Slightly related to this, the Lock Picking Lawyer on Youtube has number of videos where he tries a Ramset gun [1] against different padlocks. For example:
This was interesting as it was an attack that certainly would not have crossed my mind.
Would be interesting to see how other types of locks would do against this kind of tool.
He mentions the mech was changed in 2011, mentions there’s a probably little used retrofit and at the end of the video he comments that there are likely many compromised ones still out there.
Which is pretty expected if you've seen how buildings are maintained in general. I haven’t encountered a lock that doesn’t have this vulnerability in any 20th century post-war nyc building.
Oh, interesting. I thought most of them had been replaced with the newer versions. I didn't know about the replacement kit. Now that you mention it, I guess LPL might've said something about it in his video (which I didn't re-watch, oops!).
Interesting - I do wonder how well that attack would work in a normal use setting where it could become much harder to brace the lock against something.
He's got a couple of videos using it in different ways and it doesn't look like it would be too difficult to brace a lock in some way to use it, like using the tension in the chain or hasp it hangs from. But you're right, in some circumstances it probably would work. Seems dangerous though, both in debris flying off and even more so since it looks like a gun.
I suspect you can find a way to brace them in many circumstances, some of the common bicycle theft techniques are pretty constrained. The down side of this method for a thief is that they look very much like a handgun for obvious reasons. That ups the chance that a quick theft escalates to gunfire if you're interrupted by the police, armed security, or an armed home owner or bystander. Cops are a lot more likely to shoot you if they think they saw a gun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeghGhVdt9s