Locks picking can be quite tricky. Not everyone has the skill to pick locks. It takes experience and the skilful locksmith can open a lock in a jiffy. This skill can be learned and self taught. It is acquired and if your interests are locks picking, then perhaps you can find a living from it.

Locks picking shouldn’t be done by yourself because you can spoil the lock in the process of struggling to pick the lock with a wire of some master key. Worse still, the wire gets snapped inside making inserting the master key impossible. So, it is advised to steer clear of jobs you’re not expert at.

It can be quite scary to be locked out alone

It can be quite a scary experience to find that you got locked in or locked out or lost your keys in the process. Opening locks should be done by the professional locksmith who may have a set of master keys or just s simple hooked wire to pick a lock. In the unfortunate event if you find that you got yourself locked in and cannot get out from your room, and there is no one else around the house because you happen to stay alone, then you desperately need a hand phone to call for help. For a start, you can call the telephone operator for the number to any professional locksmith in Canada and that is the critical time when an emergency locksmith can help you out.

Calling for locksmith help

After making the first call to the telephone operator for the locksmith’s number around your area, you need to just dial the number and inform the locksmith of your address and how to get there. The difficult part of summoning for help is done. Next, just sit and wait for a while before you are redeemed from your helpless situation. When the locksmith has arrived, you will hear your outside door lock being picked to be opened. Once the locksmith is inside your house and you are locked in your room, simply wait for him to pick a lock to your door and voila, you are freed.

Relief from being locked in

It would be a great relief to be freed finally from your temporary imprisonment. Situations like this do happen but you will be lucky to carry your cell phone around to call for help anytime. It would be worse if they person who is locked in has no access to the phone or any form of help. Because people may be careless in leaving their keys around or lose their keys, they need to call the locksmith to pick their locks in order to get into their house. There are some locksmiths offering 24-hour service so that you can summon them any time in case of emergency for opening locks. Not many would be so dedicated to operate round the clock for their clients.

Years of Skill to Pick a Lock

It takes years of skill to learn locks picking. If you are quick, you can learn it in a few months time. That’s something eerie and can be quite tricky as well. Of course, you’re not supposed to be a locksmith at first place. That’s why there are not many locksmiths around and fewer would offer their services on a 24 hour basis. But it comes in handy to know their contact numbers; should you one day need a locksmith for opening locks. To sum up, you should never pick a lock yourself to invite more trouble to an already troubled situation. It is sensible to get a locksmith to do it for you.

During the summer of 2007, a rash of mysterious burglaries occurred in the Dallas, Texas area.  Residents of upscale apartment complexes would return home at the end of the day to find their doors unlocked and their apartments robbed.  Even more puzzling, the thieves were able to hit a dozen or more apartments in one day!  How did they do this?

Detective Scott Peterson was the one to finally solve the crime, discovering that the thieves, later known as the “Bump Key Bandits,” were employing lock bumping, a technique often used by locksmiths to open doors.

A locksmith in Denmark first developed the technique of lock bumping.  At first, the method was to insert a key and apply a slight pressure while tapping on it with a hammer or screwdriver.  The force caused the tumblers in the key’s cylinder to jiggle and sometimes open up.  Sometime around 2002, a simple tool called a “bump key” was developed to make the process easier.  Bump keys are not illegal, and can easily be purchased on the internet.  In fact, most commercial and residential locksmiths keep bump keys in their arsenal of tools for opening locked doors.

In 2005 Barry Wels and Rop Gonggrijp of the Dutch organization TOOOL (The Open Organization of Lockpickers) drafted a paper detailing the method and application of lock bumping.  This technique finally attracted a great deal of attention in 2005 following the broadcast of a Dutch television show.  The show detailed the risk of illegal entry and potential for theft by using lock bumping techniques.
Around the same time, an American security expert, Marc Tobia, began to publicly discuss the technique and its serious security risks.  This information began to circulate through the media, and criminals in the United States and other countries quickly took note.  Now there are numerous online resources for anyone wanting to learn how to bump locks.  Kits for making bump keys are readily available to anyone with a credit card, and thus the technique of lock bumping has become a major security risk to the general public.

So how do you protect yourself and your family?  Ironically, many high quality locks on the market today only make lock bumping easier.  Very expensive locksets are manufactured with precise tolerances in the key cylinder.  Because the pins work so smoothly, lock bumping becomes much easier.  Furthermore, locks made of hardened steel are even more vulnerable because they are less prone to damage during the bumping process, whereas a cheaper lock is more likely to jam and not open.

