Business Lockout Service: before you call

The key went in stiffly, turned a quarter of the way, and came out in two pieces. Half of it is still inside the cylinder of the aluminium storefront door, and the deadbolt is hooked firmly into the frame.

Worth answering before the call

Has anyone already tried to force or pry the door? Can you send a photo of the lock face and the edge of the door? Is there an alarm on the door, and who holds the code and the monitoring password?

An employee left and never returned their keys. Should we rekey?

It is the sensible step, and a lockout visit is a convenient moment for it. Rekeying keeps your existing cylinders and changes the pins so a new key operates them and the unreturned one does nothing. If your doors use interchangeable cores, swapping the core takes minutes. Bring every door that shared the old key onto the new one, count the fresh keys into named hands and start a register so the next departure is a line in a book rather than a call.

We have lost a master key. Is that different from losing an ordinary key?

Yes, because a master key opens every lock in its group, so one missing key touches many doors. The response is planned rather than rushed: the locksmith maps which cylinders the key operated, works with the property manager if the system is building-wide, and re-pins or swaps cores across the group so a new master takes over. Manufacturers' guidance on key control treats retrieving and tracking master keys as the foundation of the whole system.