Let me first state, we immediately put a stop payment on our credit card and cancelled our credit card.
We locked ourselves out of our house and called the first locksmith listed on yellowpages.com in our area, Las Vegas, NV. The gentleman that arrived was friendly, but as unaware consumers we never received or asked for any of his credentials. He arrived in plain clothes and an unmarked vehicle with FL plates. All of his tools were stored in the bed of his truck. He tried to earn our trust and briefly showed us numerous books for all the other companies he works for as a sub-contractor. At first he tried to 'bump key' our front door, but said he was too lazy cut the key properly for the job. He then proceeded to try our garage door, with no luck. After this he told us he needed to break our 'kwik-set' lock. (Note: Check the internet, but about 1 out of 100 kwik-set locks cannot be picked. Do not let them break your lock and take it apart!)
We got to chat and he told me he had FL license plates, but provided a phone number with a TX area code. He mentioned moving from FL to TX and just moved to NV two months ago. He also mentioned where he was originally from.
He charged $355.00 (incl. Tax) to replace two deadbolt locks with a cheap LSDA lock. Think about it, these guys don't pay any taxes. I have never heard of the brand LSDA and there isn't much information about the company either. We honestly believe he made a duplicate key and that we would eventually come home to nothing. Needless to say we installed different 'bump free' deadbolt locks.
The receipt he provided had no information about the company we called. We only knew his first name. As of this date (4 days later) he has not called for payment.
Please search the internet for locksmith scams and immigrant locksmith scams.
These companies come up as the first searches and they never have a physical address associated to them. Think about it, they are able to sell your house key to anyone.
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