I was in good old Sneek last weekend. Gea was celebrating her
fortieth birthday and we had lots of fun. It was already late when a
good friend joined the party. He is a locksmith who’s name I will not
mention…
He was complaining to have sat on his knees for two hours, desperately
trying to pick the lock of a … wheelcap! It seems Rolls Royce
wheelcaps are popular amongst collectors and thieves, and Rolls Royce
decided to put a semi-serious lock on them. And the owner of the Rolls
lost his keys, calling my poor friend to help.
The locksmith found out the hard way it was not easy to pick. I even
had difficulties with it when the cap was on the table. The sad part
is he agreed a low price before picking the lock, since the owner was
not willing to spend any money on it. Typical behavior of rich people
(but that is another story).
The poor locksmith never thought it would take him two hours to open
that silly little lock. When he opened it, he took it back to his
shop to make a key to open the other three wheelcaps. He will try
impressioning, and if that does not work he will disassemble the lock.
When my friend told the story I asked him to get the wheelcap from his
van to make some pictures for this weblog. At the time I thought it
was a great story. When I woke up the next morning (afternoon) I had
an headache and was less enthusiast about this ‘great story for the blog’.
I hope you still find it an entertaining story and like the pictures….
The last sentence is particularly entertaining. Sounds like quite a party Barry. 🙂
Haha, thats wuite the story!
I especially like the rich people bit, so funny, and so true.
You mentioned this was a “semi-serious” lock. What is unique about it? Is it just a typical 5 pin lock (which is still heft for a wheel cap), or does it have somthing unique up its sleeve?
Buck-O: I guess there was dirt in there, or the springs might have
been worn out. Maybe locks do not like to be centrifuged around with
(lets say) 120 Kmph for hours and hours, day after day. There just was
not much ‘feel’ in the lock. Or it could have had something to do with
the party mode I was in 😉
Looks like a Yale M69 – RR used (maybe still do, don’t see many of thgem in South Africa)these on their ignitions for the Silver Shadow, Silver Ghost etc.
They don’t generally have much feel but do vary tremendously because the plugs are usually filed to size by hand.
Quite often a plastic ‘comb’ can be used to push all the bottom pins into the cylinder chambers.
Haha, no wonder you had difficulties to pick it, you were busy preparing your headache!
I bet there are masterkeys for those things.
I can just see the flakes of brass on the closeup picture from all the picking
Thanks for the warning!
BTW, rich people are rich not because they earn more, but because they spend less. You can *always* spend faster!