Unlock the Door to Get Locked Out

In order to truly appreciate the concept that I started with, you have to understand where I live. I reside in a collection of about 25 townhouse (I'm only in one) that form a square. In the middle there is a very expansive common area and underneath the common area is a shared drive through garage. The garage is heated (and cooled), has bike racks and enough spaces for each Unit to get 2 cars inside. The common area has access from all of the units 'front' doors, as well as 3 gate entrances out to the street. The garage has access from each unit via the 'garage' door, as well as 4 entrances from the common courtyard, and entrance and exit for the cars, and 2 doors that lead into the shared garbage area (4 dumpsters and 6 recycling tubs).

I'm sure you are all extremely interested in the layout of my building, and can't wait for me to tell you more, but the layout is not whats truly interesting, but the choices of locks for all of these doors, now that's interesting. You're probably assuming that all of these doors require keys in order to access them, and you'd be right, they do. You have also probably made the assumption that these are your standard keys, cut from a piece of metal, easy to replicate, cheap to replace if lost. Still 100 percent right, and further you are now thinking that they work like you would expect them too, stick the key in, unlock the door, enter. Here's where it gets a little tricky.

All of the doors have two lock points, a dead bolt above the handle, and one in the handle. If you only use the dead bolt then your assumption is correct, (unless we are talking about the back doors to each unit, but that's another story). However if you are using the handle lock, well, its not as functional to say the least. Its one of those push in to lock it types, but it also twists to lock as well. and if you have done both, the only way to unlock it is to use your key, and unlock it twice, once for the push, once for the twist. Got it? good, because your about to be locked out.

So i figured out fairly quickly to just use the dead bolt and not even bother with the handle lock (never mind its even a different key and i didn't want to carry it around). Besides, i was only going in through the garage anyway. But every other day or so, i have to drop some garbage or recycling material off in the garbage area, which as i mentioned has two doors for access. These doors have the same lock set up as all the other doors, a deadbolt and a funky handle lock, however they are way heavier, close really fast, and are probably blast proof if it came to that.

Well i don't know about you, but when I'm in my house, i typically just wear shorts, usually no pockets, and since i never have to go outside to get to the garbage, i don't even bother with shoes. So here i go with a nice smelly bag, over to the garbage, unlock the dead bolt, enter and throw my stuff in the dumpster. Sadly, i could probably just throw myself in, as the door has closed behind me, with the handle lock in tact. i reach for my keys, but alas, they are not with me. The only choice for me is to go out into the wild of Evanston with nothing my shorts.

Current time, 11am. as i have plenty of time to think, i wonder why they decided 2 locks were needed for the garbage doors, or any of the doors really. the courtyard is separated by a fence, but the fence is extremely easy to climb (for someone of my height anyway). So that's one safeguard with 2 locks that i simply avoided. As i sit on top of the walls, i realize i can just as easily avoid the garage door locks as well, i just have to wait for someone to use their car and open a nice big door for me. The 'front door' of my house is a double paned all glass door, which leads into said courtyard. If i was a burglar, nothing could be sweeter. Hell we could have 10 locks on these doors and it wouldn't make a difference, just kick in the glass and that's the end of it. The 'back doors' have a different kind of lock, but still, it is all glass and this time leads into an alley. As i can attest, individuals intent on breaking in can simply kick out the glass (attempted break in last spring) and if no one is there to stop them, well all of our locks did a whole lot of nothing.

Coming back to the garbage door, i discover that the least needed door for security is the one with the most security. Very heavy, all metal, fast closing, but what are we protecting? The only people who use it, or have access to it are the residents and the contracted waste removal crew. Are we afraid the contract crew is going to break in through the garbage on Tuesday's or Thursday's?

At any rate, as i suspected, i just had to wait for someone to let me into the garage, at which point i was able to reenter my house through my garage door. But i made a stop over at garbage door and relocked the dead bolt, and put up a sign saying "Unlock the Door to Get Locked Out". A warning for others, a reminder for myself.