[Dark_Stang]

So yeah... I locked myself out of my room this morning. I hacked the door with a butter knife and a Cracker Barrel gift card...

Anybody else have these situations?

[jonantice]

I remember sometimes I'd come home from high school and my parents would be gone. The solution was to take the hinges off the back door. Yes, they were facing the outside and I don't want to take the time to explain why.
The other time I'd just moved into a new house and didn't have a copy of the key yet. Luckily there was a window unlocked and it was winter so the screens weren't in.

[bigtomrodney]

I broke into my Dad's car with a tail comb before. He spent hours with all sorts of tools and I just walked up and cracked it right open. My mother didn't know whether to be proud or disgusted with me.

[Zelmo]

The Army barracks at my last duty station had dropped ceilings, and the door handles were the lever type that point sideways. The locks were designed such that you could always open the door from the inside, even if it was locked. So there were many times when people (including me) would unwittingly leave their room with the door locked behind them, and not have their key. Getting back in was just a matter of taking a mop from the cleaning closet, moving the ceiling tile just outside your door, reaching up and moving the ceiling tile just inside your door, and pushing the mop down onto the inside door handle to open the door from the inside.

Just about everyone knew this technique, but the rate of theft in those barracks was curiously low (only one incident in the four years I was there).

[minthaka]

I'm always forgetting where did I put them. Nothing can drive me mad as the situations when I cannot remember where the keys are. It's like democracy:
No good at all, but nothing better is available on Earth.

[fingal]

If I got locked out of the family home I used to just reach through the cat flap and turn the key from the inside. That was level one.

To hack level two was harder, because opening the second door involved getting a piece of wire, poking it underneath the door and fishing for the key that my mum had left next to the cooker. Once acquired, I had to pull the key underneath the door and open it that way.

Once my parents went on holiday and I got locked out. So I broke the window. It was much quicker.

[Oxygen]

I just ask my next door naibour for the key...

[Dark_Stang]

Originally Posted by Zelmo

The locks were designed such that you could always open the door from the inside, even if it was locked.

My parents house is like that. One time I locked myself out at 2 in the morning and had to wake my parents up to let me in.

[harner]

I used to come home on a regular basis and my parents would lock the door on me. My bedroom window is probably about 3 feet higher then ground level, and my windows are always unlocked (no pun). It's hard to climb through there since I have to find something high to get up there. I'm 6'4", but I'm also 275lbs. So, I'm not quite as nimble as I was in high school haha. Wait, I was never nimble. Anyway, I did that a few times, I've gone through the bathroom window a lot, but the toilet sits right in front of the window so thats pretty tricky. There's a window in the basement that I've gone through as well haha.

I just got locked out over the weekend, rolled in from the bar at 4am (my friend's 21st bday) but I was too tired to climb through anything so I drove to my girlfriend's. For the first time in 11 years, my parents made copies of their house keys and gave me one the next day. I'm excited about that, even though they want to move this year. FIGURES!

[fingal]

I've always wanted to learn how to pick locks. Not for criminal purposes (against my own rules) but just because I would like to know how ... Might be fun.