A Locksmith Sees It All:
As a locksmith upper west side professional in Manhattan’s
famous Upper West Side neighborhood, I have worked on more than my fair share
of difficult and challenging service calls.
I’d say the most frequent calls I get are for people who need to change
a lock or upgrade their security along with folks that have lost their house or
car keys. Some people are just plain
clumsy and have damaged locks to the point that they need to be serviced or
replaced, and of course there are those fabled “broken off keys stuck in the
locks” that I have to pry out.
One Recent Peculiar Call:
One recent call from a puzzled parent sticks out in my
memory as one of the my favorite locksmith upper west side recollections.
reminding me of one of the best parts of doing my job - helping families and
seeing people happy and smiling by the end of my service call
Great Gramps and The Gift of the Mysterious Safe:
A customer called me up one day to explain that his 7 year
old son had been left an inheritance gift in the will of his grandfather (the 7
year old’s great grandfather). At this point I asked my caller why he was in
need of my services as a locksmith upper west side, and he went on to explain
to me that this gift was not the average gift of money or a even a golden
pocket watch, but rather it was a large 500 pound antique safe! Furthermore, even though Great Gramps left
the safe as an inheritance, there was no information on the combination for
accessing the safe to see what was inside.
A Happy, Safe Ending:
Everyone assumed that Gramps had his reasoning for leaving
his great grandson a safe, and that there was probably something inside of
value for the young boy. Simple
destruction of the safe or drilling out of the lock weren’t easy options,
because the boy and family wanted to keep the beautiful antique safe as an
heirloom as well.
After several hours of slow and
careful work, this locksmith upper west side was able to witness the joy and
happy faces of the whole family as we managed to unhinge the safe doors and
open it to reveal the wonderful envelope of Certificates of Deposit along with
a beautiful letter written especially for the great grandson by Great Gramps
himself!
