A lot of customers tell me they they’ve been trying to find a locksmith that’s actually taking work, late at night. Others tell me they have explained the job to the locksmith, and suddenly they’re all “oh, I’m busy” when they realise it could be a hard job late at night.

Last night I had a call come in about 1am. Lost keys. I get a lot of these, because once the customer says that, the idiot “locksmith” scammers know that they’ll have to actually do some work for their money, so they make excuses. Especially when “it needs a key from both sides”.

It turned out to be a Chubb 5 lever deadlock. A 114. Not an easy lock by any means, and tucked right into the door frame, as is so common in Edinburgh.

Here we see it picked open without damage. The customer will collect a new flat key come Monday, as it is a rental property. Whether it ever gets rekeyed, who knows? But this couple didn’t need to sleep in the stair, at least!