Why Do a Re-Key?

As a professional locksmith technician I cannot stress enough to customer the importance of having a re-key done when moving into a new place. The fact is, even though the previous owner claim to have given you all the copies of the house keys, you will never know if there might be a relative or other individual that may have an extra key. It is always better to be safe than sorry.

I had a customer the other day who called in for a re-key job to his home. On the phone, the customer sounded a little stressed and I wasn't sure why. I assumed that maybe someone broke into his home and he suspected that individual might have a key to the house in his possession. Once I got to the customer's address, I couldn't help it but to ask about the urgency of the matter and then a laid the story on me.

Apparently, he and his wife just moved into this place about a week before. Aside from the fact the previous owner claimed to have given them all the copies, he neglected to mention other individuals that may have their hands on a key. Few days ago, the customer heard some noises from the kitchen at around 5am. As he went down the kitchen to see what is going on, he saw a stranger digging through his refrigerator. The customer then turned on the light switch and shout at the person asking him who he was and what he was doing there. The person then identified himself as a delivery guy working for one of the dairies in the area. He claimed that the previous owner gave him a key, so he can let himself in to deliver milk to him every week.

At that point, I figured the incident was probably the reason I got called to re-key the locks all over the house, but I was mistaken. Apparently there was a second incident which "broke the camel's back" and led my customer and his wife to realize there may have been other people aside from the previous owner that had keys to the house.

As he continued his story, a couple of days after the "milk delivery" incident, there was another incident in which his wife encountered. When his wife came back home the other day, she noticed a stranger holding up some hangers with clothes. As she was freaking out about the fact there was a stranger in her new home, she came to find it was only the dry cleaning delivery guy delivering the previous owner's load. It seemed as he gave a key to the dry cleaning place as well. At that day the customer said, he and his wife had enough and decided to call a locksmith, so they can get their peace of mind back. The moral of the story is when you are moving into a new place, always change the locks or the least re-key them as you never know who else might have access to it.

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