Jump to content

Glue in locks - any clever ways of unlocking?


StuartO

Recommended Posts

Someone put glue into five of our locks today, freezing a driver’s door lock, a fuel cap lock, a water filler flap cap lock, the toilet door lock and a boot locker. They are all on one side of the MH and presumably someone chose to cause maximum nuisance by doing every lock on what was presumably a blind side.

 

The locks are relatively easily replaced but do I have to drill the barrels? Is there a solvent you can use?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

where you parked? so i don't go there! google search comes up with a blow torch!!! but i don't think that is an option LOL, it also comes up with acetone (nail varnish remover) on cotton buds...don't know if it works but worth a try, love to know how you get on, i might need the solution one day, hope you get sorted.

Jonathan

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Problem solved, thanks to the advice from here. I used solvent (acetone, nail varnish remover) and with patience it did serve to make the glue crumbly and pick-offable. All the locks were freed and are useable again. Doubtless heat might also have worked but solvent has the advantage of cleaning the glue out and removing debris.

 

I won’t say where we were when this episode of vandalism occurred because it wasn’t the site’s fault. A large family (11 people in total) turned up to do laundry in a single MH and an accompanying car and monopolised the facilities and abused the site rules for more than a day. There was a mild altercation about hogging the machines and they very skilfully sabotaged us in revenge just before we were leaving; we didn’t spot what had been done for several hours.

 

Both of their vehicles had Finish plates and they looked very blond but the plates could be chosen to be difficult to check, they spoke English to each other and at least one sounded a bit Irish. Their shameless and assertive behaviour (and the huge amount of laundry they were doing) suggested to me they might be part of a multi-family grouping.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I learned a bit more about our suspected attackers today, from a Swedish MH owner. There is a well established Finish cult-like grouping which calls itself “Moms of ten”. They hold lifestyle beliefs which many would regard as odd and extreme and they are sometimes compared to the Amish, except that they make use of modern technology - yet they shun other civilised pleasures, for example they believe it is wrong to listen to music.

 

They chronicle their lifestyle on YouTube and if you search for Moms of Ten on there all will be revealed. They would apparently feel entitled to punish non-believers, hence perhaps feeling entitled to punish us.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Further information, we went back to the Site, CCTV covers the area where we think the glue was applied, a used tube of superglue has been recovered and the GNR (police) are to be asked to investigate. It did not seem likely that there would be evidence but now there may well be enough to go on. The family may also be committing other (eg motoring) offences too. They may get their comeuppance after all.

 

If you ever face the challenge we did go to a pharmacist and buy a small, diabetic-type syringe and a long (approx 30 mm) needle plus 60ml of nail varnish remover. Use the syringe to squirt acetone into the lock liberally and the needle to pick out the gellified, stringy glue as it comes free. You need to open up a pathway to the back of the key slot with the needle so you can inject lots of solvent. Take care if your paintwork is vulnerable (ours wasn’t) but otherwise the more solvent the better. Eventually you will be able to get the key in, then dip the key into solvent repeatedly and gently try to turn the key and eventually the key will turn - and you are in!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, we’re in the Algarve, feeling much better having sorted our locks out.

 

I mistook the name of what appears to be the religious sect our suspected attackers belong to, “Mom of ten” is just the username of the woman who heads this particular family, whose YouTube name is Taina

Licciardo-Toivola.

 

Seems strange to know the name of someone who we are pretty sure pulled a really dirty trick on us only a couple of days ago but the more I learn the weirder it gets. There is a man of the family but apart from his own “The End is Nigh” type of preaching, he stays in the background. They are supposed to be a Christian Sect but they seem to be a very odd one. They will presumably now be off wild camping again somewhere, having done their major laundry exercise. Much to the relief of everyone else who was on Site during the 48 hours they were doing their own thing by abusing the sharing basis upon which enjoying a campsite.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I started another thread on this Forum with a summary of how to deal with glued locks called Super Glued Locks - How to free them. Look there for help if you get done. With patience it is possible to completely free your locks. Resist using force which will simply cause more damage; read the instruction on how to use acetone to dissolve and remove the glue.

 

https://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Super-Glued-Locks-How-to-free-them/53289/#M622346

 

(Link added - Keithl).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

cruiser - 2019-10-10 12:31 AM

 

So can we assume that the few that sounded 'a bit Irish' were possibly not 'a bit Irish'?

PS: That's Finnish by the way, not Finish. Greetings from Ireland!

 

Indeed yes, no Irish element on this occasion and thank you for the spelling correction. Purely Finnish religious extremists as far as we have discovered. Laestadianism is the historical core of their way of life and it is a committed Christian lifestyle - although this lot were certainly willing to apply their own ideas in or to engage in vengeful criminal damage, which presumably they did as their idea righteous punishment. There was no hint of any sensitivity or sense of wrongdoing in the bullying approach to taking over the laundry and abusing various published site rules about not bringing cars on site or spreading outside your own pitch. Double standards presumably feature heavily in their idea of Christian behaviour; in their minds they are the chosen ones and so everyone else gets no respect at all.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...