Kevlar Card - Heard of this Entry Tool?

[themaxx]

Yup, a Kevlar Card. A search on Google and on the forum turned up diddly, but it is difficult to search for as "Kevlar" and "Card" bring up any number of items.

I read about this in a British semi-professionally produced but kewl-aimed pamphlet back in the mid nineties. ("Wideboys" or "Wideboy Collection/Report" - any British members remember this?) The Kevlar Card supposedly worked thus:

It was a credit-card sized piece of Kevlar, and being Kevlar, forced itself back into shape under enormous pressure. The theory was you bent it over, and stuck it in the jamb of a door, be it a car door or badly-designed/very-old house door, and it would force itself straight again, acting much the same as a car-jack attack would on the door, forcing the door apart.

Much damage would result so it's not elegant, but I've always been curious: did these things really exist? Has anyone heard of them? A car-jack in your pocket: I can think of more than a few uses... ;)

[WMD]

Sounds like bullshit. Kevlar is usually produced as a fiber, is quite flexible and doesn`t have a shape memory. Sounds to me like a mix-up of shim cards (for slipping the latch) and a vivid imagination.

[hatal]

I heard of locks wrapped in kevlar or polycarbons to withstand forces such as gunshot but "kevlar-card"? I don't get it ...

[nbk2000]

I've seen large card shims made from some type of plastic, but definitely not Kevlar.

[A.C.E.]

How would you be able to bend it in the first place?

A bent object will typically straighten with a force similar to the one that was used to bend it. If it can exert force equal to a jack, you'd need a jack to bend it, and likewise if you could bend it with your hands it would be about as strong as your hands.

[nbk2000]

I know what he's talking about...an air-wedge.

http://www.awdirect.com/finditem.cfm?itemid=8294

An air bag that's often made of kevlar, and inflated by a hand-pump, to spread open car door frames, and can also be used, in a larger version, as a door-breaching tool.

[stupid939]

On cars, locksmiths (or whoever else is using them) usually press one or two teflon wedges into place, then the air bag is folded in half and placed in the gap created. It is inflated, and as the gap grows, the wedges are moved further in until there is enough room to fit in a proper sized wire tool that is able to reach the door lock.

This may be a viable method for door-breaching, but the kevlar air bag would have to be quite thin while still being able to stand up to high(ish) pressures (possibly in the 100-200psi range?).

[themaxx]

Thanks, NBK.

An air-wedge... So there is some vague basis for it after all! :) One thing's for damn sure, it's not readily recognizable as a lock-picking tool in case of a search. It's looks more like a gay sex toy. Oh, hey, so maybe it would lead to arrest after all! Not so safe so! :D

Thanks, all. I enjoyed all the speculation.

[nbk2000]

From my copy of the Wide Boys book:

The Micra Card

This is simply a slightly over sized credit card style rectangle, (remember the spy films?) made of Kevlar. The Micra Card is simply pushed into the gap between the door and the frame, at the point just above a door lock Kevlar is the material of which bullet proof vests are made, and it can force itself back into shape even under extreme pressure. Once the Micra Card is inserted, it literally levers the lock bolt into the open position, allowing the door to open.

[themaxx]

That's it! Exactly what I remember! :eek: :D (Obviously I had forgotten some details. Like "Micra" card. Obviously a reference to Nissan Micras.)

Oh, I've come over all nostalgic. NBK, kewl-oriented or not, any chance I could have a copy of the Wide Boys book? (Only if you have it in PDF of course.) I think I threw out mine years ago, and I'd like the nostalgia trip! :o

Thanks again.

PS: Is it bullshit, though?

[WMD]

It's tainted with bullshit. Mica cards are useful for pushing the door latch away on doors that haven't been deadlocked and feature no special protection measures. Useful to have around. But there's no kevlar inside and they don't force themselves back into shape. You can take a look here (you have to scroll down though):
http://www.thelocksmithtrainingcompany.co.uk/ltcbypasstools.htm

[nbk2000]

This is why I don't like looking things up for people...because it almost always leads to 'Gimme the whole thing' requests.

If I wanted to fulfill book requests, I'd be a librarian.

If you UTFSE, you'll find a link to an online copy...like I did.

