Keeping Buildings & Vehicles Under Lock & Key
Nat Lawrence, owner of Lawrence Locksmith Service,
also serves as an appointed member of the St. Mary’s liquor board. ST. MARY’S TODAY photo

 By Ahmar Khan
ST. MARY’S TODAY

CALLAWAY --- Stop. Take a breath. Otherwise, you will lose your keys!
Haste-makes-waste is a message St. Mary’s native Nat Lawrence, 65, who has been a locksmith for more than 22 years, conveys. He is called in when motorists or homeowners lock themselves out.
“They are in a hurry. They are anxious,” he said. “They don’t allow themselves enough time to do what they have to do—that’s the main thing (for people locking themselves out).” He said victims of haste are a mix of people, from all age groups, both sexes and all ethnicities.
And for Lawrence, there’s nothing more important than a job well done. His pleasure lies in seeing a customer smile. He boasts a loyal customer base, spanning more than two decades.
It’s been three years that he is a locksmith, fulltime—prior to that he was engaged in the trade part time. “I took a correspondence course 22 years ago to get started,” he recalls. “But really it’s the job experience that makes it work.”
He said home studies armed him with the basics, but trouble-shooting practice really taught him his line of work.
The locks he has to work on are from all over the world, he said. “Japanese, Indian, Chinese, and Korean. There are more foreign locks than U.S. made locks,” he said. “They might look a little different from one another, but they are basically the same.”
He said he prefers working on American locks as he found them simpler to work on.
Lawrence, based in Callaway, is available Monday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.
“I receive calls until 10 p.m.,” he said, defining his bread and butter territory was spread over St. Mary’s, and lower parts of Charles and Calvert counties. “But depending on the size of the work, I can venture farther,” Lawrence said, adding he had at times gone to as far as Washington D.C. answering calls to duty.
Making an extra buck was what inspired Lawrence to join the locksmith trade in the first place.
He enrolled at the Foley Belsaw locksmith school in Arkansas for a correspondence course nearly a quarter century ago. The course normally takes one year, but Lawrence said he was through with it in six months. “They still have that school,” he said.
Home, office door and car key he does it all.
“If they lose one, I make new ones for them,” Lawrence said, taking great pride in his work. “Of course, I do commercial work also,” he adds.
His art includes putting new keys in old locks, that renders the older keys redundant but locks remain the same—tackling a key security issue for an employer, new home or business owner who doesn’t want keys of a property in the wrong hands.
He said most times a new owner of a commercial building would approach him to have new keys made.
Lawrence said he tries to treat people fairly and keeps his charges reasonable, but admits there are others in the field who may want to take advantage of a person’s predicament when locked. His charge for a normal car or home lockout ranges between 40 and 50 dollars. “Depending on the make of a car, it could rise to $90 or $150 if the car is for instance a Mercedes,” he said.
Lawrence’s line of work enables him to have a mobile office. . “You really don’t need an office if you are a locksmith,” he said.
All tools of his trade, he said, are kept well organized in his 1995 Ford van. His van is parked in his yard and two “bad dogs” ensure there are no thefts.
On an average day, he gets three to four calls. But his contracting business is like fishing and on some days he may not receive any calls at.
Asked what he felt or does one a lull day, he said “Normally I have jobs lined up and on days I don’t get any calls I prepare for them.”
He said, “Making a key in icy cold in the dead of night, that’s a horrible experience.” And this, he said, he has to do once a while.
It has never happened that he was called for a job, or did work without pay.
“Most of the time I will assume, they will have a family or friend to bring them the money.”
He said nothing can buy the satisfaction he derived from a complicated job well done.
He has no plans to call it quits soon. “I will continue to work as long as I can. It will be a long time. Hopefully another 20 years.”
He cautioned new home or business owners neglect to make new keys made for their homes once they move into their home, inviting trouble. Old keys in the hands of others can make for unwanted intrusions.
“Call a locksmith when you buy a home,” said Lawrence.