When you lock your doors at night, do you take your keys out or leave them in the lock? This debate has raged on for many years, with people on both sides of the fence arguing their method makes their homes safer.
It has now been claimed those who leave their keys in the lock could more reliably prevent a break-in than those who don’t – but only if they make one important change.
Not leaving a key in the lock can put you at risk of a break-in if the burglar has a tool to pick your lock. However, you’re not immune to this if you leave your key in the door in the finished position, as a burglar may be able to bump your key out of the lock with their own tool and still unlock your door.
What’s more, if your key is on a keyring, someone may be able to fish your keys out through the letterbox and open your door with your own key, making leaving a key in the door much more risky.
However, by making one simple change to the way you lock your door, you could find that leaving the key in the lock makes your home much safer.
The trick was shared in a TikTok video by a woman who had her house broken into earlier this year when burglars managed to bump her key out of the lock and enter her property.
She said: “The police and the forensics said to us that whenever you lock your door at night, you should always lock it and then put the key like this [turn it 90 degrees]. Because then it stops this tool that they use from bumping it out from the other side.
“This could actually stop people from breaking into your house. We do this all the time now, and I just thought I’d share it because obviously I didn’t know that. Keep your key like this when you lock your door, and it should save you from having to go through the trauma that we did.”
The advice was also previously echoed by a lock-picking expert known online as the Brummie Lock Picker, who shared a video earlier this year demonstrating the key trick in action.
He started the video holding a lock in his hands in front of the camera with the key slightly turned. He showed viewers how this prevented the lock from being picked, as the bolt inside the lock moved.
If you instead have the key in the hole straight, without turning it, it’s easier for someone to pick the lock by just pushing the key out with another key that fits in the keyhole.
He explained: “If someone wants to pick your lock open, before they can do, they need to push the key out. If [the key] is straight and someone’s got a key, it doesn’t have to be the same key as long as it fits into the hole, then all they need to do is put the key in and push it.
“Now see how that popped out the other side. Then you remove the key. And if you picked it, [the bolt] can be turned.”