This is the story of a day at the antique mall. On this particular day, a nice customer came in with the camera case shown on the left. It was locked ... it had been locked for a very long time. The nice lady used to have a camera shop ... one day a man came in with the locked camera case hoping the camera shop people could open it.
They fiddled with it, trying to pick it with bobby pins, nails and tooth picks, all to no avail, and really, it looks so easy in the movies. The man decided to give the locked case to the camera shop because it could not be opened. The locked case was used as decoration for 20 years. Then the 'new' owner of the locked case brought it into Treasures Antiques hoping we could get it open for her. By looking into the lock we figured it would take a flat key, with a piece on the end to push the button inside, then it could be turned. We drew a picture of what we thought the key would look like. We got out the box of antique keys we have for sale, but there was nothing like that.
We told her she could write to the company that made the case, and she said she had, but buying a new key would be expensive. Finally, Nikki, the magic girl, started going through the keys on the dealers rings, the ones that open the locked cases in the mall, there are at least a hundred of those. Sometimes dealers will include keys for items they have for sale in their booths. Nikki found a key that looked like the one we had drawn, she brought it over and tried it, it fit perfectly ... with a little fiddling ... well you know how it ends. There wouldn't have been a story if it hadn't worked. The brand on the key was the same as the one on the case ... and now we have a very happy customer ... She has the case, the camera and a cool stack of antique glass photographic plates!!
Don't you just love a happy ending!?
That is such a cool story! Props to Nicki for finding the key!
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