Life gets a rush sometimes between work, soccer training, school drops offs, and we sometimes get a little flustered and accidents can happen like locking yourself out.
If you have not given a spare key to one of your neighbors don’t worry, there are a few tips to take note of to help you out in this very common pickle.
Find someone to help
If you live with someone else give them a call and see if they can let you in or meet you somewhere to give you the key. If you are renting the property, the landlord or the real estate company always keeps a spare key that they are happy to loan you until you get another one made.
A card from your wallet
Using this method will only work however on the spring bolt locks which are often found to be on the standard issue knobs. This will not work on deadbolts there is not enough force from the card.
The card will be destroyed so it is best to choose a card that you wont really use until you can replace it such a rewards card or a membership card. Cards that are more flexible such as those that are laminated tend to work best. It is just a matter of inserting the card between the frame and door right where the latch is found. You then hold the card vertical to the door and start to wiggle and push the card.
As you are pushing you need to bend the card from the doorknob to try and slide the latch right back from the door latch. If you are able to unlock the door congratulations but this means your home is easy to break into and you need to install something more secure.
Check your windows
Most of us never go out without locking windows and doors but sometimes we can forget and end up in a rush and close them but forget to lock them. Just do a check over your home just incase you or someone else at home has left one open.
Lock picking
You can lock pick your own lock if you have a set of lock picking tools which most of us don’t carry in our bags, so you will have to improvise. While this won’t work on all locks it is known to work on quite a few common locks. The bobby pin works well to pick locks or if you don’t have a bobby pin look around for something similar like a paperclip. This can be quite frustrating and take quite a while especially if your new to this, so it can be more calmer waiting for someone to come and help you.
When you have been through all the options you can think of and not getting anywhere, and the weather is either cold and wet or stinking hot suffer no more and ring a locksmith.
They don’t take long to arrive and will help you gain access to your home with no damage, no bobby pin tries and no destroyed keycards. Be sure to check quotes as they can charge extra for weekends and after service call outs.