[crazywhiteguy]

My dad used to own a similar little toy. It was a metal plate a bit bigger than a credit card with a sloped end on one side. The device was put into where the lock is known to be. You hit the card with something heavy parallel to the wall. The little plate takes a chunk out of the door. If this is done two or three times you have enough access to the lock that you can manually pull the bolt out of the way.

[Merck]

Just for the sake of discussion, I recently stumbled upon an interesting find. I was outside and being delayed by a locked door. I, as usual, attempted entry with what I had at hand. In this case it was a plastic perforated hotel key commonly distrubuted by three star hotels on the East Coast. Approximately 2.5" by 4.5", perforated "key" code on the thin half, twice as thick on the un-perforated half. The thin half bends nicely with enough to hold on to w/o tools (I've had great luck with a credit card type piece of plastic & two pairs of pliers) to get on the slanted side of the bolt of a knob lock & exert the correct pressure.
I've also gotten lucky with a piece of either 18 awg or 16 awg solid (not stranded) steel wire doubled, bent to correct angle, and passed through the door jamb above and below the (knob) lock. The timing & slight/sudden pressure needed on the door when pulling the wire I have yet to perfect but know this to be a viable method on several commercial steel doors, which thankfully are slightly loose & have no pesky weather stripping. If the door is "loose" enough I find twisting the wire then doubling it helps in this endeavor.

[PYRO500]

If the culprit is a simple spring latch or deadlatch, you must make sure that the deadlatch (the small second piece that springs out on entrance locksets strikes) is not depressed.
If the door opens inwards it is a simple affair: take a big screwdriver and pry the door back (most older doors are adjusted because they sag) and force the doors away from the jamb with leverage, then with a smaller thin screwdriver ( with sharp tip) get a bite on the moving part of the latch and slide it back into the door, this will not work with deadbolts however.

[IriOfTheSnow]

The common basic spring loaded door latch was once vulnerable to shimming, due to the bevel on the bolt-latch, which was necessary in order for the door to automatically latch shut when the door was closed. The small and necessary tolerance gap between the door and the wall allowed for a shim or jig to exert force on this beveled edge, no matter which direction the bevel faced (which of course was dependent on the direction in which the door opened and closed).

To defeat this exploit, modern door employ a simple metal plate with an angled bend extending in the direction the door opens/closed. This allows the bevel on the latch to begin farther along the latch, meaning that the bevel is no longer exposed in the gap between the door and the wall. This means that the latch cannot be manipulated by a perpendicular force as the bevel allowed. Simple and effective.

However, my idea is that if one had any access to the latch slot prior, one could insert a filler plate with a bit of sticky glue into the latch slot. If the filler is of proper size, then when the latch engages the slot, the spring driven latch will not fully extend, and thus the bevel on the latch will not be hidden in the slot, and would once again be vulnerable to manipulation by a shim or jig. Simple and effective.

All one would need to do is quickly and discretely insert a thick piece of cardboard with some sticky glue into the slot with one's finger during "business hours." The door would close and seal almost perfectly normal, giving enough resistance to fool the owner, but the few fractions of an inch difference would compromise the security entirely. Traditional shimming tricks finish the job.

Just a little gimmick I thought of.

[Merck]

Your second paragraph is a succinct explanation of a common defeat, and I thank you.
The screwdriver technique described can be enhanced through the use of two steel wedges in proximity of the bolt, though time consuming a wedge above and below a bolt at equal depth prevents the metal frame or strike plate from twisting on the bolt while allowing access.
Metal frames are notorious for twisting when force is applied from only above or below, making things much more difficult.
The cordless grinder is a sacrifice fly in this area, or even a chopsaw, but when speed is more of a consideration than attention this approach deserves mention.

[PYRO500]

Or if you know the lock, often times the screws are extremely easy to locate and drill out from the reverse, even a glancing blow will allow the exterior knob to be pried off and the latch manually manupulated (half moon for kiwkset and square for ezset/defiant etc cheapo weiser etc) often times the outside knobset can be pulled out half way and the stem still used to open the lock.

[Jacks Complete]

I do find it funny that the USA seems so happy with these toy-like key-in-knob type locks.

Have any other UK members ever even seen one over here? We have nightlatches that you can do this to, and they are generally a lot tougher looking than the KiK things, but we generally have multipoint locks with loads of steelwork coming out the edge, rather like a safe, or a big mortice lock on a wooden door.