I do not want to insult the people from Denmark by using an image of
the famous ‘Swedish Chef’. A long item about bumping aired in Denmark
recently and today I received a copy. I can understand as much of the
item as I could understand the Swedish Chef in his hilarious
Muppet-show performances. My wife Charlotte was creative with
Photoshop and did the rest. For those speaking Danish and those collecting info
worldwide about bumping the video can be found here (WMV, 33 Mb, 25 min)
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The bumpkey story also broke in the US. Check this TV item broadcasted by CBS.
The Swedish Chef. LOL! That is one of the funniest things I have seen all day. Tell your wife, thanks for the laugh. Or should i say “compliments to the chef”? ROFL!
Swedish Chef… haha. That’s great Barry. I didn’t know your wife was a Photoshop expert. Thanks for the link to the US story as well.
I’m glad you have such a good sense of humor Barry. I can’t tell you how much that picture made my day!
Hello Barry. Thank you very much for continuing to publish so many informative documents and videos relating to locks and lockpicking online. It’s a fascinating activity and quickly becoming an obsession for me.
It was very interesting to see this recent video from Denmark. Many of the news-type clichés were present – the camera approaching the house from the predatory burglar’s point of view, the blanks falling in slow motion… etc. – but then they seemed to be looking more into the insurance aspect, ie. is there any possible way that a victim of burglary-by-bump-key could claim insurance? The damage that the bumpkey method causes may seem minimal from the outside, but on closer inspection, with the materials and forces involved, I imagine it to be quite considerable. Maybe lock damage data should be investigated and amassed for comparison to locks found at a crime scene; though, of course, people could always bump their own locks and claim! %^/
In the immediate area around here, the majority of people have Mila locks “securing” their front doors (5-pin double profile cylinders, see http://www.mila.co.uk/mila2003/products/productpage.php?ProductID=138 ). Now, these would appear to be prime subjects for bumping, however there’s one thing that sticks in my mind. I remember on one occasion returning home late at night. Everyone else had gone to bed, the door was locked from the inside and the key was left in the lock. I inserted my key to open the lock and no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t turn it. For this type of cylinder lock, could this be a really simple defense against bump-keying? Leave a key in the lock on the inside? What do you think? I wonder how many double cylinders have this characteristic.
Also brilliant to hear so much Danish! I know some Swedish but that was like Swedish through a noise gate, so I didn’t get much. 8^)
Kerrin: Thanks for the rough translation and outline of the article.
> For this type of cylinder lock, could this be a really simple defense
> against bump-keying? Leave a key in the lock on the inside? What do
> you think? I wonder how many double cylinders have this
> characteristic.
The basic idea is a good one. However, after the Nova TV item was
broadcast in the Netherlands locksmiths had a lot of work because of
this trick. People who tried it and closed the doors behind them
without pulling out the extra key from the inside found they could not
operate the lock anymore from the outside with their own key. If there
was nobody in the house anymore the only thing they could do is call a
locksmith. And I am serious when I say it happened a lot. All
locksmiths I know had at least a couple of these semi-clever
customers.
Barry: that is at once interesting, unfortunate and odd. I’ve been thinking about it, trying to work out what caused the locks to be frozen like that, but I don’t know enough about the mechanics involved to come up with a solution. Can I just verify, do you mean they actually bumped the locks from outside with another key inserted on the inside? And the bumping worked but then the lock was broken?
I don´t think any Dane would be offended of the Swedish cook picture at all. heck we are practically neighbours with Sweden. And if you burned the Danish flag off, then I would think the Danes would be major pissed off. But I think it is great, you have made this blogspot, since I think The Netherlands are cool. And one of my close friends is a Dutch cool dude. And well about 9 months ago, I saw the documentary “What The Bump”, and it made me aware. And thumps up 🙂
And I think your blog is really cool 🙂
Kerrin: I do not know where
you are from, but if you ever saw a euro profile lock you might know
there is a small black ‘follower’ in the middle of the lock. This is
the part that operates the opening mechanism in the door. On normal
locks the internals of that black piece will prevent a key to be fully
inserted on the other side of the lock. A normal key would not be
able to operate the door, nor would a bumpkey. Mechanics in the lock
prevent this. Special locks are on the market that have the feature of
opening on both sides regardless if a key in inserted. But these locks
are mostly more expansive and only used in special occasions.
Martin K R: Thanx 😉
Does this not have a darker side i.e. rapists or molesters?
Thanks for that, Barry. I’m in the UK. I thought that the follower was the most likely candidate for the jamming but I know nothing of follower internals (I didn’t even know it was called a follower! I am just a beginner…) So, I will buy a euro profile lock and dismantle it. Inside the follower, I’m picturing a cylindrical block of concentric circles, sliding along a perpendicular axis when a key is inserted.
As for the semi-clevers, I see now that you meant they left the key in the lock on the inside and effectively locked themselves out! The way you wrote that could also be interpreted as, a key was in the lock on the inside, they went outside, bumped the lock successfully, went back inside then found the lock was broken! That would be very interesting.
So basically, leaving a key in the other side of the lock is a good defense, as long as you’re also in the building. 8^)
Ahh, life is so complicated. 🙂
Laurence Thompson: You can only arm yourself against rapist, molesters
and other criminals if you know what threats are out there. I think
educating the masses is the better then just the bad guys having this
information. Let people decide themselves what type of lock they want
to install. Locksmiths claim they know about this for thirty (or more)
years but never bothered to fix the problem. Only if the public makes
a point of it they will fix it. As is proven right now in the
Netherlands and possibly the US. Don’t shoot the messenger.
Barry: I am a Dane, but damn. Translating 33 minuttes of Kontant (kontant = cash) from DR1 (DR1 = Danmarks/Denmarks Radio 1, owned by the state) is too much for me . Kontant is a consumer show, where they tell the Danes, of the traps of the big companies, and the banks and so forth, likes to do. meaning they like to cheat the little guy.
So the show, is telling, of what not to do 🙂
Honestly, is there someway to safeguard your home from bump keys while you are away? I live in the U.S.
Barry could “you” make a test of Ruko locks ? since when I look at them, they look like an amateur version of ASSA keys, and what he said was “ok”(in the documentary) (the 6 pin) secure looks like this one http://www.assa.co.uk/resources/New%20pics%20Products/3_C&P/ASSA4800%20pic.jpg, with one security messure removed, so I doubt in some ways that the normal 6 pin keylock is that secure against bumping. But Anyway, I was only wondering. And this blog is great.
Martin K R: Ruko locks are very secure. Indeed they incorporate pins
that can also be found in ASSA locks. The cleverness of these pins
makes it very hard to pick or manipulate these locks. Unfortunately we
did bump open a small number of these locks when we where in Oslo for
a security presentation. So they are not immune to bumping. How
reliably they open I do not dare to say…