Rant for the Day (keep it clean)

[Weedygarden]

@phideaux My mother mentioned something to me when I told her how the Honda dealership screwed you over. Was the Ridgeline you purchased new? If so, she said that once you bought it and drove it off the lot, it can no longer be considered "new". The dealership broke the contract but you still had possession of the vehicle for at least a day.

I almost bought a vehicle one evening. It needed a new battery and the salesmen had to wait until morning for someone to get a battery for the vehicle. I drove my own vehicle home. Then I got buyers remorse. A lawyer friend of mine told me that since I had not taken possession of the vehicle, I was not obligated to finish the deal. I was so relieved.

 

[Cascadian]

Yesterday we took the Tacoma a few towns over about 50 miles. Earlier I disconnected one trailer and attached a different one. When I am just doing stuff at home I tend to use the valet key we stash inside for emergencies. You know in case we lose our keys while we are away and need to break in somehow. Any way I never got the keyring with the gas key on it. You guessed it I got 50 miles from home pulled into the gas station and no key for the gas cap.
I called AAA and they couldn't seem to wrap thier head around my problem. So as I was asking the attendant if the had a paper clip. An elderly lady offered one up. It took me less than 3 minutes to get the cap off. I am not sure how or why I have this skill but it comes in handy.

 

[havasu]

Yesterday we took the Tacoma a few towns over about 50 miles. Earlier I disconnected one trailer and attached a different one. When I am just doing stuff at home I tend to use the valet key we stash inside for emergencies. You know in case we lose our keys while we are away and need to break in somehow. Any way I never got the keyring with the gas key on it. You guessed it I got 50 miles from home pulled into the gas station and no key for the gas cap.
I called AAA and they couldn't seem to wrap thier head around my problem. So as I was asking the attendant if the had a paper clip. An elderly lady offered one up. It took me less than 3 minutes to get the cap off. I am not sure how or why I have this skill but it comes in handy.

So, you have a locking gas cap, but it can be defeated in less than 3 minutes just by using a paperclip? Inquiring minds would love to know how to do this, since I too have a locking gas cap and worry whether I have the key or not. Usually, I don't twist the lock enough to lock (make it click) so I can just twist it off, but sometimes I crank it down just one click too many.

 

[backlash]

My truck doesn't even have a gas cap. I can get one but it's not needed.

 

[Magus]

Hunk of Styrofoam like a Nerf ball wadded up in plastic wrap makes a great expedient.

 

[zannej]

I've thought about getting a locking gas cap but I'm always worried I'd lose the key. Too bad they can't do combination lock caps (but I'd forget the combo).

A pox on people who steal gas though. My uncle once rented a U-Haul that was supposed to have a full tank when he rented it but it was near empty & someone had rigged the sensor so it said it was full. Broke down on the side of the road. Turns out someone had broken a hose off inside while siphoning and it blocked more gas from being able to go in. A double pox on people who leave broken hoses in after stealing.

 

[Magus]

I know of a person who "fixed" his fuel thieves on his tractor.
He had a certain young welder, fresh out of vocational school make him a sleeve that fit inside the pipe going to the tank, he then filled it with industrial ammonia.

Can you say blistered lungs childrens? I knew you could after the ventilator came out. LOL
And the jury verdict:
Old man has perfect right to store ammonia in his tractor tank, especially since both tank and barn were locked. and something about the dozens of no trespassing signs, forgot the details of that.

 

[Cascadian]

This useless lock was on the truck when I purchased it a few months ago. I will be getting rid of it. It helps to know which way it the lock needs to turn. In this case counter clockwise. So use a small screwdriver, pocket knife etc with gentle rotational pressure. Use the paperclip to run over the tumblers from the inside out. As each tumbler gets to it's position the gentle pressure will hold it in place as it catches. It will take several strokes with the paperclip to get them all. When you do the lock will rotate. Now this doesn't necessarily work with better quality burglar resistant locks.

For the record I have never been a thief I just understand the mechanics of how they work. As a young electronics tech we used to rekey our tool boxes and workbench to take one key.

 

[Peanut]

So, you have a locking gas cap, but it can be defeated in less than 3 minutes just by using a paperclip? Inquiring minds would love to know

Buy a couple gas caps from a junk yard, get a set of these and practice for about a half hour. You'll never have to worry about another gas cap.

I have no idea where such items can be purchased other they are made in the USA. Oh, the yellow thread is Kevlar, it will cut metal.

 

[Neb]

This useless lock was on the truck when I purchased it a few months ago. I will be getting rid of it. It helps to know which way it the lock needs to turn. In this case counter clockwise. So use a small screwdriver, pocket knife etc with gentle rotational pressure. Use the paperclip to run over the tumblers from the inside out. As each tumbler gets to it's position the gentle pressure will hold it in place as it catches. It will take several strokes with the paperclip to get them all. When you do the lock will rotate. Now this doesn't necessarily work with better quality burglar resistant locks.

