An unusual service call.....

[mdc5150]

Yesterday I was at the shop when the phone rang. On the other end was a panicked manager of a big box office supply store here in town. They had two little girls stuck in a bathroom and wanted to get the out A.S.A.P. I told them I would get there as quick as I could and made it there in less than 5 minutes. Sure enough the bathroom door was closed and there was a grade 2 passage lever lock on the door that would rotate but was clearly not retracting the latch.

I pulled the handle off and the face plate and dialed the center ring off. The only thing left to do was to drill out the two screws remaining and pull the latch. I went out to my van, got the drill bits and came back. The girls inside the bathroom were 12 and I decided to have a little fun. I told the girls to get really far back, there was going to be a small explosion and I didn't want them to get hurt. After they calmed down a little bit (The manager was not as amused as I was) I told them I would drill the lock off the door and have them out in a minute. I drilled both screws and one of the girls was telling me where it was getting hung up without me even asking. Once it came free she caught the side of the lock inside and set it down. I retracted the latch and got them out.

I asked the manager if they wanted me to install a replacement and she instead asked me to take the latch off and said there was no need for a door lock on that door. But she thanked me profusely for getting there so quick and getting them out. All in all it was one of the more fun calls I've done, probably as much as opening the house for Fish and game to get a raccoon with a search warrant.

[cyrano138]

...a grade 2 passage lever lock...

What's that?

[mdc5150]

...a grade 2 passage lever lock...

What's that?

This with no way to lock it from either side.

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[cyrano138]

Oh, okay. Cool story!

[Oldfast]

lol... Ya gotta make work fun. Sounds like you do.

[jeffmoss26]

I remember a kid in HS getting 'locked' in the bathroom because the lever would move up or down, but only open one way. He tried to kick the vent in the door out...

[magician59]

We have several clients who only use grade 1 bathroom locks on their restrooms.

[gibson]

that reminds me of a similar lockout that i had - a woman was locked in the examining room of a doctors office. same deal, grade 3 passage lock, knob turned but the latch wouldn't retract. i knocked on the door to let the woman know someone was working on the door - she says 'come in!". man, i lost it. then the doctor says to me he was having trouble with latch, so he reversed it. i felt like making a comment about leaving this to the professionals, but ... since the latch was reversed, and it was an in swinging door i couldn't shim it. at that point i just shouldered the door (all 5' 3" of me). i did manage to sell an upgraded lock lol.

[dll932]

Yesterday I was at the shop when the phone rang. On the other end was a panicked manager of a big box office supply store here in town. They had two little girls stuck in a bathroom and wanted to get the out A.S.A.P. I told them I would get there as quick as I could and made it there in less than 5 minutes. Sure enough the bathroom door was closed and there was a grade 2 passage lever lock on the door that would rotate but was clearly not retracting the latch.

I pulled the handle off and the face plate and dialed the center ring off. The only thing left to do was to drill out the two screws remaining and pull the latch. I went out to my van, got the drill bits and came back. The girls inside the bathroom were 12 and I decided to have a little fun. I told the girls to get really far back, there was going to be a small explosion and I didn't want them to get hurt. After they calmed down a little bit (The manager was not as amused as I was) I told them I would drill the lock off the door and have them out in a minute. I drilled both screws and one of the girls was telling me where it was getting hung up without me even asking. Once it came free she caught the side of the lock inside and set it down. I retracted the latch and got them out.

I asked the manager if they wanted me to install a replacement and she instead asked me to take the latch off and said there was no need for a door lock on that door. But she thanked me profusely for getting there so quick and getting them out. All in all it was one of the more fun calls I've done, probably as much as opening the house for Fish and game to get a raccoon with a search warrant.

I didn't know they gave search warrants to raccoons.

I once had a call in a hospital operating room-seems they couldn't open the controlled substances cabinet, so they had me put on the cap, gown and booties first. I walked in with my tool belt and can of WD, squirted the lock once...worked "lak butta." I left the OR, took off the cap, gown and booties and left.

[GringoLocksmith]

I'm loving these stories.

