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- Sep 11, 2003
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I've had this small file cabinet that I haven't been able to find the key to since I moved. I never really needed anything in it (that I could remember), but I've been trying to find some papers and having no luck. I thought that maybe they were in this annoyingly locked file cabinet that I seem to have lost the key to.
So how to get into this file cabinet? I don't have a chisel that I could use to force the lock with, so I decided to try my hand at picking the lock. I made a rough pick and torque wrench set in my younger days, but I can't find that either. Maybe it's also in the file cabinet. I never got particularly good at picking locks. I would take me half an hour to get past a standard lock you'd find on an outside house door if I was lucky.
Then I remember that I've got a spare laceration tray in the bathroom. Maybe that'll do the trick. I bent the tip of 18 gauge needle slightly to make the pick. The single toothed side of the forceps was small and rigid enough to use as a makeshift torque wrench. The dinky lock on the file cabinet probably only had 4 pins (I'm guessing), so I hoped that it wouldn't take me as long as a standard doorlock, even factoring in the lousy tools I was working with now.
I guess my touch is getting better. This thing didn't even take me 2 minutes to pick. Unfortunately, the paperwork I was looking for wasn't inside either, so it was something of a hollow victory.
Anyway, if you're ever in a pinch and need to get past a locked door, remember this little trick. If you want to actually learn about lockpicking, you can read the same document I did. Here's a link to the document formerly known as the "MIT Lockpicking Guide" (not associated with the school other than that it was written by an MIT student).
So how to get into this file cabinet? I don't have a chisel that I could use to force the lock with, so I decided to try my hand at picking the lock. I made a rough pick and torque wrench set in my younger days, but I can't find that either. Maybe it's also in the file cabinet. I never got particularly good at picking locks. I would take me half an hour to get past a standard lock you'd find on an outside house door if I was lucky.
Then I remember that I've got a spare laceration tray in the bathroom. Maybe that'll do the trick. I bent the tip of 18 gauge needle slightly to make the pick. The single toothed side of the forceps was small and rigid enough to use as a makeshift torque wrench. The dinky lock on the file cabinet probably only had 4 pins (I'm guessing), so I hoped that it wouldn't take me as long as a standard doorlock, even factoring in the lousy tools I was working with now.
I guess my touch is getting better. This thing didn't even take me 2 minutes to pick. Unfortunately, the paperwork I was looking for wasn't inside either, so it was something of a hollow victory.
Anyway, if you're ever in a pinch and need to get past a locked door, remember this little trick. If you want to actually learn about lockpicking, you can read the same document I did. Here's a link to the document formerly known as the "MIT Lockpicking Guide" (not associated with the school other than that it was written by an MIT student).
