“Opening locks” might not sound like scintillating social media content, but Trevor McNally has turned lock-busting into online gold. A former US Marine Staff Sergeant, McNally today has more than 7 million followers and has amassed more than 2 billion views just by showing how easy it is to open many common locks by slapping, picking, or shimming them.
This does not always endear him to the companies that make the locks.
On March 3, 2025, a Florida lock company called Proven Industries released a social media promo video just begging for the McNally treatment. The video was called, somewhat improbably, “YOU GUYS KEEP SAYING YOU CAN EASILY BREAK OFF OUR LATCH PIN LOCK.” In it, an enthusiastic man in a ball cap says he will “prove a lot of you haters wrong.” He then goes hard at Proven’s $130 model 651 trailer hitch lock with a sledgehammer, bolt cutters, and a crowbar.
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Shimming a lock is such a common attack, and so well known, and so easily guarded against in the design phase, any company that produces an easily shimmed lock should be called out for negligence.
BTW, the Lock Picking Lawyer has yet to pick his Bowley lock. He’ll never call any lock unpickable, but he’s yet to try again after several years. (No association, I don’t even own one of the locks, I just remember the video.)