Locked Out of Your House in Edmond? What to Do in the First 10 Minutes

It happens to careful people too. You step out to grab the trash can, the wind catches the door, and there’s that quiet click. Or you’re leaving for work with your hands full and realize the keys are still on the hook by the garage.

We get these calls every week in Edmond and north OKC. Most of them end well, and fast. Here’s what we’d tell a friend to do in the first ten minutes.

1. Check that everyone is safe

If a small child is inside alone, or someone inside needs medical help, call 911. Don’t wait for a locksmith. Fire departments can force entry quickly, and a door is cheap compared to the alternative.

If it’s just you on the porch and everyone’s fine, take a breath. This is an inconvenience, not an emergency, and you have options.

2. Walk the whole house, slowly

It sounds obvious, but people skip it when they’re flustered. Check every door, including the one from the garage into the house. Check the back slider and any windows on the ground floor.

A word of caution about windows: if one is unlocked but you’d have to climb, stand on a patio chair, or squeeze through, don’t. We’ve seen more broken wrists and cracked sills from “I’ll just climb in” than we’ve seen from any lock.

3. Think about who has a key

A spouse on the way home, a neighbor you gave a spare to years ago, a relative across town. If you rent, the leasing office might have one. Many complexes around Edmond have someone on site during the day. A ten-minute wait for a key is usually cheaper than any locksmith.

Also check for the garage keypad. It’s surprising how many people forget they have one.

4. What not to do

• Don’t force the door. Shouldering a door usually splits the frame around the strike plate. Now you need a carpenter as well as a locksmith.
• Don’t try the credit card trick on a deadbolt. It can sometimes slip a spring latch on a knob lock, but it does nothing to a deadbolt, and it can bend the latch.
• Don’t drill anything yourself. A drilled lock has to be replaced. Most locks can be opened without that.

5. Call a locksmith, and ask the right questions

If you do call, a good locksmith will ask you a few questions and then tell you three things before driving out: the price, a realistic arrival window, and what ID they’ll need to see. If a company won’t give you a price on the phone, or quotes a suspiciously low “service call” with no total, keep scrolling.

Locked out of a car instead? That’s a different job, and we handle those too: see car lockouts.

When we come out for a house lockout, we check ID that matches the address, then open the door with the least invasive method that works on your lock. For most standard deadbolts, you’re back inside with the same lock and the same keys.

6. Afterwards: make sure it doesn’t happen again

Once you’re inside, it’s worth spending five minutes on prevention:

• Leave a spare with someone you trust who lives nearby, not under the mat or a fake rock. Everyone knows about the rock.
• Consider a keypad deadbolt for the door you use most. No keys to forget at all. We cover a few tips on that on our residential locksmith page.
• If you’ve recently moved in and aren’t sure who else has keys, it’s a good moment to rekey your locks.

Locked out right now and still reading? Put the phone to better use and call us at 405-276-3904. We’re open Sunday through Friday, 8 AM to 6 PM.