[brianpan]

> ...it is worth pointing out that lock picking is just one way to bypass a lock

A sobering insight after a break-in and a conversation with a locksmith. A lock is only as good as the latch, and door that it's sitting in, and the hinges attaching the door, and the molding surrounding it, and the wall it's in.

[bicknergseng]

There's a Mythbusters where they quite literally tackled the action-movie-style busting down the door. Turns out it doesn't matter how many locks are on the door when Jamie kept knocking them off their hinges.

[popopje]

most of the time though, you're going to be picking your or a friend's lock, and in those cases it's much more desirable to preserve the wall/door/hinges..

[pasbesoin]

And the window in the wall (if not the door, itself).

[derleth]

... and the person who is responsible for locking the door, and the person who is responsible for following up on reports of suspicious behavior near that door, and the person who is called out when someone finally discovers the lock must have been picked at some point in the past, and the legal system surrounding all of them, and the civil society that gives that legal system authority and legitimacy, and the broader cultural scope that gives the civil society a foundation and a sphere in which to act confidently, which depends on people believing that, if they do wrong in that society, someone will punish them.

So picking a lock in Compton might be perfectly safe assuming you don't get shot outright, unless Compton's been gentrified while I wasn't looking.

On the flip side, you won't even get close to Fort Knox with bad intent, largely because you know you won't get close to Fort Knox with bad intent.

[martinced]

"...you won't even get close to Fort Knox with bad intent..."

Depends how powerful you are. Why did the gold audit that was supposed to take place been refused? Maybe because there's not anywhere as much gold in Fort Knox as what there's supposed to be. If this is true, people with bad intent managed to bypass the "locks": there's more than one way to defeat the purpose of locks ; )