He's a lock for the job

FOSTORIA — Lonnie Greer has saved the day for panicked mothers locked out of a car with their baby inside. He's opened doors for police hunting down suspects and evidence. Over 50 years, the 75-year-old locksmith has rescued countless people. He's a man in demand. His business, Lock Shop, in Fostoria, has contributed to the public welfare from Fostoria to Findlay, to Sandusky, to Tiffin, to Norwalk and to Lima. "It's kind of magical to have this thing where you can get into people's houses without keys," he said. While it can be magical, sometimes what Greer finds on the other side of the locked door is dark and dreary. His scariest jobs involve helping police. "You never know what you're going to get when you're with them," he said. Two months ago in Fostoria, he opened a door to help police check on a man's welfare. "And he had been deceased for about two months in there," Greer recalled. "It wasn't a very pleasant experience." Other times he's been surprised to find himself in danger when he opened the door. Years ago, an area police agency enlisted Greer and another locksmith to get them inside a house for a criminal investigation. The house was supposed to be unoccupied. "Nobody would answer the door," Greer said. "So we unlocked it, and (police officers) saw lingering cigarette smoke in there, which meant there was somebody in the house." Police drew their guns. Greer and the other locksmith stepped outside quickly and fled. "We didn't know if there was going to be an exchange of gunfire or what it was," he said. "We got in the truck and left. We don't know what happened after that." Locksmiths sometimes have to think on their feet in frantic situations. That happened years ago, when a mother locked herself out of her car with her toddler inside. Greer's usual methods had been thwarted by well-intentioned police who had damaged the door locks before he got there. "That's when you start testing your mechanical ability to try to figure out a way in," he said. The child was no worse for wear, getting into Mom's purse, playing with lipstick, "getting it all over and having a good time in the seat." Mom wasn't faring as well. "The mother was in a panic," Greer recalled. "It doesn't make it easy for us. We better work fast, for sure." That's not the way he likes to work. Still, he figured out a way inside the car within 10 minutes. "We picked the trunk open, went through the back seat," Greer said. One of the nice things about being a locksmith is people in a pickle are glad to see you. After they have been freed from their plight, most people are grateful, he said. "Usually they say it was worth it, most of the time," he said. Some complain about his price, though. "You did just that? And you get tha-at mu-uch?" Greer's comeback: "You don't pay us for what we do. You pay us for what we know." Lonnie and his wife Peggy rarely get a vacation because they are always on call. "We get them all hours of the night. That's one downfall of the business," he said. "We don't take vacations because we run 24/7." At night, it's truckers who are frequently calling. Car drivers frequently call at the end of their work shift. But the most frequent customers may be college students. Usually it is their parents calling the locksmith on their behalf, he said. "We haven't taken a vacation for probably a good 10 years, maybe more," Greer said. "We turn down very few calls." Wilin: 419-427-8413