To open our door in Barcelona you had to use your key, there was no hand-held bolt or turn (what are those called, anyway?). I tend to lose my keys somewhat frequently so needing them to open the door was becoming a bit of the problem. My brilliant solution was to leave them permanently in the lock on the inside of the door... that way I always knew where my keys were and I could always get out urgently if I needed to... I mean what if there had been a fire???
The only problem with this solution is that if you leave and shut the door behind you without removing your keys, you cannot get back in because another key cannot be inserted into the lock. Obviously this happened to me.... (ahem) twice. So what did I do? I called the cerrajero (locksmith).
Given that nothing could be inserted into our key hole, I was expecting this cerrajero to come with some hightech piece of equipment that would physically dislodge the key from the other side of the door. Now if by hightech piece of equipment you thought I meant a sheet of simple x-ray paper, you would be right! That's correct, x-ray paper. With one forceful swoop, the cerrajero was in! And over 100 euros later I was crying because I had lost my entire week's pay!
So that was the first time. One month later, I did it again. And while I knew that I was only one sheet of x-ray paper away from entry, I simply was unable to find any at 11PM at night. So another 100 euros gone and we had access. This time I asked for a frequent-lock-out discount, which the cerrajero kindly honored. And he even gave me a piece of x-ray paper which I kept firmly taped to the bottom of our door mat for the remainder of our time in BCN! Not his smartest business move.
And in case you're curious.. it was from a real x-ray stolen from a dentist's office in 2003.
Joe also had me tape both of my cerrajero receipts to the door to try to remind me to take my key! And luckily it never happened again! See receipts below...
The only problem with this solution is that if you leave and shut the door behind you without removing your keys, you cannot get back in because another key cannot be inserted into the lock. Obviously this happened to me.... (ahem) twice. So what did I do? I called the cerrajero (locksmith).
Given that nothing could be inserted into our key hole, I was expecting this cerrajero to come with some hightech piece of equipment that would physically dislodge the key from the other side of the door. Now if by hightech piece of equipment you thought I meant a sheet of simple x-ray paper, you would be right! That's correct, x-ray paper. With one forceful swoop, the cerrajero was in! And over 100 euros later I was crying because I had lost my entire week's pay!
So that was the first time. One month later, I did it again. And while I knew that I was only one sheet of x-ray paper away from entry, I simply was unable to find any at 11PM at night. So another 100 euros gone and we had access. This time I asked for a frequent-lock-out discount, which the cerrajero kindly honored. And he even gave me a piece of x-ray paper which I kept firmly taped to the bottom of our door mat for the remainder of our time in BCN! Not his smartest business move.
And in case you're curious.. it was from a real x-ray stolen from a dentist's office in 2003.
Joe also had me tape both of my cerrajero receipts to the door to try to remind me to take my key! And luckily it never happened again! See receipts below...
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