I know, “The Sun” should hire me to make their titles. Maybe being a locksmith in Newcastle was the wrong career choice. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t, and jobs like this one are one of the reasons why.
This owner found himself in quite the predicament: he had his electric car valeted, only to return home, unable to find his only garage door key, which was in the car before he left. He did everything he could to get a hold of this garage key but to no avail.
You see, the real problem with that was that the socket and cable to recharge his car was…. inside the garage. The locked garage. So he called us, his local emergency locksmith in Newcastle.
As I was a bit busy I initially tried to pass this job on, but none of the three other locksmiths I asked could do it. I asked the customer to ‘hang tight’, as I would be coming as soon as possible. Once there, I asked an innocent question: Which way do you turn the key to open this door lock? I was told it would be counterclockwise. I then proceeded to pick the lock counterclockwise not once, but so many times that I lost count. Surely over 20 times. Why? Because turning the lock did not open the door. How?
I must say that the answer lay in my being unfamiliar with this particular brand of garage doors. You see, to ensure this gentleman would not be locked out anymore, I asked for advice from other locksmiths I know, and nobody found a way to get this door to finally open. We brainstormed, all the way to absolutely ‘out of the box’ solutions until I then tried something that was so obvious I didn’t think about it until then. Why would I not try to pick this lock clockwise instead?
And just like that, we had an open lock, accompanied with a good, hearty laugh.
The last thing was to make sure this gentleman could secure his garage door again, as he still had no key, so I did what any other locksmith in Newcastle would have done: I cut him a key, leaving him with a bill he qualified as “much cheaper than I would have expected.” A win for both of us!
For professional lock repair in Newcastle call us today on 07865 367298.
Published: 21st July, 2023 | Updated: 9th February, 2024