I get these calls every week, and they almost always start the same way: someone standing outside their own front door, phone at 8% battery, already stressed. So before anything else — you are going to get back inside, and it is very unlikely you need to lose your lock over it.
Here's what I'd tell you to do in the ten minutes before you call anybody, and then how to make sure the person you do call is legitimate. That second part matters more than most people realize, because lockouts are the single most scammed job in this trade.
First, check the boring stuff
I've driven out to plenty of jobs that took thirty seconds to solve, and I'd rather you save the money. Before you call:
- Walk the whole perimeter. Back doors, sliders, garage side doors, laundry room doors. People check the two doors they normally use and stop.
- Check the garage keypad. If you have one and the power's on, that's usually the fastest way in.
- Think about who else has a key. A neighbor, a spouse at work, a property manager, a family member twenty minutes away. Twenty minutes of driving beats a service call.
- If you rent, call the landlord or property manager first. Many of them will come out, and some leases make them responsible for it anyway.
What I'd ask you not to do is start prying at a window or forcing a slider. I've repaired a lot of damage that cost more than the lockout would have — bent frames, broken glass, torn screens, and one very unlucky guy who fell off a ladder into a hedge. The lock is the cheapest thing to deal with. Everything around it isn't.
The scam that hits South Florida hard
This is the part I actually want you to read. Search "locksmith near me" from a Boca Raton or Fort Lauderdale sidewalk and a good number of the top results aren't locksmiths at all. They're lead brokers — call centers, often out of state, that take your call, quote you something absurd like $19 or $29 for the service call, and then sell your job to whoever's nearest.
What happens next is the same story every time. An unmarked car shows up. The guy who gets out has no uniform, no license, and no company name on anything. He looks at your lock, tells you it's a "high security" cylinder that can't be picked, and says he'll have to drill it. Twenty minutes later you have a destroyed lock, a cheap replacement you didn't choose, and a bill for $350 that has nothing to do with the price you were quoted on the phone. Cash or Zelle only, of course.
I've been called out to fix the aftermath of that more times than I can count. Usually the original lock was completely pickable and never needed to be touched.
Five questions that filter out the scammers
You don't need to be an expert. You just need to ask things a call center can't answer well:
- "What's the name of your business, and are you the person coming out?" A dispatcher will get vague here. An owner-operator will just tell you.
- "Are you licensed and insured in Florida, and can you tell me your license number?" Legitimate shops answer this instantly. It's not a rude question.
- "What's the total, out the door, including the trip?" Not "starting at." The total. If they can't give you a real number or a tight range for a standard residential lockout, that's your answer.
- "Will you be picking it or drilling it?" The correct default answer is picking. Drilling is a last resort for a genuinely high-security or damaged lock — not the opening move.
- "Do you take cards?" Cash-only is a real flag. Legitimate businesses take cards because legitimate businesses have books.
And one more thing: you can send someone away. If a guy shows up in an unmarked car and the number he gives you is nothing like the number on the phone, you are allowed to say no thanks and close the conversation before any work starts. You haven't agreed to anything yet.
What it should actually look like
When I come out on a house lockout, the sequence is boring, and boring is the point. I give you a real quote on the phone before I leave. I show up in a marked vehicle. I ask for ID or something showing you belong at the address — and if a locksmith doesn't ask you that, ask yourself how they'd treat someone standing outside your door.
Then I pick the lock. Non-destructive entry is the standard for a normal residential deadbolt or knob, and in most cases it takes a few minutes. Your lock keeps working exactly as it did before, your key still fits, and nothing gets replaced. You pay the number I quoted you.
Drilling exists, and occasionally it's genuinely the right call — a seized cylinder, a high-security lock with an anti-pick design, a lock that's already failed internally. But it should be explained to you before it happens, with the replacement cost on the table, and you should get the choice.
How to make sure it doesn't happen again
Once you're back inside, a couple of cheap things stop the repeat visit:
- A keypad deadbolt. This is the single best fix for people who lock themselves out regularly. No key to forget, and you can give a code to a dog walker or a cleaner without handing out a physical key. Most of them run on batteries for a year and have a key override.
- A spare with someone you trust — not under the mat, not in a fake rock. Those are the first two places anyone looks.
- A lockbox, mounted properly, if you don't have a neighbor option.
If you're locked out right now in Palm Beach or Broward County, call me directly — I'll give you an honest quote before I get in the truck, and I'll try to pick it before I ever talk about replacing anything. If you've got a minute to read while you wait, our house lockout and car lockout pages cover what each job typically involves.