Have you ever been curious about how lock picking works and how difficult it is? You may discover not only how easy it is, but how to look beyond the lock when it comes to protecting your home. It’s always good to know how security measures are broken easily so it doesn’t happen to you and having your locks regularly checked by a Locksmith is a must.
There are some ways that locks can be made more pick resistant. But of course, pick resistant locks are just that. They make it harder to pick a lock, but it’s by no means impossible and might just take a little longer to unlock. Modern pin tumbler locks have been around for centuries, and people have found ways of breaking into them. Here are some of the methods:
Some locks are vulnerable to a particularly nasty type of attack called lock snapping. With this technique, applying a small amount of pressure in the right way would actually break a lock in half, rendering it useless. This is a big problem in many homes that were equipped with fragile cylinder locks that could be broken with minimal force. This is a common technique that professional thieves do and wouldn’t bother picking the lock. Most locks aren’t going to be vulnerable to this type of attack, but by the time it was discovered, millions of homes already had these flawed locks installed.
If you’ve ever wondered why you need a deadbolt on top of a regular lock, it’s because of this method. Using a credit card, you can wedge a small, flat piece of plastic in between the door and its frame. If the lock you’re opening has a slanted edge you can force it open enough to pry the door open. Deadbolts don’t have this slanted edge and must be locked using a key, so they can’t be opened this way.
Thieves with a few of these on their key rings could easily open most home locks. Bump keys can be made from regular blank keys you can find at your local hardware store or you can buy ready-made bump keys online. Bump keys are like regular keys, with slots for the pins filed far enough down to fit any lock. A quick bump is all it takes to line up every pin in a lock and open it. While each bump key still has to match the profile ridges, most home locks use only a few key shapes to begin with.
These methods are only about bypassing locks. That doesn’t even come close to all the ways that someone can break into a house. If you’re an experienced thief that’s looking for the easiest way to get through a locked door, any one of these methods will be more efficient and easier than kneeling in front of a door with a couple of thin pieces of metal, gently moving tiny pins that you can’t see into place. Lock picking, as a means of break-in, is really a last resort.