I'm not sure that a YouTube video is the best place to show every thief in the world exactly how to break into a hotel room using a dry erase marker, but that is exactly what Matthew Jakubowski has done. The lock pick he designed and concealed inside the marker opens the locks in 22,000 different hotels. Yeah, sleep well tonight corporate business traveler. Holiday vacationer.
note to self, stay away from people with dry eraser markers while on vacation.
ReplyDeleteIf you're not sure it should be posted on You Tube, why on earth would you post it here?!?
ReplyDeleteYes, there are ways to break into hotel rooms, but there are also plenty of ways to keep yourself and your belongings safe.
To start, most hotel doors have one, if not two, locks on the inside of the hotel room. If you are in your room, I would highly recommend flipping the deadbolt or the security latch.
Most hotels offer in-room safes to store valuables. If they don't, they all have safety deposit boxes you can use.
I'm in the industry and work for a hotel that this *can* be done in, but it hasn't, because we offer our guests options for safe storage of valuables, and we have a staff that is vigilant about suspicious behavior.
This video does nothing to help our industry, and we would appreciate it being taken down.
If I hadn't seen this video here, I'd have no idea this was possible. I'm glad I know.
DeleteWhile I certainly appreciate that hotels can store valuables securely, that doesn't prevent a person being robbed or assaulted in their room.
@Miss M, what if the assailant is a hotel employee who has access to all those things, then what?
DeleteThere are also ways to unlatch the security latch from the outside. I've seen a video of that as well.
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ReplyDeleteOkay, to be candid, it's not just a Dry Erase marker - it's a device you have to assemble with circuitry and a soldering iron that can *fit* into a dry erase marker shell.
ReplyDeleteYou can't just pop over to the nearest office supply store and break into your neighbor's hotel room.
As for the rest of it? If you are blissful in not knowing, don't Google DefCon or you'll never sleep again. Because this sort of thing isn't exactly new.
Kudos to the guy for getting it that small. But unless you know a lot of bored engineers who would rather go to jail than work at jobs that pay better than hotel thieves would make? I don't think you have to worry any more than usual.
Miss M, it's not about your industry being portrayed in a negative light - it's about reminding people to be careful. Yes, lock up your valuables. Yes, use the extra locks when inside your room.
ReplyDeleteFor your safety inside a hotel room, pack a cheap triangle doorstop. Stick it beneath the door inside your room before going to sleep. At the very least, it will slow an assailant down. Mine cost 99 cents.
ReplyDeleteOr purchase Addalock to bring with you when you travel.
DeleteI say - call my yndy has a very valid point.
ReplyDeleteI had someone walk into my hotel room while I was in the shower. Always use the inside lock. Always.
ReplyDeleteTru Leigh, were you okay?
ReplyDeleteI always use the inside lock too True Leigh, I'm paranoid like that but now I see I have reason. Glad you're ok
ReplyDeleteCalling nanners on this one; notice how he conveniently doesn't film on top, when the lock goes green? Probably because he used his hotel key card to open it, while we were fixated on the marker.
ReplyDelete