Ottawa Canada
Forgot your front door key?
Try this:
- Ring the doorbell in case someone is home.
- Try the back door. You may have left it unlocked or be able to defeat its .98 75 year old Yale lock.
- Look for an open window to enter. If it is on the second floor, don't worry, you probably didn't lock the garage so you can get the extension ladder out from there.
- Ask the kid next door if they know how to get into your house without a key. They may remember about the old Coal Chute or Milk Chute which is kid-sized and has no lock.
- Try to remember where you keep the extra key. Check the mailbox, under the front doormat and the garage near the light switch.
- Phone a family member and ask if they can drop by to let you in.
- Put your shoulder to the back door. It is probably much flimsier than the front door.
- Have your young child go in through the Doggy Door.
- Throw a rock through the sidelight by the front door and unlock the front door from the inside.
However if your house has:
-burglar bars on all windows and the storm doors
-high security Chubb Medico locks on all exterior doors including the garage
-back and side doors as solid as the front door
-no doggy door
Then phone the locksmith who installed your high security locks and ask them to drop by as you are locked out!
Note these recommendations also apply to apartment buildings and less security-wize commercial and industrial buildings.
One apartment building I lived in Toronto had a back door by the parking lot that didn't lock properly for six months at a time and periodically snatched keys.
But bless its little Lockwood heart, with about ten or fifteen minutes of careful fiddling, would give up the key it had tried to retain, usually with all the other keys on the same ring, so I would drop it through the Superintendent's mail slot with a note saying it was found in the back door.
For some unknown reason, builders almost invariably install very flimsy back and side doors while they install nice, sturdy, front doors.
Printout these recommendations for future reference. They are particularly useful if you lock yourself out of your house and all your lock tools are inside!
Brian