Three hours to open a food court gate, the key was a paperclip

Last weekend I hit up the old Willow Grove Mall in PA and wanted to get a look at the food court from the seating area. Problem was, the accordion gate was locked with a tiny padlock. Security guy said the key was lost years ago, so I figured 10 minutes, tops. Two hours later I was still trying weird angles with a screwdriver, then a maintenance worker walked by and said try a paperclip in the side slot. Snapped right open in 30 seconds. Has anyone else gotten stuck on something dumb like that, where the answer was way simpler than you thought?

2 comments

2 Comments

ivangrant13d ago

Wait, has anyone actually considered that the paperclip might have been the right key all along, just not in the way everyone thought? Like, what if that little slot wasn't a lock bypass, but the actual intended way to open it, and the "lost key" story was just the mall covering up their own dumb design? I've seen it before where a cheap magnetic lock or a spring latch gets jammed and people assume it needs a fancy key, but the real fix is just a thin piece of metal to lift a tab. Honestly, that maintenance guy probably knew the lock was garbage from day one, and the paperclip was the official secret, not some hack. That would explain why the gate popped open so fast, because it wasn't a security lock at all, it was just a poorly built latch that needed a nudge.

thompson.christopher14d ago

Ha, wild how that worked out! But honestly, I gotta push back on this. You spent two hours messing with a locked gate that you had zero business opening in the first place. That's not a simple answer problem, that's a you problem. The paperclip trick only worked because the maintenance guy basically told you how to bypass the lock. If he hadn't walked by, you'd still be there at midnight with a bent screwdriver and a bruised ego. The real lesson is that sometimes the dumb answer is just to walk away and find another way around, not break into something that's clearly not meant for you.