This weird and sad story happened to me while working for US Locksmiths Homestead, Florida. I didn’t realize right away what was going on, because when the first call came in I couldn’t see there was a serious problem – and it wasn’t about the lock.
As said, the first call sounded perfectly normal. A woman called our office of Homestead Locksmith and asked for a lock change. This is completely standard and I took the call. When I arrived I found a 50-something year old woman. She told me she had a break in and would like to change her lock to a higher security lock. Her old lock didn’t have any break in signs on it, but I thought the burglars must have got in in another way and the lady wants to change the lock just to be on the safe side, which I can totally understand.
So I installed in her house a high security lock that comes with a personal code on a key card, which is a good safe lock, wished her a peaceful time from now on, and moved on to the next mission I got from Locksmith Homestead.
A few weeks later the call came in again to our Homestead locksmith office. The same address, the same woman. I was concerned that there is a problem with the lock I personally installed, so I took it right away. I was relieved to find the lock completely functioning and everything else looking absolutely alright. But the customer was very distressed. She said she heard people breaking into her house, through the door, and she’s sure that there are missing objects from her house. She said she’s sure other people have keys to her house and that’s how they enter her house. This seemed highly unlikely to me, as I knew that in order to duplicate the key to the lock I installed one will need a personal code, and she said that she didn’t give her code to anyone. I explained this to the lady, but she was very insistent and demanded a new lock, which I eventually installed, replacing her perfectly functioning few weeks old lock with a new one. Again, she asked for the highest security lock possible, so I installed a high security lock with a high security card.
When the third call to Locksmith Homestead came, not too long after, I wasn’t really surprised. The last time I left the woman’s house I was feeling that something wasn’t quite right there, and it wasn’t the lock. And indeed, when I arrived this time to the lady’s house I heard the same story: someone has her key, she can’t point out what’s been stolen but she’s sure something has, she would like a new lock. I wasn’t sure what to do. I felt the woman needed help, but not one that has to do with locks. I didn’t want to insult her, but I felt sorry for her – this is not a cheap lock and there’s no reason to keep buying new ones and spend all this money when there isn’t a real problem with the old lock. I tried to point it out to the woman, reminded her of the cost of a new lock and suggested to try other measures of safety to check if there really was a break in, before we change the lock again. To this she got very upset. She said she was hurt for the mere suggestion that she’s only imagining the burglaries, and demanded I help her and install the lock. I realized she would only feel safe if I installed the new lock, so I did, feeling sorry for her.
When the fourth call came I didn’t know what to do. I tried convincing the woman that she’s wasting her money, I asked if there was anyone I can call that can help her, but she got very upset and the whole situation was unpleasant.
When I came back to our Homestead locksmith office I informed the staff about this location. I was determined to report this case to a professional help if she calls again. However, she never did. I hope she finally calmed down and felt safer at her home, and I hope she didn’t stop calling just because it was clear I wasn’t really convinced she needs a new lock. I really hope she’s feeling safer now.