Locked Out?

 Ok, so you are locked out of your home, business or vehicle. Time is ticking and you need to re-gain access to your property as soon as possible with the least amount of damage possible. What do you do? Here are some things to help you through this process and to make sure that you have the best possibility of getting back in.

To start find a locksmith before you need one! The locksmith industry is not regulated in every state and there are a lot of people that are calling themselves locksmiths that are not. If you are out of town and your local locksmith you have worked with before can't help you, see if they know of someone in the area that you are currently in. If you can not reach your go to locksmith, or you don't have one, look up findalocksmith.com. This site is set up by ALOA (The Associated Locksmiths of America). Any locksmith on this site has been vetted by the leading organization for training locksmiths. The locksmiths on this site are members of ALOA and using one of them will give you the best opportunity to get the job done correctly.

The next step is to make sure you have the proper documentation to prove that you have the authority to gain access to the property. A LEGITIMATE locksmith will require some sort of proof that you are who you say you are. They will also go through processes to verify that you have the legal authority to gain access to the property you are requesting into. It is very important to make sure that if you move that your drivers license is updated with the correct address. If you just purchased a property keep a piece of mail with your name on it that ties you to that address. Take a picture of the closing agreement and keep it on your phone until you have a chance to update your license address. In the case you lock your keys in your car, keep a copy of your insurance card in your wallet that has your vehicles make and model on it. 

Some "locksmiths" will open anything up as long as you have a form of payment. Let that sink in, it only takes a couple of calls from a google search to find someone that is willing to open anything up as long as you have a form of payment. Scary huh? These people are not locksmiths and deserve whatever legal consequences that will eventually come their way. I will make a future post that will go over things to consider to reduce the risk of this.

There are so many reasons you want to make sure that we as legitimate locksmiths require some sort of proof of authorized access. What if there is a domestic abuse situation? What if there is a nasty divorce revenge scenario? What if there is an estate dispute where one of the parties is not wanting to play by the rules? What if someone knows you are out of town and wants to to gain access to your house to perform a theft of your property?

As you can see there are many reasons you would want your locksmith to make sure before they open something up, that they are making sure they are opening for the right person. So when you are locked out and panicking, please understand why the locksmith is requiring different forms of proof before they open something up for you. If you do find someone that is willing to just open up a property for you on your word alone, I would not use that service provider. I have had many people say to me "It's my property and I would not lie to you!" Well in response to that, I don't know you and I can't be 100% sure of that without knowing you.

Another thing you can do is make sure there is a spare key in a secret hiding spot on your property in case of emergency. This also comes in handy if you are out of town and have someone coming over to take care of the pets. I get this call quite frequently and it is a much more difficult process getting all the the things verified to be able to grant access.

In closing be as prepared as you can for when this happens to you. It happens to all of us. It may be a little inconvenient in the moment having to jump through all these hoops just trying to regain access to your own property. To be honest though, the more questions that are asked and the more strict the policies are of the person that has the ability to bypass your locks, the better.