Locks are designed to keep honest people out. (Dishonest people can always break a window.) But that doesn't mean that honest people can't enjoy picking them. I've been an amateur lock picker for four ...

This story first appeared in WIRED 13.02 published in February, 2005. For a lock picker, the world is a different place. Take, for example, a typical suburban house, with a bicycle in the front yard ...

There's only 1000 possible combinations. It's pretty easy to work through those sequentially. I've had to do that twice. Once I was given a bike with chain and a lock like that, but not the combo. The ...