{"id":189896,"date":"2025-05-29T14:13:03","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T19:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=189896"},"modified":"2025-05-29T14:13:03","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T19:13:03","slug":"how-to-open-a-locked-door-with-a-credit-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/skills\/how-to\/how-to-open-a-locked-door-with-a-credit-card\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Open a Locked Door With a Credit Card"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-189897\" src=\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Open-Door-Credit-Card-1.jpg\" alt=\"Step-by-step illustrated guide showing how to open a locked door with a credit card by sliding and angling the card between the latch and frame, then pressing the door open.\" width=\"750\" height=\"1297\" srcset=\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Open-Door-Credit-Card-1.jpg 750w, https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Open-Door-Credit-Card-1-320x553.jpg 320w, https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Open-Door-Credit-Card-1-640x1107.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A few years ago, we were cat-sitting for some friends. They gave me keys to the exterior door leading into their garage. Once inside, I was able to access the unlocked door that went from the garage into the house. Easy peasy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Well, one day, I took my kids with me to feed the cats, and one of them decided to lock the spring-loaded latch as we exited the house into the garage. As I was about to leave through the garage door, I started to hear the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">click-click-click<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the gas stove ignitor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since there was no one else in the house, that was definitely weird.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Holy crap!\u201d I thought. \u201cThe cats must be turning on the gas stove! They&#8217;re going to blow up the house! I got to get in there to turn it off . . . but I don&#8217;t have keys to unlock this door!&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thankfully, I had my wallet with me. I pulled out a rewards card and shimmied open the spring-latched door \u2014 just like MacGyver would.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When the door popped open, the cats were staring at me. I rushed to the stove. The gas wasn\u2019t turned on. I called my friend to ask about the clicking noise.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Oh, yeah,\u201d he said. \u201cThe ignitor does that sometimes. The gas isn&#8217;t on, but the ignitor will make that clicking noise. Don&#8217;t sweat it.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Non-crisis averted.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re ever in an actual emergency where you need to open a door you don\u2019t have keys for, it\u2019s good to have the know-how illustrated above in your back pocket. While this method won\u2019t work on every type of lock (like deadbolts or high-security locks), it can work on spring-latch locks, which are typically found on interior doors.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By doing nothing more than sliding a flexible plastic card (preferably one you don&#8217;t mind potentially damaging) between the door frame and the locking mechanism, you can often gain entry in under a minute without harming the door or the lock.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The next time you think a cat has figured out how to turn the knobs on a stove, you&#8217;ll be prepared.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Illustration by <a href=\"https:\/\/storytellersworkshop.com\/\">Ted Slampyak<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few years ago, we were cat-sitting for some friends. They gave me keys to the exterior door leading into their garage. Once inside, I was able to access the unlocked door that went from the garage into the house. Easy peasy. Well, one day, I took my kids with me to feed the cats, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":189899,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":""},"categories":[42260,42259],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-how-to","category-skills"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Open-Door-Credit-Card-Panel-3-538x280.jpg","aom":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Open-Door-Credit-Card-Panel-3-372x230.jpg","reactor-320":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Open-Door-Credit-Card-Panel-3-320x209.jpg"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v26.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Open a Locked Door With a Credit Card | The Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/skills\/how-to\/how-to-open-a-locked-door-with-a-credit-card\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Open a Locked Door With a Credit Card | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A few years ago, we were cat-sitting for some friends. 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