Here is my new addiction

Published 2024-08-22 by Peter Ternström

I have a new hobby. It's a lot of fun.

You will, as usual, think I'm a bit strange. But, if you've been following this blog for the last few years, you probably already think that.

About two months ago, I bought a thing on the internet. I had seen it a couple of times, and was curious. The parcel turned up two weeks later. It was a box containing a transparent padlock, a set of picks and a small book. I had ordered a training kit to learn how to pick locks.

The padlock was made of transparent plexiglass. This was so that I could see and understand how a lock was constructed. After reading the short manual, which was in extremely poor English, I looked up an instructional video on youtube. The video explained how to proceed.

Among all the picks I found a small torque spanner. It went into the keyhole of the lock. Then I applied a light pressure, so the lock was turned until the pins blocked the movement of the cylinder. Pins are what a key pushes up into the lock to the right height for it to open. That's why a key has a serrated top.

With the pressure applied to the torque wrench, I then stuck in a pick. There were about 20 to choose from. I chose one of the smallest. Now it was a matter of pushing all five pins up in the right order, so that they no longer blocked the movement of the cylinder.

After about five minutes, it clicked. I had picked my first lock. It was much easier than I could have imagined.

I tried it again. Now it only took ten seconds. One more time? Yes, yes, yes! Now it took five seconds. It was amazing.

My next lock was the front door of the apartment, which I approached from inside the house. I used exactly the same technique as with my transparent training lock. It took me less than a minute to open the door.

With a huge dose of newfound confidence, I decided to up the ante. A lot. I walked out onto the stairs and closed the door behind me. Without having a home key with me. I had locked myself out of my own flat. The nearest spare key was several hours away. Adrenaline was pumping through my body. I was excited.

In with the torque wrench. Turn the lock until it says stop. In with a pick. Find the pins. Push them out of the cylinder one by one.

Click

It opened. I had picked my own front door. It had taken me less than 30 minutes to learn how to pick a small padlock, to get in through an apartment door without a key.

This was the coolest thing I had done in a very long time. I was Jason Bourne. My heart was pounding with excitement. I was now completely hooked. From that moment on, I was obsessed with picking padlocks.

The next day it was time for the next challenge. Obviously, I couldn't start picking strangers' doors for fun. I couldn't. Instead, I went to a nearby hardware store. There I bought a large and expensive padlock of a Swedish brand, and two smaller locks of Asian origin.

The large, expensive Swedish lock was picked in just a few minutes at the kitchen table. I gasped with delight when it clicked and opened. The medium-sized padlock actually took a little longer. There I had to struggle for five minutes. Finally, I got to experience the ‘click’ again. It was marvellous. I was shaking with excitement.

The smallest lock was the hardest. The hole was too small for me to get either the torque wrench or the pick in. I gave up. To this day I have not been able to open the disgusting little china lock. I hate it.

Instead, I got in the car and drove to a supermarket. Here I bought ALL the locks they had. They cost almost 200 euros. But, then I got twelve padlocks of different sizes. These twelve padlocks kept me busy for the rest of the day. By late evening, however, I had managed to pick every single one. There were many "clicks". I was ecstatic.

This was about a month ago. Since then, I've joined several groups on Facebook, found two great youtube channels all about padlocks and how to pick them. I was far from alone in my new interest.

Today I own over 40(!) padlocks. I know everything about different manufacturers and models. It's gotten to the point where I have a hard time finding new models of locks to pick. Instead, I have started buying duplicates. Since the same key doesn't fit in two identical locks, I've decided it's a new challenge and a new click.

It's a lot of fun. And because I have a hyperactive brain, the activity - picking a lock - is a perfect break from working at the computer. If I need to clear my head, I pull a random padlock out of my drawer and pick it. Click. Ahhh.

It's also a bit scary. All locks can be picked. It's ridiculously easy to open a door.

It's crazy how everyone relies on keys and locks to protect their property.

Fancy a new hobby? All you need is the training kit from Amazon with a clear padlock, a torque wrench and a set of picks. A word of warning though: it's insanely addictive. But, a lot of fun.