Locks with security pins (for example, spool or mushroom pins) combined with a regular tumbler mechanism generally make lock bumping more difficult.  Electronic locks, magnetic locks, and locks using rotating disks are even better options because they can rarely if ever be opened via lock bumping.  Another option is a type of lock featuring “trap pins.”  The pins in these locks’ key cylinders are designed to jamb when someone tries to bump the lock.

Many companies now sell “bump proof” or “bump resistant” locks; however, bear in mind that as of yet, there is still no official standard as to what constitutes a “bump proof” lock.  For absolute security, look for locks that don’t have a slot for a key, such as touchpad locksets requiring you to enter a combination to open the door.  After all, a thief can’t enter your home with a bump key if there’s no place to insert it!

Apartment dwellers remain the most vulnerable to lock bumping attacks.  Because most apartment locks can all be opened by one master key, they are extremely easy to bump, thus the reason why the Dallas thieves targeted only apartment complexes.  If you do rent an apartment, insist that the locks be changed before you move in, so that prior residents cannot enter your home.  If your landlord refuses to change the locks, inquire if you can replace them on your own.  If all else fails, choose a safety prop or some other device to prevent unauthorized entry.

Lock bumping might be referred to as lock picking’s lesser known cousin.  It’s an unfamiliar term at best. It is, however, at least as big a problem as lock picking, and perhaps even more sinister for what it entails. Bumping is a type of lock picking.  Instead of using typical lock picking tools though, all that is required is the use of a bump key.  It has, for this reason, the potential to be much more sinister than lock picking.

One of the biggest problems is that few locks are immune from lock bumping.  This is because most locks work on the same principle.  The most common type of lock, found on every home and business in the world, is the pin-and-tumbler lock.  To understand how lock bumping works, it helps to understand how a pin and tumbler system functions.

Inside every pin and tumbler lock is a cylinder (or key cylinder.)  Within the cylinder is a chamber (the plug) containing stacks of pins.  The pins it contains vary in length.  When the correct key is inserted into the cylinder, the ridges or teeth on the key match the pins inside.  Rotating the key causes the pins to spring apart and the plug to rotate.  This rotation releases the latch from the door jamb.

Trying to insert the wrong key will produce one of two results.  Either the key will not enter the cylinder at all, or, it will enter the cylinder, but won’t be able to rotate the plug because the match is incorrect.

Old-school lock picking usually requires a broad range of tools.  Lock bumping, in contrast, requires only one special key.  A lock bump key looks like an ordinary door key.  It would be unlikely to draw any suspicion, were it to be used to gain illegal entry to a home.

To the untrained eye, a bump key might pass for a regular key.  A closer inspection, though, would reveal that the teeth (or ridges) and the notches are even.  All of the cuts, in fact, are made to maximum depth.  They may also be referred to as “dummy keys” or “999″ keys.  The number “999″ is derived from the fact that the cuts are all made to a depth of nine.

Opening a door lock with a 999 key isn’t as simple as simply inserting and turning.  It does take a particular feel and a certain degree of practice, just as old-fashioned lock picking does.

What is alarming about lock bumping is that only two tools are required: a 999 key and a small “bump tool.”  A would-be criminal will draw much less attention to himself with a bump key than with a set of locksmithing tools.

Two other major factors increase the likelihood that home and business or commercial property owners will become the target of a lock bumper:

1) Lock bumping can be learned from the Internet.  Unfortunately, the World Wide Web is rife with how-to video teaching this practice.

2) Bump keys can be purchased relatively easily over the Internet.  It’s almost as easy as finding how-to videos.

Home and business owners are left in a vulnerable position.  However, there are things property owners to can do to protect themselves:

* Use a deadbolt lock in addition to a cylindrical or other type of door lock.  Deadbolt locks are much harder to bump than other types of locks.  Using both types has long been advised by locksmiths and security experts anyway.  This is just one more good case for doing so.

* Use an after market product.  Anti-bumping products can be purchased at hardware stores and online.  They are almost always worth the expense for the extra protection they provide.

* Purchase anti-bump locks.  Many lock manufacturers have come to recognize the magnitude of the problem.  They have begun to produce locks with extra anti-pick and anti-bump features built right in.

By employing one or more of these methods, property owners may decrease their chances of becoming victims of lock bumping by fifty percent or more.