Lock Bypassing Basics: Shoelacing

[Psychlonic]

Shoelacing

Cards fall short when the door swings outward rather than inward because the angled cut of the bar is on the opposite side of the door. Every now and then you'll run into a door you can slide your card into, pull back, and catch the angle to open. But these are few and far between, and there's a much better method for these requiring only a piece of stiff wire. Again, this method will only work if the door is only locked by the handle. If there is a deadbolt or any other device locked, they will prevent the door from opening.
The original method for opening such a door involved taking a paper clip and running it through a length of shoestring, hence the name. The idea then was to create a curve in the paper clip and inserting the end with the shoestring attached into the gap between the door and the frame above the bar. Then, you attempted to loop the paper clip around the bar, so that you were able to hold both sides of the shoestring while it was still curving around the bar. When you pulled both sides of the shoestring, it would get caught in the wedge formed by the angle of the bar, retracting it back into the door as you pulled and allowing the door to finally open.
While this still works, it's not as efficient as simply using a longer piece of stiff wire. Something roughly the diameter of a bread twist tie or slightly larger works great here. Then you want to form a half circle with the wire, meant to be fed around the knob. The problem here is that it's often difficult to feed this around and hold the wire at the same time because of the angles involved. The solution is to bend the remaining wire back so that it forms a handle to hold onto while maneuvering the wire.

The wire can now be held by this handle and the other end can be inserted between the door and it's jamb so that it is above the bar on the knob. You then want to encompass the bar with the wire so that the end comes back out on the bottom with the wire completely behind it, just like you would with the hypothetical shoestring as described above. If successful, you can then tug on the wire until it catches the angle and forces the bar back into the knob. You should do this fairly slowly, as you do not want to simply retract the bar then have it pop back into the frame before you can pull the door back.

Some things to avoid:
- Don't attempt to shoelace a deadbolted door. Just like with a card, the deadbolt will keep the door shut and does not have an angle to take advantage of.
- Don't shoelace a door that swings away from you. You'll just be tugging against the non-angled portion and waste time looking like an idiot.
- Don't use an actual shoelace unless you have to. These can be a serious pain in the ass, and wires should be just as readily available as softer strings in the field and at home.

Some unorthodox ideas to ponder when all else fails in a must-complete scenario:
- If you're in need of a wire, there are sources everywhere. Thin fence wiring is available in some areas, tougher electrical wiring (just don't electrocute yourself in the process), breast twist ties, etc. If you have a multitool, just cut them. Stiffer wire can be bent sharply over and over and will usually break.

In closing, shoelacing is yet another ideal method to both newbie and vet alike, as it requires minimal equipment and training. As with carding, while the technique will not defeat deadbolts and other more sophisticated locking mechanisms, it can be used to speed up to general opening of the door after all other measures have been defeated.

[Ghost]

breast twist ties

I knew you ran in some rather non - normal social circles, but that, sir, was too much information.

[Psychlonic]

breast twist ties

I knew you ran in some rather non - normal social circles, but that, sir, was too much information.

LOL wow. I just failed hard. That's what I get for talking to girls and writing about night ops at the same time apparently... secret's out about what Psychlonic thinks about!

I'm just going to leave it as-is. :mrgreen:

[Ghost]

Testosterone - 1, Psychlonic - 0

[Anthony Sykes]

I use a 65 gauge bass guitar G string... Works wonders

[Ghost]

Just an expanded method to carding that i've used with fairly high levels of success that works when you can't get your card or wire to catch the edge of the bolt - If you have two very slim bladed knives, you can use them along with the principle of static friction to work a bolt back manually, even if there is no edge at all showing.

Two knife method -

Find a door that has a large enough gap that you can see the bolt, generally any door you'd consider likely to be cardable. Take out a slim bladed knife, like the small blade on a pocket knife, or something similarly slim. insert it into the gap so that the point is touching the bolt. Apply a relatively large amount of pressure directly to the bolt, then slide the knife towards the door, while maintaining the forward pressure. the bolt should move a bit back into it's recess in the door. of course, when you stop applying forward pressure, the bolt will slide back out to it's extended position. But as long as that forward pressure is maintained, you should be able to keep it partially pushed into the door. This is where the second knife blade comes in - Insert it as close to the "doorframe side" of the bolt as possible, while maintaining your forward pressure with the first knife blade (which should be on the "door side" of the gap now, as we already established). put an equal amount of forward pressure on the bolt with the second knife blade now, and then once again slide it back slightly into the door. once it's gone as far as you can get it (both knife blades now touching on the "door side" of the gap), remove the second knife blade, while maintaining that pressure with the first. Insert the second blade into the gap again, on the "doorframe side". apply forward pressure, then work the bolt back a bit further into the door.

simply wash, rinse, repeat until the bolt is worked completely into the door, and you're good to go - door "carded" without relying on being able to catch the angled face of the bolt. Just a note - this method will usually not work on deadbolts, just your typical doorknob. If anyone would like, i could add some MS Paint diagrams, just to simplify things for those of us who aren't good at deciphering my directions and visualizing things at the same time.

[Anthony Sykes]

I can understand the gist of what you mean, but could you give a diagram in MS paint?

Edit: Is it basically pushing the bolt back, one knife at a time?

[ragglefraggle]

While I didnt understand the shoelacing, the twoknife technique worked flawlessly. Learned the only knifes that worked extremely well were two Italian stiletto switchblades. All my other pocket knives were too wide in the blade. This even works with the bolts that have the mini deadbolt that runs parallel to the bolt itself in it to prevent carding (I dont know the proper name for that device) Thanks for opening eyes to a new technique!