@@umno9830 Hey, even when it doesn't let you in, you still get a plastic cup or some lint or something! That's almost as good as actual toilet access, right?
I'm gonna be honest, based on the title I was expecting this look to have been defeated by roving lockpick feminists and I am incredibly disappointed that isn't the case.
As a lawyer, I’m sure you’ll like to hear how pay toilets fell out of favour in Canada about 40-45 years ago… Two men were caught having sex in a Montréal train station bathroom stall, and they got acquitted because they argued that since they paid 10¢ to get in, it was akin to a hotel room and thus could not be charged with public indecency. 🙂
I was going to say “imagine paying for a cup of coffee just to go to the bathroom” but then I realized how many times I’ve literally done that. At least I got the coffee.
I always order something but if I am in a hurry I promise to order something when I get out. Being a known regular I never encounter a problem this way.
You've probably never done that. It's like paying for a cup of coffee, and then paying the same amount again when using the restroom. Not buying something so the establishment gives you access to the bathroom.
When I was a child back in the 1970's we came across pay Toilets while on a road trip. Mom paid 10 cents and we just held the door for each other and we all got our turn.
This just reminded me of the sweet dispensers there were in the UK when I was a kid. They were supposed to cost 20 pence which is a heptagonal coin, which you put in the slot and turn a knob to dispense the sweets. Somehow at the age of 9 I figured out that wrapping a circular 1 pence coin in a scrap of paper, folded to give the coin straight edges, was enough to fool the mechanism and get my sweets at 1/20 the intended price!
I remember as a young child being told to just crawl under the door... apparently my parents were less concerned with whatever might be on the floor than they were with saving a dime. They did make sure we always washed our hands after :-D Worse than the locked door I think was the horrible little sheets of waxy toilet paper that absorbed almost nothing.
Because nickel and diming people just needing to use the bathroom is something that has literally never gone away. Instead of having a toll in the bathroom, most places are "paying customers only"
I mean also... some people have urinary problems... like its unfair to people who are diabetic, older, women, pregnant women, people who have diareah... just over all, a really greedy and stupid idea. Like is a bunch of piss and pooh all over the bathroom's floor, worth it? Not everyone will have the money to pay!
It may be "unfair" But now in many locations there are no publicly available restrooms. The pay was partially for upkeep of the premises. Toilets get vandalized on the regular and cleaning them for many business causes too much labor cost/retention problems. So no restrooms for non paying customers.
Ah yes, I remember these from my rebellious youth. . . I despised them, so, as an athletic teenager, I literally climbed over the top of every empty stall sporting a lock, opened the door from inside and messed up the latch so it wouldn't go back in the slot. I got a few odd looks from other women in the Ladies' but nobody ever objected or turned me in to security. Power to the Pee-ple!
Given that the top lock is a slightly better version of a domestic bedroom lock (requires a tension bar), I doubt there was much money in these a few years after they were put in place. Hmm, but I'm forgetting about bathroom attendants. Would there ever be a crossover of fancy and crass restrooms? Maybe at nightclubs?
That is easily done by putting the urinal, and the stalls in a room with a paylock on. Sure you get some freeriders that walk right in when someone leaves but it isn't much of a hassle. A modern solution is to skip the urinal entirely, put a toilet and a washbin behind a paylock and call it a day. No gender destiction past a special trashbin for womens used period absorbers that shouldn't be flushed, everyone use the same same room. Modern versions can be used with debit cards.
I am 70 years old and I remember these restroom stall coin locks that required payment to enter the toilet stall. When I was a child growing up I needed to use the toilet behind one of these coin locked stalls. My father told me to crawl under the door, which I did to use the toilet. Some one spotted me doing this and got into an argument with my father that I could clearly hear from the bath room stall. Fortunately the argument did not come to blows.
Imagine for a moment: A master thief decides to rob a lawyer's house thinking that it probably contains a hidden fortune. The thief feverishly works to pick the most secure lock on the market and get into the house. Then he encounters the basement door. It's like a bank vault, so there must be some extremely valuable items there. The thief draws upon everything he knows to gain access. Finally, the heavy metal door swings open to reveal ... a huge collection of locks.
