Lock Bumping: An Easy Way To Get in Your House with a Bump Key

As I am checking my Facebook last night I noticed one of my FB friends had posted this video.  It is one of those videos that make you think, "are you kidding me?"  So apparently there is an easy way for would be thieves to get into your house and it is called a bump key.  Guess what?  It is easily obtainable through the internet.

At first, I was thinking this can't be true so I went to Snopes.com because they are really good about telling me if something is true or not and guess what.  It's true.

Locksmiths use bump keys and have for many years, but unfortunately the internet has made them readily available to anyone and heck you can even find out how to make your own.

So are bump keys illegal?  Here's a document from 2006 that talks about the legality of the bump key.

There are even forums on bump keys.  They are slightly unnerving.

So what can you do to protect yourself?

chain locks on your doors in addition to your deadbolts

Install high quality locks

Home Security system

These just few of the ways you can protect yourself.  Unfortunately, none of that is economical.

I'm sure this has been around for a long, long time, but I just found out about it.  If I didn't know about it, I'm sure a lot of people don't know about it.  Just do your best to keep your home and yourself safe.