Open source
Champ Schuyler Towne, 26, can pick a lock in two seconds. Next month, he’ll launch a series of locksport workshops at sprout in Somerville.
What is locksport? Lock picking as a hobby. It’s people sitting on their couches or down at the local bar picking locks and solving little puzzles.
You aren’t picking locks on doors? No. In fact, the two main tenets of locksport are you never pick a lock that’s in regular use, and you never pick a lock you don’t own. You can break locks when you pick them. That’s exactly what I did when I came home from my first time picking locks. I broke the lock on my front door. I had to sleep in the hallway.
You compete against other lock pickers? Yes. I’ll be going out to Istanbul in May for LockCon. I’ve won the American Open a couple of times; it’s part of DEFCON [an underground hacking conference].
What’s the draw? You’re learning secrets, and everybody loves learning secrets. Most people don’t know how the one thing that keeps them physically safe in their homes functions. I certainly didn’t.
How many locks do you own? At the peak of my collection I had 1,200 pieces. I got rid of large chunks at various times when I needed to pay the rent. I have about 400 now.
Police express concern about the locksport community being a security threat. Is it? Locksport is the only thing calling attention to the security threat. The threat to security exists with or without the locksport community. I’m sure there are people occasionally who will do nefarious things with the info they’ve gleaned. However, there isn’t anything I teach that you can’t track down online somewhere. The people involved in locksport are researching high-security locks. They’re going to companies and saying, “I’ve found this exploit in your lock.” They’re making things dramatically safer.
Do ethical issues come up when you’re teaching? If someone comes in asking for specific information about specific locks, or wants to know about destructive entry techniques, you keep an ear out for that. -- Kristen Grieco
