Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc.. All rights reserved.
Introduction
I have been interested in lockpicking since I was young. Growing up, I enjoyed works in the “espionage” genre, like I Spy and MacGyver. I was captivated by James Bond's equipment from the Q Labs, and yearned to possess gadgets that would open doors, reveal the contents of safes, and allow for covert and speedy escape from tight situations. Later generations have grown up with films like Sneakers or television shows such as Burn Notice, but I suspect that this desire to slip past an adversary's defenses tugs at people's imagination now as much as it did back then.
Another rather universal theme that hasn't changed with time, much to my surprise, is the fact that lockpicking is still ...