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Locksmith locked out of Car – Malvern

This story shows that even locksmiths can get themselves in a spot of bother.  We had a new apprentice start with us in 2014.  Nice young bloke, eager to learn, always on time and keen to get into it.  The sort of kid you hope to get and then you hope he can maintain the level he starts with….. Sometimes though the old bull has to tell the young bull to stop running around so frantically and just take things a bit slower… so says this old bull.

We took a job at an address on Clarke Street South Melbourne and took junior with me. House was pretty schmancy and the new owners wanted a full set of new locks on all the doors.

I drove up to the house the 2 days after Christmas.  The owners opened the gate for me from inside the house and I took my van right into the long, narrow drive and parked it in a spot near the inner gate to the main house. I got out, and walked to the front door with junior, and figured I’d come back for my tools after I’d spoken to the new owners, so it was just me, junior  and my business cards walking up to greet the owners of this luxurious home.  Then junior says he’s left his phone in the car can he have the keys to go get it.  “No Problem” I say, and off he goes.

I greet the owner at the door, discuss the job, I have a look over the doors, windows, and recommend a central locking system with a pin number entry.  These things are awesome especially for large digs.  You can lock the whole house at one push of a button.  So its all mapped out, we shake on it and I’m heading back to the van to order the system.  Next day delivery, we will be back to install it in the morning

I am greeted by junior looking both sheepish and a bit scared. 

Where’s the keys junior?
In the car boss.

Car locked junior?
Yep.

How’d you do that junior?
They fell out of my hand as as closed the door, the door closed, and then somehow the doors locked with the keys inside.

Did you get any tools out first?
No

So we are standing here, locksmiths, locked out of our car, locked inside this client’s yard,… he is about to buzz us out and we can’t drive off?
Yep.

I put in an emergency call to base, and luckily was able to get one of the boys there in 5 minutes as we had another van close by in Prahran.  I didn’t really want to admit to the owner that we’d stuffed up, so I went back to the house, introduced Junior and asked for permission for him to do an appraisal of the house security, to see if he would make any different recommendations to me.  The owner was receptive to the idea and so junior went around the house looking for entry points. He didn’t find anything else… but he did see a cat go in through a cat flap, and leave pretty quickly as it was swatted by a broom…. so he recommended a “let my cat in only” cat door that would stop the neighbors cat raiding the cat food.

Our new client was pretty impressed, and we wrapped things up just as a got a text saying recovery van two was out the front.  We tipped out caps, junior ran all the way down the long drive to the front gate, got the spare keys to the van and we were in an off without the client being any the wiser….. unless he reads this one day…

Of course it was junior’s chance to get a ribbing at the next weekly meeting. It just goes to show the… everyone is human.