@Paradoxical Nightmare Plot twist: The thief decides to steal some of the locks, but gets caught and arrested - so he calls his lawyer who happens to be the lock picking lawyer who owns the lock collection. Also, the thief learned his skills by watching LPL videos. It's like lock picking inception.
"Alright, this will be a bit like a surgery so I'll add some anaesthetics first." *10 minutes later...* "Ok we're ready. I'll need to check the teeth for cavities." _"...Nothing on the canines..."_ _"...First molar top right is binding..."_
i mean, locks have been around for thousands of years, you'd expect they are worse now as they are probably made using machines whether they used to all be made by hand by professionals.
@@Annahoi2 well if they are designed by professionals it doesn’t matter if a professional makes it or a machine makes it. Fact is most are bad these days because capitalism is in its final stage, infinite growth is impossible so they have to cut corners in quality to save money to ensure they keep the fiscal numbers ever increasing.
I remember these so well. As a little kid going with my mom into the ladies room at Jordans or Filenes in Boston, ladies would hold the door for other ladies while the rest room attendant would yell at them not to hold the door! Lol!
I can remember as a child my parents took me to see the brand new international airport that had just opened near the city I live in. It was the first and only time I ever saw one of these locks and it didn't take long for them to be removed. Not because of the women's movement but because the building had been constructed with public funds and the public was less than pleased with the idea that they would not only have to pay for the building but then they had to pay further to use the facilities. I remember my Father reading a newspaper article out loud about their removal and why. The other unspoken reason that came out later in the conversation before they were removed was the fact that some folks, when caught short or not having a nickel, used the sinks or the floor to do what had to be done and the janitors refused to clean up the mess unless they received additional pay. Even today, 60 years later, I don't blame them.
I saw one of these at the Greyhound bus depot in Chicago when I was a kid. I didn't have any money and didn't want to find my mom to get money, so I just went under the stall door. As I left the stall, a guy who was waiting asked me to hold the door for a moment so he could go in without paying. We defeated this lock twice with no tools.
@@HumanTypewriter In hindsight, that'd be a great show of protest lmao. _Ain't my fault i have to pay to take a piss, so enjoy your piss stained department store floor_
Fascinating. Why did the “occupied” indication also fall out of fashion? I have to say that I've always found the absence of an occupied indicator to be the second creepiest thing about US bathroom stalls (the fact that the stalls are invariably designed so that you can see under, over and around the panels being, of course, the first).
@@EmissaryofWind some gender neutral bathrooms do but at the university I work at none of the gendered bathrooms do. I almost walked in on someone because they had their headphones on when I knocked on their stall.
The "occupied" indicator is usually "the door is closed and someone's feet are below it." (The doors are designed to stay at least partway open when not locked.) Actual "occupied" indicators are only on stalls that stay fully closed by default with no gaps below, like port-a-potties and airplane toilets. Or the occasional single-occupant restroom where someone paid to install such an indicator instead of a standard door lock _without_ an indicator.
imagine having to pay to go to the bathroom, no wonder this was fought against, its a wonder people didnt just shit on the floors till this was abolished
I am guessing people had standards back then. As someone who works in sanitation, we need a solution for the drug users and those people who don't give a fvck about other people's property.
@@wesleywyndam-pryce5305 And people own that property. With your shitty opinion, just let people rob your house. Don't call the cops when someone breaks in.
@@AmericanCaesarian well you never know and I don't know if you know but women are pretty genetic Edit: replacing generic with genetic to fix an autocorrect issue
Where i live, there are places where they require you to pay There is even one place that has turnstiles with an alarm that goes off if you try to enter without paying
I love your content! I’ve been interested in picking locks for over 20 years, I’ve never tried picking a lock but just finding your videos has reignited a small fire deep in me ! Thank you I’m going to buy some picking toys online now!
