Last night, Susan and Mason left to run to the store and pick up dinner, so while they were away I decided to pull out the old lock picks and do some more practicing.
At this point, both the deadbolt and the door handle on my front door are no fun; I can pick either lock in ten seconds or so using a rake pick, and in less than a minute using a standard pick and doing each pin one at a time. Looking for a new challenge, I decided to try to pick the deadbolt on the door between the laundry room and the garage. The lock is kind of jacked up and hasn’t worked right the whole time we’ve lived here — in fact, our house key doesn’t even work on that lock. That means if I managed to pick the lock closed, I’d also have to pick it again to reopen it.
I propped the door open with my foot (so I would be able to see when the bolt moved) and had no problem picking the lock. I tried with a rake first and got it in like thirty seconds. I decided to pick it the other way with a standard pick, which I eventually did — except this time, when the lock rotated, the deadbolt didn’t retract. Thinking the lock might just be stuck, I reached around to close the lock manually and discovered that the lock uses a key on both sides. Oops. I then swung the door open and then successfully picked it from the other side with the same results; the lock rotated, but the deadbolt again didn’t retract. At this point, I was officially screwed.
I was hoping Susan wouldn’t notice, but the first words out of her mouth when she got home were, “Why is it so cold in here?” When she went to close the door, she immediately saw the problem. She asked me what my plan was and she wasn’t particularly impressed with the fact that I didn’t have one.
After the kids went to bed I messed around with the deadbolt for another ten to fifteen minutes before using a lesser-known lockpicking tool … the hammer. With the lock rotated I hammed the deadbolt back into place and was able to get the door closed. I’m just glad I didn’t pick the lock with the door closed … I have no idea how we would have fixed that one.
Note to self: don’t pick locks you depend on.
“… I have no idea how we would have fixed that one.”
Take the door off the hinges and then remove the lock from the door. I guess.
I had to do something similar years ago with the door that separated the kitchen from the garage. It’s been years since it happened so I can’t remember all the details but I think the deadbolt was sticking and I decided to clean it and oil it. So I took apart the lock (easy to do), cleaned it, lubricated it and put it back together (not as easy to do). I remember the deadbolt was stuck in the locked position. DAMMIT. I was in the kitchen and the hinges were on the other side of the door. So I went through the front door and then through the big garage door in order to get to the other side of the kitchen door and pop the door off the hinges. That was fun. At the very least I learned how to put a dead bolt lock together properly.
After I relaxed from that little mis-adventure I realized how insecure my kitchen door was, despite the deadbolt. If the idea of the deadbolt was to keep invaders from getting into my house from the garage, the hinges are on the WRONG SIDE OF THE DOOR. Sigh.