I met with a rather embarrassed father and rather amused looking daughter at their Gold Coast apartment today. He was… underdressed… wearing just a pair of jocks. She was all decked out in her bike gear and was clearly in a hurry to be on her way.
It was a simple lockout from an apartment, the deadlock itself was not engaged and the door has simply closed on them whilst outside with external door having no knob that could be turned. No key – no entry. For a locksmith this is one of the easiest of jobs so I was inside in less than 30 seconds, Mr Tighty Whity’s went and got his wallet and proved he was the resident and all was good in the land of Gold Coast lockout recovery.
There was clearly some amused smirking from the daughter and some embarrassed annoyance from the father who said he had to finish getting ready for work. He thanked me for my time and bid me good day. I walked down the stairs with the daughter who explained she had gone downstairs to unlock her bike to ride to work when she realised she didn’t have her keys. It was the second time in a week she had done it. She rang her dad and asked him to throw the spare ones out the window from the 3rd floor stairs so she didn’t have to walk back up and get hers.
Common Scenarios for Apartment Lock outs
The problem was, instead of grabbing her main keys with her house keys on them, he grabbed the spare bike lock keys hanging on a hook in a kitchen, walked out into the hallway in his jocks and threw the bike keys out the window. The last time he’d thrown her main keys down, they had slipped through her fingers and hit her in the head.
He leaned out the window and gave some advice on making sure her head was screwed on tight in case she forgot about it and left it somewhere then turned back with a smirk to go back inside… just in time to see his apartment door blow shut.
- If only his daughter had not been hurt when he threw the keys out last time he’d have thrown her main keys this time too.
- If only she’d gone down 2 minutes later when he had his pants on he’d have had his keys in his pocket.
- If only his wife wasn’t away this week.
- If only his daughter had walked back up to get her keys.
So many if only’s… but no way inside.
Most often when we leave our home grabbing the keys is an automatic reaction. We are careful to ensure we always have our keys and everything works out fine. It’s these out of the ordinary incidents when we walk out the front door without thinking that are the problem.
The number of incidents similar to this that have occurred in my working career as a locksmith? Hundreds.
So when you leave your house… think KEYS!!!
My tighty Whities asked me to modify his door so that it could not blow shut again (very doable) and now to close/lock the door the key must be turned in the lock.
The added benefit is the apartment now cannot be left partly unlocked as the deadlock must be engaged to lock the door.