Random fact: In America, many police cars need the same key (one that's freely available on the internet), and many police cars become taxi cabs when they aren't fit for service. As a result of this, there are cities where the entire taxi and police fleet can be opened using the same key.
I was a locksmith many years ago. I received a call similar to this. Armored car, guy got out to smoke and door auto locked on him. When I got there he asked me to not bill it as a lock out. No biggie, just did a damaged lock on the invoice. He said "I hope you can get in". So, 10 seconds later, door is unlocked and ready to go.
Here's why it was so easy. This particular vehicle used IC cores. (Interchangeable) meaning you use a core key to swap them out easily so old keys no longer work. Most IC cores use pins in the cylinder. This is what happens, these trucks run a lot, get road salt and dirt in the core causing the pins to seize up into or close to the shear point in the cylinder. This makes it so you hardly need to do any picking of the lock at all.
TLDR; easy pickins if they don't regularly clean locks
mydrunkenwords on January 2nd, 2021 at 11:02 UTC »
LPL here. Today I will be picking the lock to an armored truck with just a pencil.
(Video is less than 4 minutes)
Olliroxx on January 2nd, 2021 at 11:56 UTC »
Random fact: In America, many police cars need the same key (one that's freely available on the internet), and many police cars become taxi cabs when they aren't fit for service. As a result of this, there are cities where the entire taxi and police fleet can be opened using the same key.
sethec on January 2nd, 2021 at 13:45 UTC »
I was a locksmith many years ago. I received a call similar to this. Armored car, guy got out to smoke and door auto locked on him. When I got there he asked me to not bill it as a lock out. No biggie, just did a damaged lock on the invoice. He said "I hope you can get in". So, 10 seconds later, door is unlocked and ready to go.
Here's why it was so easy. This particular vehicle used IC cores. (Interchangeable) meaning you use a core key to swap them out easily so old keys no longer work. Most IC cores use pins in the cylinder. This is what happens, these trucks run a lot, get road salt and dirt in the core causing the pins to seize up into or close to the shear point in the cylinder. This makes it so you hardly need to do any picking of the lock at all.
TLDR; easy pickins if they don't regularly clean locks