mail, it was the sheriff's department wanting to talk with me. Well, waiting won't make it better. Best to just face the music. I called back. After explaining who I was and why I was calling I was connected to an investigator/deputy/detective/whatever.

"Mr. Bill (Yes, that is my meat world first name) I want to tell you that you are not being investigated for any crime, but I have some questions for you."

"How can I help?"

"Mr. Bill, did you open a home at ***** S.E. ** Dr. on 02/28/19?"

"Yes, I did."

"What can you tell me about it?"

What followed was a conversation about what I did and my impressions of the people I did it for. The house was virtually empty and seemed to have been for a few weeks at least, maybe more. The customers had their belongings in the car port and there was nothing inside worth trying to steal. All of the bedrooms were empty. There was nothing to suggest the situation was anything but what it seemed to be. He thanked me for the information and when asked a few discrete questions told me that it seems the man who sold the home wasn't the home owner. He was a con-man. He had sold these people a home that he didn't own or have any right to sell. He took the money and ran. A couple of days later when the actual home owners got back they, reasonably, wanted to know why there were squatters living in their home. That's why I got the phone call. I truly feel sorry for the folks who got scammed. They are not only homeless, with everything they own on a trailer, they are also out who knows how many thousands of dollars with no hope of getting their money back unless law enforcement can find the con-man. I'm not going to hold my breathe on that one. May God have mercy on them and the con-man may be caught even before I type this.

I also have to tell the tale of something that happened in London and my boss sent me the article as a warning. It seems that someone called a locksmith to open a jewelry store at about 1 A.M. This guy convinced the locksmith he had a right to be in the store and so the guy opened the door. I know you guys can see this coming. In short the "customer" was a thief and he paid in cash. So there was no way to trace him. The crook got away with over 2 million British Pounds worth of gold, jewelry and precious stones. I hope that guy had really good insurance.

There was one time I had to get a guy into his apartment at the wee hours of the morning. He told me his sister was inside, but for whatever reason he didn't want to wake her. Okay! This sounds a little off. I wanted I.D. He showed me a drivers license that had that address. All right, he must live there. I opened the door and he went in. I must say that I got suspitious when I ran two differant credit cards and neither approved the charge. But it was late and I had two other people waiting on me so I just let him have the job for free. Soon after my boss called me and wanted to know why I had let this guy into the apartment. Well, he had I.D. It seems that the apartment was owned by his sister and she had thrown him out the day before. Soon after that, she called me and we had a very interesting conversation about why I had opened the door. My only defense was that he had I.D. with that address. I had no way of knowing that she had thrown him out and no longer had a right to be there. What can I say? I'm no mind reader and he DID have I.D. for that address. The lady was still highly upset, but understood where I was coming from.

Then we have times like yesterday. I was called to a home to re-key a couple of locks. No biggie. While I'm working the lady and I are chatting and she informs me that I'm re-keying the locks on Dad's house. The reason this is being done is because one of her siblings has a drug problem and she and the other siblings believe this person has been getting into Dad's home and stealing things to sell to feed his addiction. Sad if true, and I have no reason to doubt her. I've seen it happen before with people I know and even in my own family. (Nuff said on that one so don't ask.) Anyway I had just finished the job, gotten paid and was getting ready to leave when one of the ladies brothers pulls up behind my car and blocks me in. This guy is big. I mean at 5' 8" I'm looking up at him. He has at least thirty years on me and is in much better shape. He wants to know who I am and what I'm doing there. A reasonable question. I explain that I'm the locksmith and I was called to re-key some locks.

"We don't need to have the locks re-keyed."

"Sir, I'm sorry but the job is already finished and this lady has the keys."

What followed was a brief conversation between brother and sister, which I stayed out of, and eventually the brother calms down and moves his car so that I can back out of the driveway and leave. Clearly not a happy situation, but I'm just there to do the job and not to make judgement calls. I do hope that the sibling with the problem gets the help he needs.

Family members always make my job interesting. I got to a job late one friday evening. The man who owned the house said his sister who had been living there and recently moved out had lost the keys. Of course I'm thinking that he is going to want me to either re-key or change all of the locks. Not quite. He just wants me to get him inside and he has new locks on the way from Amazon so if I have to drill one, then drill it. The new locks will be here in the morning. Well, I drilled the lock and we went inside. At this point he wants me to take a look at the garage door which his sister said didn't work. We go in there and he pushes the remote button and nothing happens. I push the button on the wall and the door works prefectly. I told him;

"You might want to change the battery in the remote."

During this he also told me that his sister complained that the AC didn't work, nor did the hot water heater. I looked at the water heater, expecting to find a rusted out piece of crap, only to find one that was brand new. That gave me an idea. I opened the fuse box on the wall and clicked the breaker that was marked 'water heater'. Immediately the water heater began to sizzle and simmer as it started heating the water. Then I hit the breaker marked 'AC'. We went inside the house, set the thermostat and turned it on. In no time we could feel the cool air coming through the vents. I went back to the garage and shut off both breakers. I told him;

"I don't know if someone turned off those breakers so they could work on something or if they tripped because something is wrong. You'll have to get an electrician to check it to be sure."

He looked at me and said, "Do you know how much money you just saved me?"

It's nice when people appreciate what you do.
 
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Texican

Live Free & Die Free.... God Freedom Country....
DL,

You definitely get to meet some interesting people....

Texican....
 
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