How easy to pick a lock...

Locks are getting a lot more difficult to pick now according to the locksmith who I saw working on my friends house a few weeks back. In the end he had to drill the lock out as traditional methods werent working.

Its good that they cant be picked so easily,but costly that you need a new barrel and keyset once its been drilled.

Was a ten minute job with regards to drilling and replacing. Something I think I could do myself given the time.

what i meant is any door could be forced in if needed to in under a minute if they need to get in.they wont sit picking lock they would smash it down.

if you ever seen it done you understand not many doors would hold if the right method was used to enter.
 
Not robbing anyone, honest guv!

Had a bit of an odd situation this afternoon. I pulled into my road to see an ambulance, two paramedic cars and five paramedics/doctors/nurses/ambulanciers standing outside my house. Slightly concerned I went up to them to find out that they had received a 999 call which led them to believe there was someone struggling to breath in my house (I didn't think to ask how they came to this conclusion). No one was in, and as my neighbours didn't have my phone number, they had no choice but to break into my property.

You have been SWATed!

In all seriousness, can you think of anybody who might have done this to you?
 
"Hold on Mr. mpledge52, we know you're choking to death, but we're just quickly gonna pick this lock so we don't need to break in through your window, shouldn't be long!" :rolleyes:
 
I would assume they decided that breaking the window was going to be quicker and easier than picking the lock.

The fact that someone else might be able to pick the lock quickly and easily doesn't really matter.
 
"Hold on Mr. mpledge52, we know you're choking to death, but we're just quickly gonna pick this lock so we don't need to break in through your window, shouldn't be long!" :rolleyes:

A bit unfair - he was just pointing out that a locksmith can have a door open in20-30 seconds, probably quicker than forcing a window. Would it therefore be worth training emergency services up to be able to do the same? Answer being no for lots of the reasons given above.
 
Why would you waste time and a considerable amount of money having to continually (new locks means constantly updating) train all emergency personnel to do this when all you need to do is supply them a £5 hammer and glove?

NHS and local emergency services budgets are hard enough to meet at the moment with out burdening them with pointless costs, the few times like yours where it was not necessary although a pain, are an acceptable loss in my opinion
 
Post your address, a list of valuables and when you will be out and I am sure we can find out how easy your locks are to pick.

Won't there be some sort of system in place to investigate a fake call? At the very least a flag to se if there a repeated calls to the same address from the same number?
 
Doubt you'll get your money back.

There was a thread about something similar on another forum in which the police smashed a front door down as they'd had a report that someone had died/was dying.

They wouldn't pay.

It's a really good way to inconvenience an enemy it seems.
 
Standard Yale type locks are fairly easy, I learnt how to pick them very quickly indeed at a conference a few years back.

Other locks are a lot more difficult though, so the emergency services would still have to learn to get in through the windows, which means there isn't much point training them to be locksmiths at all.
 
Money wise, they sent someone a couple of hours later to secure the window (for free). As for a replacement, they said that I should call my insurer and explain the situation, I then make a claim and the insurer gets the money off the ambulance service. That's what he told me anyway. How true it is I guess I'm about to find out.

As for the call, I asked them at the time and they didn't elaborate on how they came to the conclusion that they thought the person was in my house. I'll be phoning up to get more information on this, as yes it is a worry if it was a hoax/prank. What sort of phone tracking abilities do they have? Obviously the call didn't come from my landline as there was no sign of a break in when they got there (unless the line the call came from is somehow linked to my address by mistake), but what about mobiles? Could they trace the call to someone being near my house?

They said the call came form someone having trouble to breath, so my first assumption was that they couldn't clearly hear what the address was and perhaps went to the wrong one. :(
 
Well they can snap it just like any other :D.

There's a few videos of avocet being picked so don't buy into the marketting too much(well at least that's what the video shows I have no idea if it's the same lock).

There are people that can pick all sorts of locks on Youtube, but they have ploughed hundreds of hours into learning it and on that specific lock. The chances of some chav burglar being able to pick an ABS are almost 0.

Although I havent seen anyone picking an ABS, will have to look later.
 
There are people that can pick all sorts of locks on Youtube, but they have ploughed hundreds of hours into learning it and on that specific lock. The chances of some chav burglar being able to pick an ABS are almost 0.

Although I havent seen anyone picking an ABS, will have to look later.

I think the likely 'entry route' into the padlock for that individual would be the same as the EMS into the house - a hammer! Or indeed bolt cutters...
 
Well that's a bit grim if there was someone out there waiting for an ambulance to arrive that never did.
Agreed :(

Have you done someone's letter box recently or done something bad to someone?

Seems like someone wants you to pay for things....

Not to my knowledge. Plus the call came through at a time where normally someone would've been home, so had we not been late back we would have just answered the door and there be no damage, so not much of a revenge trick.
 
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