Store Lockout

During my years as a locksmith technician, I got called many times to resolve an issue with locks because someone had tried to break in and damaged it. Some of the times, the customer didn't even realized someone had try to break in to his home or store since there wasn't a clear sign of breaking an entry. However, any experience locksmith who will diagnose an issue with a lock could tell if the issue caused by worn out internals or with a stranger tampering with the lock.

Not too long ago I remember getting a call from a customer who had a store in the area and claimed he was not able to unlock it with the key. He couldn't tell me much information on the phone, but I figured that probably the lock just needed cleaning to function properly again. I took the store location info from the customer and started heading his way.

Once I got to the store and tried assessing the situation myself, I came to determine that someone might have tried breaking inside the store during the night. It seemed that the plug was turned all the way upside down which in my opinion was as a result from picking attempt that went wrong after the top pins fell to the bottom and and trapped the plug in its current position. Other then drilling I didn't have any solution for the situation, so I decided to give a call to one of my Spokane locksmith technician friends to see if they had any insights to my current predicament.

After getting one of my co-workers on the phone and explained the situation, he said that there is a way out of it aside from drilling. He first said I should check what type of lock the store was equipped with and then get a blank that matched it. After determining the correct blank for the lock, I continued following my co-worker instructions by cutting the blade of the key to its lowest depth. This allowed me to insert it into the lock without any issue and turn the plug to its original position. After doing that, I was able to use the customer's key to unlock the door. All that I needed to do now is take apart the lock and do the necessary repairs.