It’s no secret that costs in LA, California, can get pretty pricey when it comes to goods and services. But no one would have expected to pay a locksmith a thousand dollars, let alone even half of that. Yet, an LA locksmith charged a woman a whopping $5,390 just to open the door to her apartment. Granted, it was the middle of the night, but even on top of any extra charges, half of $10K is beyond absurd.
“This has to be a scam, right?” the story’s original poster exclaimed on Reddit, explaining the situation. Allegedly, the victim of this scammer locksmith was their partner’s sister, who had locked herself outside her apartment around midnight. Using a list of Google search results for 24/7 services, she called several until one finally responded. “The yelp reviews are all literally 1 star. But they still have an active locksmithing license somehow,” OP remarks suspiciously.
The Woman Had to Ask Her Mother to Help Pay Off the Massive Locksmith Fee
On top of that, the locksmith took hours to dismantle the door, causing a ruckus to the point that the neighbor came out to see what was going on. Eventually, the woman got back into the apartment, but it came at the cost of used car, more or less. OP claims his sister-in-law didn’t even have $5K for the initial payment, so she had to put a down payment of $2K until her mother was able to pay the rest off. One highly upvoted user said what everyone in the comment section was thinking:
“That price is beyond unreasonable. Even for a late-night emergency call, reputable locksmiths usually quote a fixed rate before touching anything. This looks like a classic bait-and-switch scam, and she should dispute the charge with her bank and file a complaint with local consumer protection.”
This is all so egregious, in fact, that some encourage OP to tell their in-law to take the matter to the police. It’s as one commenter puts it, “You didn’t get scammed you got robbed.”
