If you get locked out of your Encino home, your car, or even your briefcase this can be incredibly frustrating. Often it’s when you’re in a hurry leaving and then you are unable to get on with your day or your other commitments, or it happens late at night leaving you stuck outside in the cold.
Locksmith
There are several options when you’re locked out, regardless of the nature of the door or your situation. Each has different strengths and weaknesses and while one might be the quicker option, the other might be the less costly. Here are a list of things to try along with their pros and cons:
Call a locksmith: Calling a locksmith is of course in many ways the most sensible option. Here you will get a professional to come round and help you to get in through your door without damaging either the lock or the door and without having to break windows or kick anything down. This of course has many benefits and will be the less costly in the long run as you will have nothing broken to repair. At the same time this gives you the advantage of being able to find out and repair what went wrong.
Call a locksmith (cont.): If your lock has simply become jammed or unresponsive then your locksmith will be able to replace it on the spot or repair it, and will be able to advise you on how better to look after you lock in future. At the same time if you’re locked out because you’ve lost your key, a locksmith will be able to get you a new key cut. Of course there are downsides when compared to some of the benefits of the other methods.
One is that you will have to pay up front (though remember in terms of preventing your lock from breaking in future this will most likely be an investment). Another is that locksmiths are not always able to come out after working hours. While some companies will these are fairly few and far between. The other slight downside is that you will have to wait obviously for the locksmith to arrive, which if you’re in a big hurry can be rather inconvenient.
Call a locksmith (cont.): Another option then, a ‘sub option’ if you like, is to stay with a friend until the morning when you can solve the problem. This will of course require a local and generous friend who you don’t mind waking up in the middle of the night.
Call a Friend: If you know a friend or housemate who has a key to your door and you’re locked out because you’ve lost your key, then you can always call them in order to get them to come out and help you. Of course this again has downsides the first being that not everyone will know other people with keys to their building in Encino CA and particularly to their cars.
The other problem is that your friend might be busy which could mean that they won’t be available to help you, and that they might be sleeping, in which case you might feel quite guilty about waking them up.
Break In/Break Down the Door: This is the option that we all know is a bad idea really and it has many pit falls. Most people are not really strong enough or don’t have enough relevant knowledge to be able to break into their own home. This means that it becomes dangerous involving broken glass potentially and splinters.
At the same time breaking down doors and smashing windows looks highly suspicious and you will probably find that you attract attention from the police and from neighbors. Of course the other problem is that will cause damage to your own property which will be expensive even in a city such as Encino CA and impractical to get fixed.
Attempt to Pick the Lock: Attempting to pick the lock is a solution that will allow you to let yourself in thus not needing outside help which of course means no guilt and no having to wait until others are available. However picking a lock is something that only very few people can do correctly and if your home uses a decent cylinder lock then it will be almost impossible for someone without considerable experience. Another downside of trying to pick the lock is that it means you might actually damage or break your own lock in the process.