Although automotive keys tend to look more complicated than, say, a house key, it turns out that the concept behind their operation is pretty similar. No thanks to a specialized tool called a Lishi lock pick, car doors can be unlocked pretty easily.
That’s the conclusion of an ongoing series of videos from The LockPickingLawyer, whose website has started selling the tools. Essentially, they combine a pry bar and the pick along with a little graph to help you decode the lock.
In a video from May, the host of the channel called these picks a game-changer, while locksmiths on the Lishi website provide testimonials for how easy they make unlocking car doors (sic). That’s because the tools are made specifically for certain locks and mimic the shape of the key to push aside the dust cover and other things that might get in a lock picker’s way.
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The result is that the host could unlock the doors of a 2013 Chevrolet Silverado, a 2018 Nissan Maxima, and a 2013 BMW 3-Series within seconds. In the video introducing the Lishi locks, the Lockpicking Lawyer relates how a selection of people with no lockpicking experience were able to pick common door locks and padlocks with ease.
It’s all very unsettling and culminates in the host picking the lock of his own car, a Ford Explorer ST. Just like in the previous videos, the lock was easily picked in a matter of seconds. Fortunately, the car’s alarm sounded and the host was alerted to the break in in seconds through his phone. While that’s reassuring, I’m not sure how secure I think any valuables in my car are anymore.
Although the host points out that these lockpicks would make gaining access to the car easy (a blessing if you lock your keys in your car, a bit of a concern that anyone can just buy these, though), they can’t start a car because they don’t have the requisite chip. So that’s a relief, I guess. Excuse while I go hide my car and empty it of my belongings, though.