Originally published at: Lockpicking lawyer shows how to defeat an "unopenable" Valentine's love lock | Boing Boing
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Romance is dead.
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The lockpicking lawyer explains how to get the job done for real: “welded shut.”
Still defeated in 4 seconds with a cordless angle grinder, like all padlocks.
I think it was Krebs who described locks in a way that I like- they are not physical security, they are social contracts. It’s just a way to say the world, “please don’t take my stuff”. They will never stop broken windows, angle grinders, crowbars, etc.
Criminals never bother picking locks. It’s the physical security version of this:
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The only scenarios I can think of where lock picking would be needed (over breaking) is when breaking the lock or the thing it is attached to is too loud to avoid detection or when there is a desire to hide the fact that unauthorized access occurred.
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Yah, and in those cases the criminals just go somewhere else. They’re looking for a high percentage move. Noise is also less of a concern than most people think. Around here, catalytic converter theft is common. The way they do it is they crawl under the car with a cordless reciprocating saw and cut it out. It’s loud as hell. Yet it happens to people right in front of their own houses, because people are busy, distracted, have the TV on, etc. Plus the thieves are in and out very fast.
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I think that’s largely true, but primarily when you are talking about slow, skilled picking attacks. Easy picking attacks are another thing altogether. Bump keys, key fob range extenders and disc lock pics for Ford trucks are popular. They are easy methods to do with easily available tools.
(Apologies for linking to The Mail, but but the summary is consistent with what I’ve read in the past (I know, I know, that’s also what makes The Mail so bad when it comes to political bias…))
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Yah, that’s a good distinction to make. “Lock defeating devices”, which I guess are sort of a gray area overlap with picking, certainly add value to crime. Anything that is fast and lowers risk is probably employed.
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That and if you confront them they may rob you at gunpoint.
But I think you are right about the speed being a key to the thefts, like this brazen robbery from a car stuck in traffic - it was quick and the thieves planned it so the victim was stuck in traffic while the thieves had a clear get away.
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Classically, locks are to prevent access and seals are to reveal access.
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It does seem like the trend in crime is more towards speed. I follow our local PD on Twitter, and most of what is posted there (sort of a modern blotter) is very loud, very fast, and often in broad daylight. Nobody is casing houses and sneaking in at night to stuff the silverware in a pillow case. I guess criminals have figured out nobody will intervene (nor should they) and police response times will never compete with an angle grinder and a baseball bat.
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Which is what is going to happen to those locks on bridges. When there’s too many locks, some schmuck from the public works dept. has to go over there with a grinder and bolt cutter and remove the locks.
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Has this guy find any locks he likes? That would be way more valuable info.
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Maybe that’s where this fast lock-picking has value! Instead of cutting them off, use a shim to re-open them without damage. Clean them up and sell them to the nearby street vendors for a song, to be resold to tourists to lock on the bridge again. Much less wasteful.
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The way I describe the function of a lock is not to make my stuff unstealable, but to make it more of a hassle than the next target down. 
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Come the spring
The lovers scratch their slogans on the planks of the pier.
From my second floor balcony
Does no one else see the pattern they make?
I have to look away to the sea.
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There are a few strong padlock bodies that can accept new lock cores
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On the bridge in Paris they replace the railings periodically.
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I’ve watched quite a lot of LPL. He always makes it clear that he chooses locks that play to his strengths. He also spends as much time as necessary getting good at picking the locks in his videos beforehand. He occasionally will accept sealed packages but I wonder how many get opened and the videos discarded. Which is not to say he isn’t good at the lockpicking bit of what he does, he’s just also really good at narrative, too.
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Hmm. Now I’m wondering whether he is a divorce lawyer.
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I have always thought using a lock as a symbol of romance is kind of creepy.
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