Lock Repairs

A Burglars Own Security Tips

Happy May to you all, I hope you enjoyed your Easter. I took advantage of a few days off to get some film viewing done. One of which was Alfred Hitchcock’s classic, To Catch a Thief, starring the impossibly glamorous Grace Kelly and equally handsome Cary Grant. Set in the beautiful French Riviera, a series of daring robberies take place with expensive jewellery being stolen. Suspicion falls on Grant due to his past as a cat-burglar. Without giving away the ending, he has to use skills and knowledge from his own criminal past to try and foil the new thief, thus proving his own innocence. 

Burglary Prevention Tips

If we ignore everything that’s going on in the world at the moment, we’ve had quite a nice few days recently with plenty of sunshine to enjoy. A sure sign that Spring is on its way, and before you know it Easter will be along. 

I’ve been racking my brains about what I could get you, my dear readers, as an Easter present. Easter Eggs just seemed a bit too obvious, and didn’t you say you were on a diet anyway? Perhaps some flowers, but then there’s hay fever to consider. So I finally settled on a blog containing tips about how to keep your house safe. You may feel a bit short changed by that, and complain that I give you that every month anyway. But this is a special Easter-themed blog. Mainly because I’ve mentioned the word Easter four times already. Well, five now. 

Barnsley Locksmiths New Years Resolutions

So it’s 2022 and STILL no sign of the flying cars, jetpacks, robot butlers or day trips to Mars. I’m beginning to think Tomorrow’s World lied to us in the 1970s. Nevertheless, Happy New Year to you all and let’s hope that 2022 is good to us all. Although, bearing in mind I’ve been saying that for the last decade or so, it’s clearly a wish rather than a guarantee – remember when 2016 was the worst year ever, and the next few couldn’t possibly be worse?

Xmas Security From A Barnsley Locksmith

Hey hey. Or should it be Ho Ho? Yep, it appears to be dangerously close to Christmas which seems to have come around insanely quickly this year. And whilst, like a Downing Street party, we may not be entirely sure how, or indeed, if it’s happened, there’s not a lot we can do about it apart from accept it and quietly plot revolution over the turkey and cranberry sauce. 

Barnsley Locksmith Advice For Autumn

I don’t want to worry you, but it does seem to be October already. I know, I know, it was only May the other day, but you take a moment to blink, and the next thing you know the nights are getting darker, the shops are full of Halloween paraphernalia, and one eye is being drawn towards that thermostat in the hall. Although with the current gas crisis, maybe the middle-aged man of the house will be putting a padlocked box over that to make sure it doesn’t get switched on until at least November. 

Barnsley Locksmith Advice For Parents With Young Children

Well, the summer school holidays are over and the kids should all now be back in the classroom. If yours aren’t, you’d better either check the school calendar or alternatively just remember that your kids are in their forties anyway, and it’s really up to their headteacher to address their attendance at work. 

So, children, hey? I’m guessing that some of you will have them and some of you won’t. It’s that sort of insightful analysis that brings you back here each month, isn’t it?  But even if you don’t have children, you’re probably aware of the concept – they’re like adults who haven’t lived as long yet and are generally smaller and less willing to have a bath or shower than their larger counterparts. That BBC documentary gig can’t be far off for me.  

Local Barnsley Locksmith

In a break between football games this week I was having a watch of an old episode of The League of Gentlemen. Set in the fictional village of Royston Vasey (which happens to be the real name of Roy “Chubby” Brown, trivia fans), this magnificently dark comic series originally ran for 3 series around the turn of the millennium, but has stayed popular ever since, inspiring a feature film, stage show and recently some new episodes for its 20th anniversary. Amongst the bizarre characters, a couple of the most popular were Edward and Tubbs, the married couple (and also brother and sister) who owned the local shop within Royston Vasey; their catchphrases of “Are you local?” and  “this is a local shop for local people…there’s nothing for you here” became the most well-known by fans and non-fans alike. 

Key Safe Fitting In Barnsley

Key safes have been increasing in popularity recently. When they first came on the market their main use was by social care workers, community nurses and carers who would visit properties where the occupant was perhaps disabled or infirm and couldn’t get to the door. This system allowed the care-giver to retrieve the key and enter the house without needing to be let in by the householder. It also eliminated the need for the client/patient to get another set of keys cut or for the carer to need to carry around dozens of keys for all the houses they visited. Instead, all they needed was a 4 or 6 digit code to be able to get the key, get into the house, and then leave the key in the key safe when they left, ready for the next visit. 

Be Wary Of Rogue Barnsley Locksmiths

There’s been a lot of talk about trust amongst those at the top recently. You probably couldn’t avoid all the talk of the European Super League a couple of weeks ago, and now the front pages of the newspapers are full of tales of political machinations, dodgy denials, and £58,000 refurbishments of flats in Downing Street. Whatever the truth, it’s brought the subject of honesty to the forefront. In a way, that’s the subject I’ll be looking at that today, but more related to the world of locksmiths. You could say my profession is indebted to dishonesty, given it’s due to burglars that we even have to exist in the first place, but that’s where any deceitfulness should end. Unfortunately that’s not always the case and today I’ll look at how that lack of trust can occasionally overflow into the profession itself. 

When people find themselves in need of a locksmith, it’s often quite an urgent situation – in the aftermath of a break-in, or being locked out of their house. If they don’t already know of a locksmith, the most likely way they’ll find one is by turning into an internet search engine. Usually it’s the one rhyming with Boogle, I think you know the one. And it’s entirely understandable – whatever your thoughts of the company, it’s changed forever how we find information. So, you do a search for your home town and locksmiths and what comes up? Well, usually the top results have the letters Ad next to them, showing they’re sponsored or paid-for results. After this come the most popular results – the order is generally dictated by Google’s secret algorithms to bring you the most pertinent results. 

Patio Door Repairs In Barnsley

People very rarely ask me “Hey, what’s a thing a locksmith spends most of their time doing?” Which is a shame, as if they did that, it would have provided a very good segue into today’s blog. Instead, I find myself floundering, trying to think of something to say to sum up the last 12 months of lockdowns and social distancing, perhaps also striking an optimistic tone about the vaccination rollout and the very real likelihood of more normality returning in the months to come, all the time trying to come up with a seamless segue. It’s all very 2021, I tell you. 

So, that question that people rarely ask me….well, I’m glad you asked. A disappointingly small amount of time is spent carrying around huge chains of keys, helping MI5 break into secret lairs, thus foiling plots by megalomaniacs to take over the world. At the most, that happens once a week.