Recommendations for a lock?

Goshinga

I have a locker at school that I am regularly planning on putting expensive stuff in during breaks. I know it's probably paranoid and unnecessary but I want some peace of mind when placing like 3000 dollars worth of gear in it.

So does anyone have any recommendations for a solid lock for a locker? I'm using one of those 5 dollar masterlocks right now and I'm really uncomfortable with having just that for security.

PeregrineFalcon

The best protection, aside from carrying the stuff with you or leaving it at home, would be not telling anyone that there's $Texas worth of easy-to-steal stuff in your locker.

What do you have that's worth $3k and needs to be easily accessible?

Dman

I have no faith in school lockers, as PeregrineFalcon said, an impressive lock will just advertise that there is something worth stealing in it. If I had a 3k laptop I would not let it out of my sight.

RUNN1NGMAN

Goshinga wrote: »

I have a locker at school that I am regularly planning on putting expensive stuff in during breaks. I know it's probably paranoid and unnecessary but I want some peace of mind when placing like 3000 dollars worth of gear in it.

So does anyone have any recommendations for a solid lock for a locker? I'm using one of those 5 dollar masterlocks right now and I'm really uncomfortable with having just that for security.

The point of failure here is not the lock, it's the locker. If I want to steal the stuff you have stored in there, it doesn't matter if you have the best lock in the world on your locker. A $20 pry bar is all I'm going to need to get whatever I want. And if you're leaving stuff there over break, it'll be mighty easy for me to take my time.

Sir Red of the Manti

You can't trust a locker to hold that sort of gear, a bolt-cutter will slice that thing open leaving any expensive lock you put on there intact and on the floor. Talk to your principal and work out a way to get that stuff locked in a spare room, or if you've got some sort of AV/Tech club dept/organization, work out a way to stash your stuff with theirs. Most tech clubs tend to have locked down places they throw their expensive equipment that'd likely work for your needs as well.

SammyF

Speaking as someone who has done more than his fair share of defeating locks and breaking into things in the past, you're simultaneously overthinking and underthinking.

Overthinking: believing that someone like me is going to randomly pick out your locker and sit there feeling his way through the combination on a Master lock, or scrubbing the pins in the emergency key release to pick the lock, or bringing bolt-cutters with me to cut the lock. PF is right: the easiest way to make sure your locker isn't targetted for something like this is to make it known that there's nothing more valuable in there than a Calculus textbook.

Underthinking: believing that if I want to break into your locker, and you've put something more complicated than a Master lock on there, I won't think of just cutting through the hinges on the opposite side of the latch and prying the door off. It's a locker, not a safebox.

truck-a-sauras

Just some advice, do NOT leave anything in lockers between semesters or breaks. Don't know your school's policy on things, but mine would do a locker clean out between each semester. I worked for the facilities crew and when it hit that specified date for clean time we would go around campus with giant metal shears and cut all the locks off if anyone left them on. Anything left in the lockers was now campus property.

That was extremely scummy and lame, but it was the "policy".

Bowen

That's a pretty standard policy I think.

SammyF

I'm not posting anything on the specific topic of how to break into and/or enter things, but I want to give a friendly hint on security. If you're wondering how secure something is, it's always helpful to google the words "how to break into _____________ ." Example: how to break into a locker -- which I tried just now to see if anyone else has thought of a better way to do it than me. When eHow has an article on how to do it, you know it's just ridiculously fucking easy.

And they were overthinking it anyway. The plethora of YouTube videos I found on the topic where much more in line with how I would do it.

Sakebomb

SammyF wrote: »

I'm not posting anything on the specific topic of how to break into and/or enter things, but I want to give a friendly hint on security. If you're wondering how secure something is, it's always helpful to google the words "how to break into _____________ ." Example: how to break into a locker -- which I tried just now to see if anyone else has thought of a better way to do it than me. When eHow has an article on how to do it, you know it's just ridiculously fucking easy.

And they were overthinking it anyway. The plethora of YouTube videos I found on the topic where much more in line with how I would do it.

The information age truly is a wonderful thing

wunderbar

yea, I work part time as a lifeguard at a pool, and I learned real quick that you can break into the standard pool coin operated lockers(the ones that give you the orange key) in about 30 seconds with a flathead screwdriver.

SammyF

Sakebomb wrote: »

SammyF wrote: »

I'm not posting anything on the specific topic of how to break into and/or enter things, but I want to give a friendly hint on security. If you're wondering how secure something is, it's always helpful to google the words "how to break into _____________ ." Example: how to break into a locker -- which I tried just now to see if anyone else has thought of a better way to do it than me. When eHow has an article on how to do it, you know it's just ridiculously fucking easy.

And they were overthinking it anyway. The plethora of YouTube videos I found on the topic where much more in line with how I would do it.

The information age truly is a wonderful thing

I know. I had to learn all of this stuff the old-fashioned way. Lazy kids these days, man, I tell you. :P