Survival Skills: Getting Past No Go

Every competent core of survivours will have at least one expert at bypassing or picking locks. Members of the Society of Creative Apocalyptology are expected to master basic lock bypass skills by the end of the first level.

Sometimes survival depends on being able to get past locks without taking a lot of time. Web entrepreneurs understand that you do not have time to become an expert on picking locks, so they offer a wide array of tools and techniques for clever entry with an easy learning curve.

YouTube is full of videos demonstrating how to pick a lock with everything from a paper clip to a wiper blade. But most of these rudimentary techniques work on only a limited number of pin-tumbler locks. If you want to be sure you can compromise all of them, you need SouthOrd’s $170 electric pick set. Pin-tumblers use five or more pins to prevent the lock’s central cylinder from turning; E500XT slams those pins up and out of the way. To use the 10-inch-long device, place the picking needle and tension tool — basically an L-shaped stainless steel bar — inside the keyway. Pulse the 8,000-rpm motor to deliver powerful vibrations that knock the pins clear, allowing the tension tool to turn the lock mechanism. The whole process takes about 20 seconds. Just don’t think the SouthOrd pick is an easy ticket to a career as a cat burglar: It sounds like gears grinding on an ‘86 Yugo. _Wired

Possession of such tools and skills is similar to possession of a firearm. You may go your entire life without needing to use them. Or your life may depend upon your getting past a locked door sometime next month. Thousands of people have taken up lock-picking (and firearms) as an entirely legal and non-larcenous hobby.