The husband and wife had traveled out of state for a vacation and one of the spouses had inadvertently left their spare key inside the house, while the other spouse with the key was still interstate.
The types of locks they have on their doors are Kwikset Smartkey designer series locks similar to the style presented in the picture here.
Typically, many locksmiths would choose to drill and destroy a Kwikset Smartkey lock because typically they can be somewhat difficult to manipulate without causing unrepairable damage.
Many doors that use Kwikset Smartkey locks, tend to have a separate entry set from a deadbolt lock. Often defeating an entry set, without damage is painlessly simple and there are methods to bypass a Kwikset Smartkey deadbolt that are considered "outside the box". We deliberately choose NOT to share these unique bypass methods for fear of those details getting into the wrong hands.
Our customer being out of state, while their spouse was on their way home without a copy of their Kwikset Smartkey operating key, contacted me to attend the site and unlock the door on behalf of their spouse. When the spouse arrived at the airport they contacted me to arrange a suitable time.
Being as cold as it is presently, I did not want to keep the customer waiting for long while I attempted to manipulate the lock cylinder. I did not want to drill and destroy the lock, because getting a replacement on such short notice was not possible, so I asked the spouse interstate to snap a picture of their operating key and text it to me.
Upon receiving the image, I attended the home just prior (about 15 minutes) before the spouse arrived home from the airport. I grabbed the appropriate Kwikset key blank and set about making a copy of their operating key with my handheld impressioning file.
Having a clear image from which to determine the cuts of the key proved the stroke of genius in this move, because I was able to recreate the operating key in about 10 minutes and it operated flawlessly in the deadbolt (pictured above). This allowed me to unlock their door without any damage nor signs of forced or manipulated entry. The clients existing key (inside the house) still worked like new and we saved the inconvenience of trying to replace a special order lock product.
NOW - Obviously you can see a security issue here that can be distressing. If someone has enough time to take a picture of your house key, potentially they could simply contact a locksmith who could also provide the same service and make a copy of the key. Ethically and morally many locksmiths would not do this, unless they knew the customer and they could prove they belong to the address in question. But not everyone lives by a code of ethics.
A few years ago we wrote an article that talked about creating key duplicates using the credit cards you often get on the mail from promoters.
See Credit Cards Used To Duplicate Keys
Another article we wrote about 5 years ago talked about a service created by some enterprising engineers in California called Shloosl, See the link
Here is an article from about 10 years ago that discusses the ease in creating a copy of your key by picture..... Key Photograph Key Cutting
Simply put, there is only 1 way to prevent unauthorised key duplication. Using a High-Security Restricted Key System. Systems that require your signature authorization in advance of origination. There are many systems available across the world in today's market. Some better than others. We choose to offer the Bilock Extreme Security restricted key system.