@@ZaHandle on this particular lock, it really doesn't matter that its so easy to open, its use was malicious in the first place (people most certainly should have the right to take a piss in appropriate locations without paying)
@@OrangeC7 Is it in the US now ? All over europe you have to pay 50 or 70 cents to use the toilet at gasstations. As if they dont make enough money on the gas. Meanwhile they are complaning about truckers peeing and shitting in the forests around the stations and building fences to prevent that. I bet the money they spent on the fences and payment devices is more than they even got out of them.
*How?* It culd be bypassed with a wiper insert. Not even picking tools, just the insert. A piece of red-bull can would have defeated that, without any need to form it.
This made me realize that if I learned to pick locks as a kid I'd have taken money out of the coin drawer of arcade machines just to put them back in again to play them.
This couldve been easily averted in the early 70's by simply removing the coin box and using it rather as a coin return. It holds your coin until you're finished.
@@vect0r858 Same concept as going to an Aldi store and putting a quarter in the shopping cart to unlock it; It works based on trust. It wouldn't be viable nowadays though.
These types of locks were still used in the 80's in Ontario Canada, I remember this because as a child I read this on the wall of a stall in a mall: Here I sit broken hearted paid a dime and only farted yesterday I took a chance saved a dime and shit my pants 30 years later I still laugh at that stalls humor
Damn, I heard that jingle once as a kid, promptly forgot it, then butchered it all to pieces. My version only had 2 lines, because I was never motivated enough to turn it into a whole poem: Here I stand all broken hearted Busted cap and tender-farted I knew it had to have more lines (who in their right mind makes a 2 line limerick?) but I could never figure them out. Thanks for telling me what the real thing is.
The town shopping center when I was a kid in the 90's had one of these. It was 20p to gain entry to the toilets. Everybody held the door open for one another or waited for someone to be on the way out to avoid paying.
DuckieMcduck there’s a similar thing where I live. Marks and Spencer’s cafe has a toilet with a combination lock, and you have to be a paying customer to use it (because you have to ask for the code from staff) and it really works. The toilets are always really tidy and clean and it doesn’t feel like you are being drowned in a stench of piss.
@@Joskapistanyaad lots of european train stations and parks require you to pay to use the restroom (even some fast food places) and in all my time there i always either jumped turnstyles or piggybacked on an open door because i refuse to pay to piss
My uncle once told me a poem about these: "Here i sit, broken hearted Paid my dime, and only farted next time i'll take the chance, save the dime, and shit in my pants!"
Saw a different variant on the wall at school. "Here I sit broken hearted Tried to shit, but only farted Went to class, took the chance Tried to fart, but shat my pants."
@@jsmith5443 Im glad I dont have a business where Im required to provide restrooms. People are disgusting and disrespectful. Every public restroom ive used in the last few years has had some losers "tag" scratched in the mirror and random other graffiti. After living in a city, I completely understand why people would want to charge to use a restroom.
I believe in gender equality but what does a urinal and male bathroom have to with it since woman are/were not supposed to go in male washrooms so that made very little sence
@@celestix_ toilets at train stations and highway stops usually cost 50ct to 1€ to use, at least in Germany. Although you usually get a coupon redeemable in a nearby store.
my grandma told me about these!! She said she used to carry around a little shim of metal kinda like a turning tool to get in without paying. She was a bit of a rebel
I remember getting trapped in a pay stall in a restaurant somewhere in the southeast US. I was about 5yo and I think I was playing with it since I hadn't seen one before (or since, until now) and locked myself in. I ended up screaming for my dad to come help. He had to pay to let me out. Ah, memories.
There's an old limerick that goes: Here I sit broken hearted I paid my dime but only farted Next time I'll take a chance Save my dime and s*** my pants
I had this idea of a dystopian future where the toilets cost threepence (three "New Old Pence", the pound having been redenominated) for "little business" or sixpence for "big business". (The law required charging different amounts for different functions, or else both be free.) The 3d. stalls had a metal mesh screen over the top of the bowl to prevent misuse, and would show the evidence of the lengths to which people would go to save 3d. There would be an attendant outside offering a sixpence and a threepenny bit for a shilling ("But you've only given me ninepence!" "Hey, lady, even change-givers have to make a profit, don't they?"), if you did not have the correct change.