For the record I have never been a thief I just understand the mechanics of how they work. As a young electronics tech we used to rekey our tool boxes and workbench to take one key.

There you go!

Back in the early 80s I worked for Diebold fixing cash machines and proprietary alarm systems (only banks military and universities had computers back then) but I occasionally have to retrieve the film from cameras after a bank robbery.

The cameras had locks on them and there was no guaranteeing the banks could find the keys. So I was trained to pick locks as part of my job.

With cheap locks it is exactly as you described because the tumblers have some variations such that some will catch up before others. Using a very soft torque on the keyway and tickling the tumblers using a paper clip, dental probe etc, you can feel the tumblers that are hung up and the ones that are free. Just keep at it until the last one catches and the key will turn.

More precise locks get harder. More tumblers harder.

More than once I was able to come to the rescue picking a lock. But my favorite story was when a security guard learned that i could pick locks. He insisted I teach him. At one point he said...

Being me more licks!

He eventually became a Pittsburgh police officer.


Ben

 

[Peanut]

Google "Raking a lock" or "lock raking". There are lots of videos on the Tub.
Raking, that's the term for it...

 

[backlash]

Check out the lockpicking lawyer on YouTube. That guy can pick anything.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm9K6rby98W8JigLoZOh6FQ

 

[angie_nrs]

I bought a jiggler set like this for the go bag in my car. Getting into a locked car might make the difference between sleeping on the ground or sleeping in a car. Who knows? I figured for less than $10 it was worth having.

I would much prefer the skills like the dude in that above post though. He works like a dentist.

 

[havasu]

I bought a jiggler set like this for the go bag in my car. Getting into a locked car might make the difference between sleeping on the ground or sleeping in a car. Who knows? I figured for less than $10 it was worth having.
View attachment 76451
I would much prefer the skills like the dude in that above post though. He works like a dentist.

Those look like a shaved key set. In California, that is a felony to possess as burglary tools. Just say'n...

 

[angie_nrs]

Those look like a shaved key set. In California, that is a felony to possess as burglary tools. Just say'n...

Wow, really? They sell them in magazines and on Amazon, although I realise that doesn't necessarily make them legal.
They're not burglary tools officer......they're an extra set of keys in case I lock myself out of my car.

 

[Peanut]

Mine came through the SERE class for civilians. Not sure if its legal. The only tool I seem to use is the rake for pad locks. A few friends who knew about my class called later because they lost the key to their shed. One guy's grand kid dropped his key ring in a lake.

 

[Magus]

Buy a couple gas caps from a junk yard, get a set of these and practice for about a half hour. You'll never have to worry about another gas cap.

I have no idea where such items can be purchased other they are made in the USA. Oh, the yellow thread is Kevlar, it will cut metal.

View attachment 76430

Here you go. Zuiguangbao 15PCS Lock Pick Set Unlock Picking Kit with 2 Keys Transparent Lock Professional Practice Training Tool Padlock - Walmart.com

 

[Magus]

OH, by and by, cutting a Y shaped shim out of a coke can, slipped into the lock bar next to the opening and twisted will pop open
most simple padlocks. so I'm told.

 

[Peanut]

Here you go. Zuiguangbao 15PCS Lock Pick Set Unlock Picking Kit with 2 Keys Transparent Lock Professional Practice Training Tool Padlock - Walmart.com

Walmart sells them? This is too funny. I can hear the tv reporters now "We are here at WM where it's been report shady characters are selling lock picking sets"

 

[Magus]

I saw that too. funny stuff.
The poor man's James Bond has an article or two on picking locks.. I linked to it in the library.

 

[havasu]

Many cops I worked with were excellent lock pickers. We would use these guys to do "welfare checks" on missing family members, instead of just busting the door open. This way, we could go in with no damage, look for victims, and if nobody was home, we can shut the door without having to spend the money to hire a "board up" company. Yes, this was all done on camera, and always has the bosses standing there, and we would not concern ourselves with anything inside, and only with permission of the related family member.

Me, I sucked at it!

 

[Peanut]

OH, by and by, cutting a Y shaped shim out of a coke can, slipped into the lock bar next to the opening and twisted will pop open
most simple padlocks. so I'm told.

Shimming, it was part of the class I took. There are videos of it also. I can do it with 2 pieces of coke can metal but it is not easy. Raking a padlock is far easier and quicker.

I loved the class I took, learned so many new skills. I the see lock picking section as useful from a prepping point of view, especially the padlocks. For example, I moving and don't wish to be seen. I find a padlock on a gate. If I bust the lock it'd be obvious but if I can open it then lock the gate behind me... harder to know if I passed this way.

Currently, people lose keys from time to time, being able to rake a lock comes in handy.

Urban Escape and Evasion

 

[Morgan101]

I worked with a guy whose son had a classmate that went to work for the CIA. He didn't work there long, but my friend said when he came back there wasn't a lock in the world he couldn't pick. I guess you gotta do what you gotta do.

