you're all delinquents!

i mean so am i but that doesn't get you off the hook

@eniko

after my current ✨legal misunderstanding✨ is resolved i'm going to start learning

@eniko A coworker managed to lose the key to his office drawer inside the drawer itself (I don't remember how), so I tried to pick it and succeeded (it was a fluke, I never managed to do it again even though it's a very low quality lock).

That time the card reader on the office maglock malfunctioned and the backup control was inside the office was more interesting. I had to cut a wire to get in (I chose a red one for tradition), don't know if it counts as picking a lock or not.

@eniko 100 years ago, @steggy was doing geology field research (ok, she’s not THAT old, but it was a long time ago). There were these sample stations in a state park and we were supposed to drive up an access road to get to them and collect some readings. The park officials knew all about this (it was in conjunction with the local university). They were supposed to leave the gate unlocked at the beginning of the access road. They didn’t.

So it was either a several mile hike on foot, leave and come back later, or I could just pick the master padlock on the gate. It’s a master padlock. C’mon. So, yeah, a few seconds later we had the gate open and we went and gathered the readings. Left the gate locked, just like we found it. This was ok because it was in the name of science! 😛

@eniko

Hi #fediverse. We need to talk about something.

While talking to a colleague about lockpicking it came up that they have never picked a lock. Like, not even once in their childhood.

Another colleague listening in admitted they also have never picked a lock.

My hypothesis is that most people have at one point in their life picked a lock.

Have you picked a lock?

Please boost for scientific accuracy.

@eniko Yes, and I (we) succeeded.

My nephew had somehow locked an old door, so we took two pieces of scrap metal and fixed them inside, and after about 45 minutes of trying and even practicing on a sibling lock, we managed to turn it twice and it was unlocked. We even tried (while the door was ajar) to open it again, and learned more about the mechanism and succeeded in that too.

I might have done something similar earlier in life, but I don't remember.

@eniko We've touch decoded a code lock we thought was holding something but turned out it hadn't ever been set up and just had attachment brackets inside. That feels like an edge case on both halves of your question.

—🌔

@eniko

I'm the lockpicker of the building when neighbors lost their keys.

First they seem a bit scared. Now they'te grateful

@eniko

I usually work night shift in my career, so picking locks is part of the routine. Yes, I have master keys, many different master keys, and can always walk over to security if I find another rouge lock that we need to open or remove. But picking/rekeying a lock, or general locksmithing is something that rapidly speeds up our workflow of entire departments if we "just do it now" and do it right, rather than waiting on a contractor. The process usually does keying the correct way, but we pick locks or big tools of destruction to send a reminder message when a door gets in the way.

Picking locks is a lot more elegant than taking a 2500 watt battery powered friction saw that will vaporize the metal in seconds from any hardened lock assembly. Or the oxy/acetylene torch, forklift, whatever, we have authorized root / all access to the building, we get shit done.