a fun story about picking locks

Ive competed in two lock picking competitions. My favorite lock picking story to share is actually one of these competitions. It was a small set of folks that competed. It was a gauntlet style competition. The first two competitions were a small cheap lock from dollar tree or something, and a laminated lock with serrated pins. The final competition is where it gets fun.

To win the competition, we were each given a water gun with a trigger lock. The game starts, and you have to put on kaleidoscope glasses, and are tasked with being the first person to pick the trigger lock, and to fill the water gun up and accurately shoot the person sitting in front of you. The buzzer goes off and the timer starts and… we wait, well after like 3 minutes, we were not able to get the lock off neither me or the other guy. I forfeit the competition on the condition that they show me that they can get the lock off the gun. I at the time couldn’t feel the 4th pin, and could not get it to drop. We all agreed on the conditions and they stick the key into my gun, and bam. it didn’t work. They ended up banging the trigger lock off with a hammer and replacing it. We then do the competition again, andddd i lost. second place. The other guy, who previously couldn’t get his lock off the gun all of a sudden could. So i got second place. Honestly I love that i get to tell this story, because one i made second place in a gun lock picking contents, and two I won probably the most expensive lock picking set I will ever own.

This all goes to say that if it hasn’t sinked in for you yet. In this story, we are picking a trigger lock on a water gun. But if this were real life for some reason and I had lost the key to my trigger lock for my gun. Having the possibility to pick the lock off of it is a wonderful skill to have. This also spans out to from just trigger locks, but to locks on gates, storage rooms, luggage and bags. Its also a terrifying skill to have when it comes to considering keeping your personal property safe. What if I was after your personal property, your lock may not be enough to keep me away. Whether its a padlock on a gate, or a password on a server, security is a layered defense system. My hobby of lock picking has only shown that often the first layer, the physical layer is often the most vulnerable. Showing that security is only as good as you make it.