I recently locked myself out of a home I was house sitting for. Had I been in Los Angeles, where I usually reside, a locksmith would have been as easy to find as graffiti. And so, being as how I was out in the countryside and not in Los Angeles, I tried my hand at being my own locksmith. Making my way toward the garage and making some “Custom tools,” I proceeded to pick the lock to the home and retrieve the misplaced key. I must confess, however, that locksmiths have their trade mastered, for I never even came close to budging the lock to the home and eventually was forced to give in and break a window.

Ever since the experience, I've thought extensively on what it would be like to be a locksmith in Los Angeles. As far as the mystique goes, one could not ask for a better city to work at such a trade. Not only that, but something tells me that Los Angeles has more than its fair share of homegrown locksmiths who learned their craft through less than well-established means.

Through my experience, I began to wonder, what credentials does a person need in order to become a locksmith in a city like Los Angeles? Certainly it takes more than just the ability to pick a lock. Maybe not. And do they do it the old fashioned way, picking it with the tiny metal hook and bar we've all seen from the movies? Or is there some high tech machine, an electronic skeleton key that picks most any lock, that you can simply insert into the slot and then be on your way?

Whatever the case may be, I'd love to be able to be a locksmith in LA. Something about getting a call in the early evening, showing up to a house with a handful of precision metal tools and going to work on a lock while the distressed bystanders watch in awe. It seems like the right fit for me. That's one of the reasons why I love concepts like Servana. At Servana, one can literally offer any service they're competent to provide. And who knows. Maybe one day, I'll buckle down and learn how to do the strange jobs that have always intrigued me, and finally market myself as the writer/locksmith/detective I've always wanted to be. Until then, I'll just have to keep dreaming.