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Feb 12, 2007 9:54 pm US/Pacific
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Lockpicking Tool Easy To Buy Online
by Mike Sugerman
(CBS 5)
For just a few dollars, burglars can buy a special key that can open virtually any lock.
Bump keys, as they are known in the locksmith trade, have actually been around for more than 50 years, but the Internet is making them far more accessible.
Some bump keys are even sold online for as little as $2 each. Also for sale on the Internet are bump key how-to videos.
But Locksmith Dennis McEntire wants to arm you with the how-to information the crooks already have. He's on a one-man crusade against bump keys.
"It takes very little skill, and what it does is allow someone who might not be a thief to be able to jump on it very easily," McEntire said. "That's the scary threat that affects everyone."
All keys will open a lock if its cuts fit well into the pattern of the tumblers inside the lock. When you turn a key, the tumblers move to the correct height to open the lock.
When you insert a bump key into a lock and strike the key, it forces the tumblers up to the same height, and if you turn it at just the right time, the lock opens as well.
Police tell McEntire that bump keys are illegal in California without a locksmith license.
High security locks built with different kinds of tumblers offer protection against the use of bump keys. They start at $80.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)