We came home from an afternoon out with friends to realize we were locked out of our home. I hadn’t taken my keys with me since our neighbors were driving, and our daughter locked the door on her way out. Normally none of this would be a problem as we’d just open the garage door with the keyless entry pad, but we had unplugged the opener for a party in the garage the night before. We stared at the door for a few moments and wondered, “What is the most inexpensive way to break into your house?”
Call A Locksmith
You’ll have to provide some sort of identification and proof that you live at the residence, but this is your sure-fire way to get back into your home. Calling a locksmith will cost you a significant amount of cash. If it’s off hours it could be very expensive.
Look For An Open Window
If you’ve left any of your windows open, cut through the screen and crawl in. If the open window is on the second story of your home, you might have to borrow a ladder from a neighbor. If the window is closed, but you know it’s not latched, you might be able to cut the screen and push the window open as well. Fixing a screen is a relatively inexpensive way to break into your home.
Kick The Door In
This is an option, but a costly and dangerous one. You’ll likely damage the door frame and/or the door resulting in a very expensive repair bill. Plus, your home may be left unprotected as your door may no longer lock, latch, or even close at all. If you have to kick in a door, do it to your garage service door if you have one. While your garage may be left open, you can at least lock the door to your actual home.
Break A Window
If you have to break a window, pick a window that will be relatively inexpensive to repair. The side window of your front door, deck door, or any double pane window will be expensive to repair. If possible, look for a small, single pane window, like a garage window.
Remove Garage Window
If you have a garage window, it may be that it is a lower quality sliding window. You may be able to cut the screen, and using a flat head screwdriver pop the window off the track, and get in your garage where you may have left the interior door to your home open, or have an extra key.
Prevention
Once you lock yourself out of your house once, you will inevitably think of ways to avoid this happening in the future. Whether it be a keyless entry front door, leaving a key with your neighbors, or hiding a key somewhere around the exterior of your home (not recommended), thinking ahead to handle such a situation will prevent any significant repair bills in the future for having to break into your home.
How about you, EOD nation, have you ever had to break into your own home? How did you do it?
When it happened to me I called a locksmith, but I lived in a seventh-floor apartment at the time…I do know that they sell key holders that look like rocks but are hollow, though I don’t know if I would use them.
If you do leave a key outside somehwere, you should check every so often to make sure that it’s actually where you think it is (a critter could have done something with it or buried it depending on where it is, or maybe you used it once and forgot to bring it back out). Also make sure it still works.