Before computers became so ubiquitous and hackers omnipresent cultural figures, the ultimate in criminal cool was the burglar. A burglar was someone who could look at a building and see more than just four walls and a roof. For them, a window was a doorway, your common gutter an escape route. Burglars were regarded as more than just outlaws, but ones with a kind of twisted architectural imagination. Virtuosic, almost. And their instrument of choice? The lock pick.

The reality of burglarizing and the methods by which it is done, of course, deviates sharply from the popular imagination. Criminals who break into homes and buildings rarely pick locks. Instead, they choose cruder, faster methods like sawing through ceilings, hammering down doors, or even hiding in a broom closet past closing. And while the crime isn’t inherently violent, it is far from victimless. Breaking into a home or business can leave its inhabitants emotionally scarred and on-edge for years afterwards. It is hard to justify romanticizing a crime that enacts such a toll.

Lock picking, however, is far from confined to this harmful albeit creative type of criminal activity. Learning how to pick locks on your own time not only provides a real mechanical challenge rivaling that of even the most complex puzzles, but it gives one a better sense of how the tools and technology we rely on to protect us actually function. A growing community has cropped up that takes the time to teach others about how to pick locks, and set forward etiquette on how exactly to go about practicing the craft. HiConsumption was lucky enough to get in touch with a few members of the locksport world and have them take us through the most basic steps of how to pick a lock.