Woman Says a Locksmith Charged Her Boyfriend’s Sister $5,390 To Get Into Her Apartment — and People Think It Was a Scam

Getting locked out in the middle of the night is already miserable. You are tired, you are stressed, and you usually just want the fastest possible fix so you can get back inside and go to bed. That is exactly why this Reddit story got so much attention. According to the person who posted it, her boyfriend’s sister got locked out of her apartment in Los Angeles, called a 24/7 locksmith, and ended up with a bill for $5,390 just to get back in.

At first, the poster said she thought maybe she had heard wrong. She assumed the charge was around $500, which would still be painful, but at least within the range of “awful emergency service price.” Then she realized it was not five hundred. It was five thousand three hundred ninety dollars. That is the kind of number that makes you stop and reread it because it sounds more like a car repair or a hospital bill than a lockout.

According to the post, the locksmith arrived and said none of the mechanics in the door worked, so instead of opening it in a simple way, he drilled into the lock and took the whole thing apart. The sister was apparently stuck outside late at night and did not feel like she had much choice in the moment. By the time he was done, she was handed that massive bill. That is where the whole thing started sounding less like a legitimate emergency service and more like one of those stories people hear about and think, there is no way that can be legal.

The comments came in fast, and the reaction was basically instant outrage. One person flat-out said it was a scam and called the locksmith a criminal. Another said they had seen versions of this before, where a company quotes a low service fee online or over the phone, then once they arrive and the person is stranded, the price suddenly balloons because now the customer feels trapped. A lot of readers were especially angry about the fact that the work involved drilling and destroying the lock, because they saw that as a way to justify a much bigger charge after the fact.

Some commenters started offering practical advice right away. People said to call the credit card company if she paid with a card, dispute the charge, document everything, and report the business to consumer protection agencies. Others pointed out that emergency locksmith scams have been around for years, especially in big cities, and often rely on search ads, fake local listings, or vague “24/7” service pages that do not tell you much until the technician is already standing in front of you. That made the whole thing feel even more believable, because so many readers seemed to recognize the pattern.

What makes the story hit so hard is how easy it is to picture yourself in the same spot. You are locked out. It is late. You call the first person who says they can come right now. Then suddenly someone is drilling into your door, handing you a bill that looks insane, and you are standing there trying to figure out if you are being helped or robbed. That kind of story gets under people’s skin because it plays on one of the worst feelings there is — realizing you may have been taken advantage of right when you were most vulnerable.

And honestly, the number is what really makes this one impossible to ignore. A surprise charge is one thing. A $5,390 locksmith bill is the kind of detail that makes people instantly want to know what happened, what she signed, and whether there is any way to fight it. If a locksmith handed you a bill that high after drilling your lock in the middle of the night, would you pay it on the spot — or assume you were being scammed?