ELKO — Mike Richards picks locks.
As the owner and sole locksmith of A&M Locksmith, he helps customers all over Elko make their buildings more secure or gain access to their locked car doors.
His responsibilities may range from fixing a single lock to rekeying an entire building.
“I built a master system for a company here in town and replaced all of their locks on their interior and exterior doors,” Richards said. “I had to develop a key system so that the managers would have one key that would fit all the doors. But then employees were only allowed into certain doors.
“So there’s some mathematical and figuring issues in that because you can put all four codes into a door lock. The problem is, if you do too many then it makes it easier for somebody to pick that lock. So you have to stay on the safety side of it as well so that it stays secure.”
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Richards said another important part of locksmithing is avoiding any damage to property. Prying open a lock should not involve breaking the material around it, he noted.
“I had to unlock a semi truck for the first time the other day. That was an interesting bill, because I was standing up on the steps of a semi truck to be able to reach the door — and their doors are thicker than car doors. I had to figure out how to get it open the same way as I would a car,” he said.
“I used an airbag system to open the door. The airbags are special airbags to where they won’t allow me to put so much pressure on the door that I damage it — just enough to get it open so I can get a rod in there to reach the unlock button or pull the handle or pull the lock, whatever the case is.”
Richards said his business is just getting started. He and his wife Angie Richards had a ribbon cutting at the Elko Chamber of Commerce on their first anniversary, leading to a mention in the March Elko Area Chamber newsletter.
“I’ve kind of done different aspects of locksmithing my whole working career. I was a mechanic for 30 years, I did construction and finish work in homes,” Mike Richards said. “We have a small farm and so I do all my own repairs out here as well. And we noticed that there was a need for a locksmith in town.” Elko has only a handful of people with locksmithing expertise, and their numbers are dwindling, he explained.
Locksmiths in Nevada face a series of precautionary hurdles: first, they have to obtain a county license through their local sheriff’s department. “Then you have to get a license with the state and then there’s always a city license on top of that,” Mike Richards said. “When I was going to get my locksmith license through the county, they had to run me through an FBI background check.”
Nevada locksmiths are licensed per county, adding another wrinkle. “I can’t go to another county and act as a locksmith unless I get licensed in that county as well through their sheriff’s department.”
He said he decided to become a licensed locksmith because he saw a need for more locksmithing services in Elko.
“You can’t just call somebody and have them come out and do that stuff legally. And there was really nowhere in town to do it. Myself included and other people I knew tried getting keys made,” he said.
“The big complaint was most of the time the keys didn’t work,” he noted. “Nobody out here made keys for camp trailers or for four-wheelers. So that’s actually what I started doing after I got my license. As I started making keys, I got in on the RV side of it because there was definitely nobody out there who could do that.
“We are currently in the process of trying to get the equipment needed to do chip keys and fobs for newer vehicles,” Richards said. “I’ve probably gotten 20-plus calls from people wanting me to do key fobs or chip keys.”
He said he needs to procure equipment which will allow him to talk to the computer inside a car.
“We are self-funded in our business, so my wife and I both work full-time jobs as well,” he said. The additional income from his work with Elko’s water department allows Mike Richards to afford the equipment and tools he needs for locksmithing.
He shared his goals for the future of his business. “I would like to have a storefront because we’re just mobile right now.” He said he would also like to be able to make and sell keys out of his home so that he can spend less time delivering his keys to customers.
“We’d like to have a storefront and one or two employees, possibly,” he said. “Right now it’s just my wife and I.”
He said he goes out to do all the in-person locksmith work while his wife handles paperwork.
“A more immediate goal would be to have enough clientele in business to be able to quit my full-time job and just concentrate on the business,” he said.
Mike Richards said he is also “hoping to pick up enough business to be able to go out to the other cities in Elko County.” If the demand is there, he will apply for a license in other places, he added.
