Bicycle thieves in New York City
and elsewhere are able to pick U-shaped locks, including several
popular models made by Kryptonite, with a ballpoint pen, The New
York Times reported.
Videos posted on the Internet show how mashing the empty
barrel of a ballpoint pen into the lock’s cylindrical keyhole and
turning it clockwise could open the locks, the paper said. The
technique works because the pen has the right diameter, is rigid
enough to hold its shape yet pliable enough to mold into a key
that opens the lock, The Times said.
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The weakness has been demonstrated in an Internet video by
Benjamin Running, the Brooklyn owner of a $90 Kryptonite lock,
and discussed in chat rooms of bicycle forums, The Times said.
News of the flaw prompted bicycle shops across the country to
pull the locks from their shelves, the paper said. Calls to Donna
Tocci, a spokesman for the Canton, Mass.-based
Kryptonite, a unit of Ingersoll Rand Co., weren’t immediately
returned.
