Tuesday, December 2, 2008
letting people know about the shady world of locksmithing
I am starting this blog to give everyone a chance to know how to get a good locksmith when you need one. Unfortunately not all locksmiths are honest or above board. If you need to have a locksmith open your car or get you in your house, they need to tell you how much it is going to cost you. If they can't, run, don't walk away. You will be soaked. To many people pay 2 - 3 times more than they need to pay simply because they don't take the time to ask a few basic questions. I will cover that in the next post.
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Held hostage and blackmailed by locksmith
I was held hostage inside my apartment for one hour by an abusive and verbally violent locksmith who had installed a lock a month earlier.
Something was wrong, and I could not unlock the door to get out of my apartment. I called the locksmith.
He was impolite on the phone and said he could come in 3 hours. He did not quote any price, and the receipt from the work before said a service call was fifteen dollars.
It took less than one minute to pass the key out of the apartment and for him to open the door.
He said that his guarantee on the lock did not apply, I owed $45 and he would have me arrested for "theft of services" if I did not pay. He flashed some kind of law enforcement badge and began to call a police car to come.
He continued to curse and shout at me and tell me I was stupid and would not get out of the front hall of my apartment. When I made him step out of the apartment, He stood with one foot inside so I could not close the door.
I said I had no money because I had no cash, and he said he would walk with me to a ATM a block away.
I called out on my cell phone and let him hear that I was writing down the number of a lawyer.
Then I said I would pay by check and would he write out the reciept. He continued to be verbally abusive.
FInally he said he would go out to his car to get the receipt pad.
When he rang to get back in, I did not let him in. I went outside of the building.
I said give me a receipt and I will give you a check.
He insulted me, screamed at me, and berated me some more telling me I was such a stupid woman.
He made no progress writing out a receipt.
Finally he left and said I could come by the shop to pay his wife, and that he knew where I lived.
It took one minute or less to open the door, and he had claimed his guarantee did not apply, and it took fifty minutes for him to yell, shout, be verbally abusive and threatening, and do his blackmail.
Was he really a retired cop or federal officer? He had this badge so I was afraid of calling the police.
Had he not left to go outside to get the receipt pad, I do not know what would have happened.
He had pointed out that you should always use a licensed locksmith when he had first installed the lock.
During the time he was yelling and shouting, he told me that there were no complaints against him, and he had a perfect record.
...so a 'license' is no guarantee of professional behavior
at all.
This was a highly traumatic incident.
Because his shop is in the neighborhood, and because he knows exactly where I live, I am concerned about what he might try to do.
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