 

[havasu]

I do know most padlocks can be easily defeated by spraying freon on them until they freeze, and a quick smack with a hammer will break them in pieces.

 

[backlash]

When I worked at the airport there was a female TSA agent that could open any lock. If the lock was TSA approved everyone could open it but the others she was called if they had time. Otherwise they just busted the bag open with a big screwdriver..
All of the military duffel bags had regular pad locks and they didn't bother with those they just used bolt cutters. 99.9% of duffel bags would alarm for explosives because the boots they wore had nitrogen residue on them and that will alarm, the same thing with golf shoes because of the fertilizer on the golf courses.
A side note your bag will get opened and searched if there is a jar of peanut butter in it. The explosive scanners see peanut butter as a possible explosive device because of the density.

 

[havasu]

Note to self,
Never pack peanut butter while on vacation!

 

[zannej]

Around here if the cops bust a door in, they don't bother to board it up or do anything to secure it afterward- that is the problem of the owners. Even if they bust into the wrong house by mistake (which happens quite a bit because most of the houses don't have numbers). They do often have to get some flat band thing to get people's car doors open though. One of the most common things they have to do around here is unlock people's doors when they've locked themselves out. So, they aren't entirely useless. But if you have a real crime for them to investigate, forget it. They don't even know how to dust for prints at a crime scene.

I still remember back in the early 90s when I needed to board a plane & the security people were running my bag through the X-ray machine (which was new so they were just learning how to use it). I had a bottle of Snapple. They kept running the bag over and over. We were running late & about to miss the flight. I said "If you can't figure out what it is just OPEN IT and LOOK!" But the woman was all "No no, I need to figure this out!" I finally grabbed my bag unzipped it (it wasn't locked) and dumped the contents on the belt. She saw the Snapple and said "Ohhh. That's what it was!" I then stuffed my stuff back in my carry-on and had to run to catch the flight. They actually had to hold the plane for us. I was so irritated with that agent. At least she didn't give me attitude after I opened the bag though- and glass bottled Snapple was allowed on flights back then.

There used to be a place called Ski's Keys but the guy who ran it stopped doing the work after he lost some local election for something. Can't even remember what it was for. Don't even remember his surname but it had "ski" at the end.

 

[Terri9630]

One of my old neighbors is a Veteran. He always says he has no spine because of war injuries. He's had several surgeries and was using some kind of meds for pain management. He told me today that the VA told him that if he doesn't get vaxed they won't renew his prescriptions. What kind of is that?!!?!?

 

[zannej]

You know, it's one thing to have vaccine mandates for working somewhere, it's another to deny someone medicine over it. That really sucks. No one should be denied treatment like that. A friend of mine who is an oncology nurse in Tennessee said that it is illegal to deny someone treatment over vaccine status where she lives.

My gripe is about more drama in town. I mentioned before the kid who was going around with a knife threatening people and he tried to stab neighborhood dogs. There were 5 witnesses to him trying to stab the dog but the cops said without video there is no "proof". Several of his buddies have started brandishing knives as well. Kid was apparently suspended from school for taking a gun and shooting up the school and he's on "house arrest" & has an ankle monitor. He was outside (while he was supposed to be on house arrest) at my friend's house when cops came by & they didn't throw him in juvie. Anyway, punk and his friends were spending the night at a house across the street from my friend & bragged at school about how tonight it was "going down" and that they were going to "f*** something up" at my friend's house. So, I went over and took him to the store (since he can't drive after dark) to get him a real security camera and a spotlight. Then I took him to the police station. There were no cops in at 7pm so they had to call one to come to the station. He came in and my friend explained what he'd heard and about the history of problems with this punk & his friends-- how they stand across the street and stare at his house and how the one kid's mom repeatedly drives by his house super slow with a bunch of men in the car with her giving them stinkeye & how the punk has come into his yard to threaten people.

The cop said he'd talk to the parents and check things out. Said he wasn't going to make any accusations, but let them know that if anything "goes down" they will be charged. He came by after and said there were 7 of the brats (including the kid on house arrest) there & he let them know not to f*** with my friend. Said they will send patrol around to check. Apparently this town has a curfew so if they are out after a certain hour they can get cited. I wonder what the punks were planning to do. Hopefully they will know to stay away, but if they do try something I hope they don't just walk.

 

[Supervisor42]

Mini-rant:
I for one will be happy when December 7th comes and goes.
Not because it is Pearl Harbor day, but because it will be the end of the Medicare open-enrollment period.
The commercials for Medicare 'advantage' plans have been nonstop .
Sometimes 3 in a row chained together.
"Call the number on the bottom of your screen, IT'S FREE!!!"
I have to restrain myself from dialing and explaining to them:
"We've been trying to reach you concerning your expiring vehicle warranty..."
I have that one memorized .
Hopefully they will slack up after the 8th.