To Catch a Thief

A few weeks back I was lucky enough to go to a Lock Picking Party in New York thrown by Atlas Obscura.

Atlas Obscura always throws a lovely party, but my justification for going was research: one of the characters in The Girl From Everywhere is a rather charming thief, and as the saying goes, it takes a thief to catch a thief. (Translated for writers, it's something more like "It takes a bit of devious character study to write a thief," but I'm certain you know what I mean.)

It was a fabulous event of course, with music and refreshment and quite a few very snappy dressers, but the main draw for me was the fact that we were all promised to be taught how to pick a lock.

Schuyler Towne, one of the world's best lock pickers, gave us the basics--and they are surprisingly basic!--but the real treat was the array of locks and the set of lock picks we were all given.

My husband Bret turned out to be the better lock-picker, but we sat together on the steps of the library, working our picks until I got the hang of it.


photo by Steven Acres

I managed to pick three locks, and now I'm thinking if this whole writing thing doesn't work out, I have a fall-back career.