09/06/2026
Most people have never heard of lock snapping. Burglars are counting on that.
I was called to a house in South Harrow after a break-in. The family had locked their back door every single night — standard uPVC door, nothing unusual about it. A burglar snapped the euro cylinder lock in seconds and walked straight in.
When I arrived, the outer part of the cylinder was on the floor. The rest of the lock was still in the door. Technically intact. Completely useless.
Lock snapping accounts for roughly 1 in 4 domestic burglaries in England and Wales. It requires no lockpicking skill, no specialist tools — just a pair of pliers and 30 seconds.
How do you know if your door is vulnerable?
Check your front door. If it has a euro cylinder (the key goes in the middle), look at whether any part of the barrel sticks out beyond the door face. If it does — even a few millimetres — there's enough to grip and snap.
Most standard uPVC doors fitted in the last 20 years have this lock. If you haven't had it upgraded, the odds are it's a basic cylinder with no anti-snap protection.
The fix is straightforward: upgrade to an anti-snap cylinder. Look for TS007 3-star or SS312 Diamond Standard ratings. It's typically a £60–£80 job, and it makes the whole attack fail at the first step.
I've written a full post on this explaining how snapping works, what to look for, and what to get: https://andrewthelocksmith.com/lock-snapping
I'm Andrew — local locksmith covering Harrow and the surrounding area. No call-out fee if you just want me to take a look.
📞 073 7617 6366
