- Open a locked vehicle:
- Any vehicle lockout, service call included in price: $120
- except during Rush Hour (7:30-9am or 4:30-6pm): $150
- or between 10pm-12:30am: $180
- Open a locked house:
- Any house lockout a few miles fro Green Lake is $120, farther costs more money
- except during Rush Hour (7:30-9am or 4:30-6pm): $150
- or between 10pm-8:30am: $150-250
For emergencies, everybody knows to “Call 9-1-1!” While this is the proper course of action in emergency situations, the SPD frequently has its hands full with other emergencies. They may not consider your emergency as important as some other emergencies in the queue and as a result you may be waiting for several hours. In a true emergency, you want every option available to you.
Instead of twiddling your thumbs while waiting for city emergency services, hedge your bets and call a 24-hour emergency locksmith. If not otherwise engaged my response time is 25-45 minutes tops, something the police would achieve only if one of their ranks was shot or if their budget was increased to allow for more of them.
If you are nearby, I will unlock your car within 25 minutes of getting off the phone with you. I will unlock your house within 25 minutes of receiving a text message containing the address. Call me and save the police the trouble of breaking your window.
If you give me the wrong address or vague directions, it may take a little longer than twenty-five minutes. I only serve a four mile radius (while the competition is driving all over Seattle up to 25 miles away) to maintain short response times to the following neighborhoods: Green Lake, Fremont, Wallingford, Greenwood, Phinney Ridge, Maple Leaf, University District, and all of those areas in between.
I take no responsibility for what you do with the following information:
If you want to unlock your door yourself and save yourself some money, you may be able to. Most people get locked out when they shut the door behind them with their keys inside and their doorknob is locked. What many people don’t know is that most doorknobs can be bypassed with a credit card. The reason for this is that the doorknob is usually not installed correctly and the deadlatch isn’t working because the strike plate on the door is installed too far away from the door stop, the part of the door frame that the door eventually meets when it is closed.
This is especially true if you have weather stripping in your doorframe. When people install weatherstripping they frequently move the strike away from the door stop because with the extra material in between the door and frame they have to slam the door really hard to get it to latch if they don’t.
Back to opening your door with a credit card: you should actually use a gift card or something that you don’t need very much. Expired gift cards are the best. Pull the door towards you really hard. Put the card between the door and the door frame directly to the side of the doorknob. Push it in so that it curves around the side of the door. Rock it up and down as you push the card in. If you push hard enough and luck is on your side, you will bypass the deadlatch and the door can be pushed open if it hasn’t already opened.
The following video perfectly illustrates how to do this. “Taras Kul” demonstrates this technique flawlessly. It might not be this easy if the door is built to fit the frame more tightly. You may also need the aid of Taras’ sunglasses. We don’t know how much the sunglasses contribute to his success.