@@jasonflay8818 that's true. Way too true. However, I'm pretty sure lawyering is one of the only professions where you stand a chance of paying back those loans quickly.
They had these types of washroom locks up till the 70's. I remember them in Canada and the U.S.A some countries in the EU had them up to about 15 years ago. Tyvm the videos are awesome
@@Rsharlan3 little more than minor - that sort of tidbit of history is pretty much where pop culture got the idea of lockpicking with Bobbypins or other Hair Clips of that sort.
@@princesstamika i think that was built in case something broke and the person in the stall got stuck inside, not as something to be used before going.
I was at a bar once, walked into the toilet cubicle and there was shit smeared all over the toilet, walls and roof, with clear handprints in it. The toilet was blocked and completely full of poo. To this day I wonder how it got on the roof…
Reminds me of the time, as a truck stop manager, I had to call my maintenance guy to tell him an elderly man had an accident in the gents. He said "I don't like the sound of that." And I replied "You're not gonna like the smell of it, either."
Clearly my avian friends, this was the storage center of some massive prison where they rotated the type and make of locks daily in an effort to deter escape! Humans sure were strange...
I saw the title for this video a few times before actually watching, and I was really confused and intrigued what it could mean, but it makes a lot more sense now.
I visited Switzerland and they had these everywhere. The difference is that they put the lock on the bathroom door not just the stall so both men and women have to pay.
i think they did it to discourage drug users from shooting up in the bathrooms. we had a big heroin problem and public bathrooms (often near or in public parks with playgrounds) were used for that. so they put them behind a paywall to discourage that. now they're building new ones which are weird looking and designed so you dont have space to place your stuff, a grid floor so if you drop something small you cant get it back, a designated hole for syringes and some more stuff. its a bit annoying to use but i guess better than having needles and whatnot shady stuff on the floor. also they're free to use
@@brokenkledonetrickchalleng735 I guess that makes sense but also one that I specifically remember was in a restaurant at the top of the Matterhorn. I can’t see that as being too common of a place to do heroin…
Very intestesting, I had no idea these sort of locks existed. Also never really thought about how we could glean historical insight through the technological progression of locks and their implementations throughout time.
Nice. Thanks for the history lesson. It's surprising that it cost them the equivalent of a cup of coffee back then. In today's time, if I had to pay $3.95 every time I wanted to take a piss, I'd just start squatting in the corner 😂
Cups of coffee were reasonably priced back then. Starbucks is a luxury for most people. That's why I'd preferred for him to have mentioned the inflation adjusted cost of entry.
@@robnunya572 I see it as predatory tactics. Its illegal to publicly urinate and such, so people are forced to use their restroom. But then they basically tell you to pay for being able to do something your body naturally needs.
@@alface935 It's not a joke. Many removed the locks in support of women's liberation, since it was not equal or fair that urinals could be used for free while women's toilets all had locked doors that required payment to open.
@@Competitive_Antagonist wth are you talking about? I hope this is some bad attempt at humour, because we don't love doing that. Urinals just happen to be convenient. There are however unspoken rules to never look at another guy when he's at a urinal, and never stand next to a guy using one unless absolutely necessary.
let's be fair. if this was a modern lock, it'd be a tubular lock on the change compartment and he'd need a special tool to do it quickly. the by-pass lock on this is literally just a button at the back of a keyway that defeats instantly.
@@FrancisR420 They would have two locks too. The first to get into the washroom which is a maze and another pay lock that goes directly to where you want to be so you can pay to "skip the grind".....which they added in.
Dude 1: *wobbling a metal stick down the lock's keyhole* Dude 2: "what are you doing, that's illegal" Dude 1: "I ain't gonna pay to take a shit in the land of freedom"
In Smokey and the Bandit (1977), Sally Fields asks for a dime to go 10-100 (use the bathroom in CB talk) when they stop for fuel & Bandit (Burt Reynolds) replies "crawl under".
![[1113] The Lock Defeated By Feminism Before I Was Born](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
