A door lock damaged in a break-in or a break-in attempt comes second to safety: get somewhere safe first and call 911 if anyone could still be inside. Do not touch the door or the lock until the police have seen it, and take photos of the damage from a few angles for the report and your insurance claim.
Once the scene is cleared, the job is to get that door locking again before night and to make sure no stolen or copied key still opens your home. A licensed mobile locksmith can repair the damaged lock, bolt, latch or strike on the spot when repair is practical, replace it when it is not, and rekey the other locks on the same visit. Apex Locksmith Pros does emergency lock repair the same day across Collin, Denton and Dallas counties, daily 8 AM to 8 PM, and quotes a flat total on the phone before a tech is dispatched, with no call-out fee. The steps below walk through the first hour, the repair, and the small upgrades that make the next attempt fail.
Need it handled today? Emergency Lock Repair from a licensed mobile locksmith in McKinney and nearby cities.
In this guide (6 sections)
The first hour after a break-in, in order
Work through these in order. Safety first, paperwork second, the lock third.
- If the door is open or damaged when you get home, do not go inside. Step back to your car or a neighbor's and call 911.
- Wait for the police to clear the house before you touch the door, the lock or anything an intruder may have handled.
- Photograph the door, the frame, the lock, the strike plate and any tool marks from a few angles, plus anything missing or moved inside.
- Ask for the police report number. Your insurance company will ask for it.
- Check every other entry point: the back door, the slider, the garage entry door, and ground-floor windows.
- Make a list of every key that could be gone: house keys, a spare from a drawer, a garage remote, keys left in a car.
- Call a locksmith to get the damaged door locking again, and rekey the other locks if any key may be missing.
What the damage tells you
Most forced entries leave the same few marks, and each one points to a different fix.
Pry marks next to the latch or the deadbolt mean someone worked a tool into the gap between the door and the frame. The bolt may still turn but no longer seat in the strike, or the strike plate is bent. A bent strike or a bolt that drags is lock repair work, and it is fixed on the spot.
A cylinder that spins, sits crooked or has been pulled or drilled is a damaged lock. Sometimes the cylinder alone is replaced; sometimes the whole lock goes, and you hear which one before any extra work.
A door that was kicked in tends to split the frame where the strike plate sits, because the short screws in a standard strike only hold the trim, not the wall. A lock can be reinstalled on a split jamb, but a frame that is split through needs carpentry before any lock will hold.
Getting the door locking again the same day
You should not have to leave a damaged door overnight. When you call Apex Locksmith Pros, tell the dispatcher what happened and what you see: the bolt will not throw, the key will not turn, the strike is bent. You get the flat total on the phone before anyone is sent, and there is no call-out fee.
A licensed mobile tech comes out the same day during business hours, 8 AM to 8 PM daily, and checks the lock, bolt, latch and strike. When repair is practical, the damaged hardware is repaired on the spot. When it is not, you hear that before any extra work, and the lock is replaced instead. Before the tech leaves, the door is locked and unlocked with your key until it secures every time.
The same applies to a business: a storefront or office door that will not lock after a break-in attempt is the same kind of emergency repair.
Rekey if any key could be gone
A repaired door does not help if a stolen key still opens your other locks. If keys were taken, a spare disappeared from a drawer, or a garage remote and a house key were in a car that was broken into, rekey the locks.
Rekeying changes the pins inside your existing cylinders, so every old key stops working and you get new keys, without replacing the hardware. It can be done on the same visit as the repair. If you want one key for the front door, the back door and the garage entry door, the locks can be keyed alike at the same time.
If you are not sure whether a key is missing, count the keys you know about. Any you cannot account for is a reason to rekey.
Small upgrades that make the next attempt fail
Most entry doors are not opened by picking. They are kicked or pried, so the upgrades that matter are the ones that hold the bolt in the wall.
Use long screws in the strike plate. The short screws that come with most strikes only reach the door trim. Screws around 3 inches long reach the wall stud behind the jamb and make the strike far harder to kick out.
Look for a deadbolt with a full 1-inch throw, and check that the bolt goes all the way into the strike when you lock it. A bolt that stops short because the strike is out of line is a common weak spot.
Pick hardware with a real grade. ANSI/BHMA Grade 1 and Grade 2 deadbolts are tested for strength; a no-name lock from a marketplace is not the same product.
Do not forget the other doors. The garage entry door and the back door are often the ones with the weakest locks, and a sliding door needs a secondary lock or a bar in the track.
What to have ready when you call
A short call gets you a firm price. Have these ready:
- What happened and which door: front, back, garage entry, slider or a business door.
- What the lock does now: will not lock, key will not turn, bolt will not throw, cylinder loose or missing.
- The lock brand if you can see it, such as Schlage or Kwikset.
- Whether any keys may be missing, so a rekey can be planned for the same visit.
- Photo ID that shows the address. The tech confirms the home or business is yours before working on the lock.
With that, the dispatcher gives you the flat total before dispatch, and the tech can plan the job for your door.
Key takeaways
- Call 911 first if the door is open or damaged when you get home, and do not go inside until the police clear it.
- Photograph the door, frame, lock and strike before anything is touched; ask for the police report number for insurance.
- Pry marks and a bent strike are lock repair; a spinning or drilled cylinder is a damaged lock; a split frame needs carpentry first.
- Rekey every lock any missing key could open; it can be done on the same visit as the repair.
- Long strike screws into the stud, a full 1-inch deadbolt throw and Grade 1 or 2 hardware stop most kicked and pried entries.
