Shut out · keys lost · key snapped
Emergency locksmith San Juan de Alicante: shut out, keys gone, a key snapped
The door clicked shut with the keys on the table. The bag went missing on a fiesta night. A key broke off in the cylinder as you turned it. Ring, say where you are in Sant Joan, and you will hear a real person and a straight answer about when help can be there.
Open 24 hours · 7 days
- A real person answers
- Honest estimate of the drive
- Price agreed before work starts
Right now: stay somewhere safe and lit, ring +34 678 583 290, and if you can, send a WhatsApp pin. In Sant Joan the pin matters: the N-332 splits Benimagrell from the centre, and the partidas have more camins than street numbers.
The situations
What gets people ringing in the middle of the night
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Shut out with the keys inside
The commonest call. A door pulled shut on its latch alone usually opens through the latch, with no damage and no new lock.
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Keys lost
Getting you in comes first. Whether the cylinder needs changing that night depends on what was on the key ring.
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A key broken off in the lock
The broken piece is drawn out. If the cylinder was damaged doing it, a new one goes in on the spot.
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A lock that jammed half way
Turned once and stuck, with the key neither going round nor coming out. Usually a worn cylinder or a misaligned bolt.
How it goes
Four steps between the phone call and your own bed
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The call
Where you are, which door, and what happened. If you cannot talk easily, a WhatsApp with a pin and a photo of the door does the same job.
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The estimate
You are told how long the drive is likely to take to your street at that hour. It is an estimate, given honestly, not a number of minutes promised to win the job.
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At the door
Proof that you live there, a look at the lock, and the price agreed with you before anything is touched.
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The opening
Latch first, then the cylinder. A drill only if both fail and you agree to it. If the cylinder has to go, the new one is fitted there and then so the door locks tonight.
Here in particular
Nights in Sant Joan that bring more calls
The Fogueres, 20 to 24 June. The town’s fiesta for its patron, Sant Joan Baptista: late nights, streets full of people, and a key ring easily dropped.
The Cristo de la Paz, 12 to 16 September. The peñas parade, the mascletà and the correfoc at midnight, the procession on the 14th. If your keys went in the crush, what to do on a fiesta night is worth two minutes.
Rooms near the hospital and the campus. People staying for a few weeks near the Hospital Universitario or studying at the UMH faculties often have a front door and a room door, both locked. Either can be opened; see how each door is opened without damage.
Staying at Playa de San Juan rather than in the town? The two names cause confusion; this guide shows how to tell them apart so the van goes to the right place.
After tonight
When the emergency is over but the lock is not right
If keys are still missing, or the old cylinder was the reason for the trouble, a calmer job the next day is often better value than a rushed one at 2 am: a planned lock change. If the door was forced rather than locked, start with the page on forced doors. For a car rather than a house, opening a locked car.
Emergency call-outs reach every part of the municipality and the neighbours just over the boundary: the areas covered. Other ways to reach us are on the contact page.
Questions
Asked from the doorstep, usually late at night
Does a person really pick up at three in the morning?
Yes. The number is answered at any hour, every day of the year. Being reachable is not the same as being round the corner, so you are told honestly how long the drive will take before anyone sets off.
The key snapped inside the cylinder. Should I try to pull it out?
Only if a clear piece sticks out and comes away with tweezers. Pushing at it with a second key or a knife drives the broken part deeper and can turn a clean extraction into a cylinder change.
I am locked out of a flat I rent. Do I need the landlord’s permission?
You need to show you live there: the rental contract, a bill or your empadronamiento in your name, or the landlord confirming by phone. Your own home can be opened without the landlord present.
My keys went missing in the crowd at the fiestas. Is changing the lock urgent?
If the keys were on a ring with nothing showing your address, getting in tonight is what matters, and the cylinder can be changed calmly the next day. If anything on the ring led to your door, change it the same night.
Also useful
Often needed the morning after
Guides that lead here
Shut out somewhere in Sant Joan tonight?
Ring and say where you are. A WhatsApp pin helps if the street is hard to find.
Open 24 hours · 7 days