A couple weeks ago I got called to a radiology lab to open a lock. The lock took a tubular key and was in a curious little box the size of a car battery, with radioactive warning labels all over it. I easily picked the lock with my tubular pick but it wouldn't turn. Then I started playing with various knobs and tapping at it, and considered angle-grinding the lock off. Thinking better of it, I went back to the shop and called the phone number I got off the label. The manufacturers told me it was an x-ray camera, and trying to break into it would likely result in a painful death. They suggested I get a Geiger counter and protective gear if I wanted to proceed. I did not want to proceed.

[Don Burke]

I'm loving these stories.

A couple weeks ago I got called to a radiology lab to open a lock. The lock took a tubular key and was in a curious little box the size of a car battery, with radioactive warning labels all over it. I easily picked the lock with my tubular pick but it wouldn't turn. Then I started playing with various knobs and tapping at it, and considered angle-grinding the lock off. Thinking better of it, I went back to the shop and called the phone number I got off the label. The manufacturers told me it was an x-ray camera, and trying to break into it would likely result in a painful death. They suggested I get a Geiger counter and protective gear if I wanted to proceed. I did not want to proceed.

That sounds like a radiography source, often called "a camera."

Those are highly radioactive, but decay fairly quickly.

I am guessing that the remedy would be to put the whole housing in a shielded container and let the source decay to a safe level and then get the manufacturer to figure you out.

[rzr800]

My weirdest call was one night a guy called and said his friend was hand cuffed and need it picked. Well when i got there he was sitting on a chair with blood everywhere and black eyes swollen with his hands behind his back the cuffs were so tight that his hands were numb. He already went to the police station and they used all there cuff keys and none of them worked. These were black military cuffs and the key hole was a bit smaller than the universal police cuffs. I ended up using a butter knife to block my abrasive cutting wheel grinder from his skin and the cuff. After i cut and got one arm free he screamed in pain cause his arms were behind his back for a few hours. As his friend paid me he told me that he messed around with a military policemans wife while he was in iraq and he got back and him and his MP buddies found him and cuffed him and beat the shit out of him lol.

[dll932]

One place I worked, our gal answered the phone and a lady on the other end said "do you make keys for handcuffs?" "Sure, bring them in!" "No...you don't understand..." At that moment she punched the hold button and was about on the floor laughing! We weren't able to get out there...pity.

[GringoLocksmith]

This afternoon I was sent to help a coworker with a service call. I was told the customers had the key but it wouldn't turn. Knowing what kind of lock it was, I climbed the stairs to the sixth floor apartment thinking about the precise hole I was going to drill in the door to bypass the lock. When I got there, my coworker had different plans. He was standing outside the apartment with the customers, a big grin on his face and a coil of rope in his hand. I immediately understood what was going on. It was such a stupid and crazy idea that I didn't even have to consider the details before saying, "Sure. Why not?"

So up on the seventh-story roof I tied what I think were the first knots of my life. It felt like just a precaution, as I determined that I could easily lower myself down into the open bathroom window. The other end of the rope was tied to something sturdy and my coworker was going to control the slack. Without a moment of hesitation, I lowered myself down to the windowsill of the bathroom. But there was a problem. Once my arms were at full extension, my little fingers gripping the edge of the roof, I found that my feet were dangling half a foot above the windowsill. I hadn't expected that. And at that moment, I experienced something that I hadn't felt for a very long time -- pure, unmitigated terror. Briefly, my life as an ambulatory man flashed before my eyes. I saw images of myself riding my bike and running away from that homeless mugger and playing frisbee with a dog I've never owned. But I mustered the courage to release one hand from the roof to grab for the rope. Soon enough I was inside the bathroom and then at the front door taking the lock apart.

Not more than one minute after I'd gotten the lock off the door, the son came home. He'd had the lock rekeyed and not yet told anyone. We could have easily opened it with picks, if only we'd tried. Surprisingly, I still got paid for my efforts -- almost $17.

[GWiens2001]

Gulp!

Be careful, GLS. We need good guys like you to stick around, preferably not sending posts from a hospital room!

Gordon