Hi I’m Paul Horton,

I’m the owner and founder of Locks in the City. I got involved with locksmithing in the year 2004. I had been looking for a change of career as I was working in retail and doing long stressful shifts. So I started by looking for a new car in order to get about and look for a new job and if I was successful in finding a new job I would have reliable transport. So I bought a copy of the auto trader. Whilst browsing I discovered in the back businesses for sale. Amongst them was an opportunity to buy an existing business in a locksmith company. This got me intrigued as I had always been very hands on and interested in mechanical design and engineering so locksmithing went hand in hand.

At the time I used the internet to delve further in to the locksmith world reading up on the life of a locksmith and the expectations. My dad decided to make some picks based on some templates that we acquired. This was the start of the addictive world of lock picking. After about 3 days I had managed to pick open a cheap rim cylinder and the buzz from opening something that is designed to keep you and your property safe was immense.

Over the coarse of the next year, I slept, ate, read and breathed locksmithing and I was picking locks with ease and moved on through the different levels of security. I went from opening low end 5 pin cylinders, to 5 pin cylinders with anti-pick pins, to 6 pin high end cylinders then onto dimple 7 pin cylinders. I was also opening dead locks and sash locks using curtain picks. My arsenal of tools and picks grew my knowledge was steadily growing and I eventually got a job with a repossession company. This wasn’t the most pleasant of jobs but it was a good stepping stone in to putting my knowledge into practice. I gained great knowledge and experience and opened many of the locks on the market.

I eventually decided to work for my self and took the gamble. I invested heavily in stock, tools, decoders and key cutting equipment, not forgetting the van. This has to be the best decision I ever made. The gratitude from helping people in need, is what makes it so worthwhile and the reason i continue to strive and keep learning and practicing.