Locks and Security News: your weekly locks and security industry news
16th May 2012 Issue no. 120
Your industry news - first
Use the general translation tool for other languages Click here
Keeper of the Keys
by Marti Attoun, writing in American Profile
If Harley Yates’ friends and neighbors in South Lake Tahoe, California, ever lose a key to a file cabinet or a Model T Ford, he’s got a replacement. Since Yates took a shine to keys 81 years ago, he’s accumulated more than 350,000 of them.
"I collect all kinds of keys, anything that goes into a lock except a paper clip or a bobby pin," says Yates, 90, as he fishes a key from his pocket and unlocks a backyard tool shed packed with part of his colossal collection.
Since 1929, Yates has amassed more than 6 tons of keys for boats, cars, clocks, diaries, handcuffs, hotels, jail cells, jewelry boxes, lawnmowers, motorcycles, padlocks, safes, skates, suitcases, tractors, vending machines and anything else that can be turned on or locked up.
20th October 2010