Lock bumping is a lock-picking technique used in opening a pin-tumbler lock using a 999 key, a bump key or rapping key. For lock bumping to work though, the bump key must correspond with the target lock.
Facts
According to statistics released by the Department of Justice, two-third of cases of burglary occurs without forced entry.
After we consider burglary that happens due to windows or doors that are left open, lock bumping comes second on the list.
Lock bumping is one of the easiest things to do for burglars. It takes less than 20 seconds to pick locks. Since it became easy to learn lock picking on online shops and on Youtube, the rate of people who pick locks for fun and burglars who pick locks to rob houses has increased.
To keep your home secure, it is important to consult one of the locksmiths in Los Angeles to tell you the right kind of locks to use in the right kind of community.
It is not only when you experience a lockout in Los Angeles that you call a locksmith; when you want professional advice on what kind of locks to use in your neighborhood depending on the rate of crime in your area and the weather and some other factors.
Vulnerable Locks
If you bought your locks in a local store or retail centre, you’re most likely exposed to a lock bumper’s tricks. If your lock was fixed by a locksmith that’s still learning or who’s the friend of a friend who helped you fix the lock as a favor, you’re most likely open to lock bumping.
Also, if you bought locks that were produced en masse and that all look alike, you may be open to lock bumping. The problem with locks produced en masse is that most of them have the same mechanics and by implication share the same key. So, there’s the probability of someone out there having a key to your door. Scary, right?
Professional lock makers create their own bump-resistant and bump-proof locks with a UL 437 rating which makes it difficult to lock-bumpers to pick.
How to Prevent Lock Bumping
Lock bumping leaves one open to the risk of burglary. To guard against this, it is important to take note of certain precautions. Some of them are:
- Add chain latches to exterior doors. This is not a protection against lock picking but it will still protect your door even after the ck has been picked.
- Call on a locksmith to modify your locks and deadbolts by adding additional pins to them to keep them safe from lock bumpers.
- If you can afford to change your locks, change the locks entirely to bump-resistant ones. They will be expensive but it will pay off in the long run.
- You can install a security system to help you detect when someone is trying to access your door and set off the alarm or call security personnel.
- Make the landscape around your home or office as clean and visible as possible. When grasses around your home or office are leveled, it will be impossible for criminals to hind behind them while attempting to gain entrance to your house to pick your lock.
- Have a neighborhood watch website. Come together in your neighborhood to know yourselves so that if someone new enters the neighborhood, it can be posted on the neighborhood watch website to alert the neighbors so that everyone can take special care to ensure that no lock bumper gets to their entrance to pick their locks.
- Install security cameras around your door so that criminals looking to pick your locks can be identified and security persons can be alerted. Apart from that, lock bumping does not leave any sign of damage that can be seen. This becomes difficult when you have to talk to your insurance company. In the event that you are not home when your lock is picked, you can use the image provided by the security camera as evidence to your insurance company.
- Consider switching to keyless deadbolt locks. The idea behind this is simple. If there’s no hole to pick, there’s no lock bumping.
In the final analysis, security begins with you. It is important that you take the security of yourself, family and properties safe enough to remember to close your windows and doors. With an open window or door, no burglar needs to waste 10-15 seconds bumping your key, they simply hop in and do the damage.
