Locksmith? You can save lives!
In many cases, as a locksmith, you can save lives.
One morning, when I was driving to work, I received a call to open up a car door. A very young mother accidentally locked her baby in the car. In this case, a swift response could very well save a life. First, I calmed the mother down. She was so anxious that she was hyperventilating and difficult to understand.
This was the conversation that took place:
Me: "Where is the car parked?”
Mother: Next to my house. Right under the bedroom window…"
Me: At what address is the car parked?
Mother: 13 Ein Gedi Street … (I thought to myself: Great. I got an answer, and she’s just minutes away from where I am now).
Me: "I'll be right there. Please answer three questions for me. First – what kind of car do you have? (so I know whether the entry will take 20 seconds, one minute, fifteen minutes or longer)
Mother: “Hyundai Getz.”
Me: “How long has your daughter been locked in the car? (I asked this so while driving, I can plan the entry.)
Mother: “Less than two minutes. The second the car locked, I texted the word ‘locksmith’ to the Yellow Pages. Within 7 seconds, I got a text message with your number…"
Me: "One last question. Is the child in distress? Is she crying? Is she hot? Is she crying and screaming? (I was thinking to myself that if the baby had been locked in the car for a long time, or if it was very hot, she may be showing behavioral signs of suffocation and distress, or her face might be very red… And I take into account the possibility that I may have to use a hammer to break the windshield farthest away from the baby within four seconds…")
Mother: "No. She's looking at me and smiling."
I arrived within minutes. The child was smiling at the large number of people crowded around the car who were calming the mother down. She even seemed to be enjoying them waving to her.
Now, this is my thing…I got out my car entry tools, inserted the device into the door and opened the car within 20 seconds. The moment I waited for had arrived, the moment I anticipate after I each entry. The mother's sister gathered the smiling baby into her arms. I got a standing ovation for my speed and efficiency. The young mother gave me a great big bear hug.
In another case, which was one of the most exciting things that has ever happened to me. The family of a woman was concerned because she wasn't answering her phone or opening the door to her neighbor. An ambulance was called at the same time. When I opened the door to the house. We found the elderly woman on the floor. She had apparently slipped and broken her leg. In addition, the fall on her back caused severe breathing difficulties and she was on the verge of suffocation. We arrived at the home quickly, thereby saving her life.
There are cases…
I am sometimes called by a husband whose wife changed the locks to the door. Several hours later, the wife calls me to the same address to the same house to pick the lock I had installed just two hours earlier. I will install a new lock and supply her with new keys. In the most extreme case I was involved in, I replaced four locks on the same door. The fourth time I was called, both the husband and the wife were waiting for me at the door. The situation was uncomfortable for me since I had served both of them.
I have also been called to open an apartment door before Sabbath started, when the apartment owners are already five hours away from home. The person waiting for me to open the door was the neighbor. When I opened the door, per the customer's demand, I was asked to check whether the oven was left on. I checked. The oven was off and I had to replace the lock with a new one and give the new keys to the neighbor.
I have been called on more times than I can count to service locks for people suffering from phobias. One case that I remember involved a woman who would call me to her home to replace many locks: the cylinder in the front door, the lock to her bedroom door, the lock to the wall safe, the lock to the mailbox at the entrance to the building, the two locks to the storage rooms at the entrance to the building and all locks in her car.
Two weeks later, she called and asked to again replace all of the locks for a second time. I told her, "You know that this will cost you a lot of money. Why do you want me to replace everything again?”
She answered: "I went into the shower and as the water was running, I heard keys move. (The woman lived alone. All the doors in her house are locked with the bottom and top locks that are extremely difficult to pick.)
I asked her: "Were all of the doors closed while you were in the shower?"
She replied: "Yes but someone may have come in through the window, made a plaster impression of the keys to the house and left through the window. (The woman lived on the seventh floor and had bars on the windows.)
And then she warned me: "Either you come, or I'll call another locksmith."
"OK" I said. "I'm on my way."
She answered "Not now. Come at two in the morning, so the neighbors don't know that I’m replacing the locks again."
I explained to her that the price would be double for work in the middle of the night, but she insisted and said that she would pay whatever it cost. After I replaced all of the locks, she took all of the new keys, went down to the entrance to building and threw them down on the floor, stepped on them and rolled them in the sand. She then said, "I don't want anyone to know that I have new keys. I want them to look used."
A week later, she called me again. I decided to save her set of locks. Each time she would call me, I would replace the locks with the previous set.
Our relationship ended after she wanted to hire my serves as a bodyguard. She came to me and said she was convinced that she was going to be murdered. She asked that I guard her home. I explained to her that I only provide locksmith services.
Another time, a customer came to me with very similar behavior. He wanted to close all of the windows in his apartment, install 60 long wooden screws in each window and reinforce the screws between the window pane and frame so that no one could enter his home. He then asked for locks to be installed on all window handles and then to fill the lock holes with drilled screws to make it impossible to insert a key into the locks.
Boaz Femson, founder and director of the online locksmith course.