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Comment by wood_spirit | Hacker News Reader

I live in one of the very high response rate countries and would imagine that the unreturned wallets were just binned, and that those containing money are more likely to be returned simply because there is obvious benefit to recipient to have it returned. When you lose a wallet you cancel your cards etc, even change the locks if you loose your keys, so people will reason that there is no big point to returning it anyway?

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>> even change the locks if you loose your keys

That phrase has always struck me as particularly American, and western American. In many places people talk of "getting the locks changed" rather than "changing the locks". It's the difference between doing something to the locks rather than swapping them out for new ones. I guess that is a reflection of the general poor quality of locks used in the US: Buying a new lock is cheaper than getting a locksmith to rekey an existing lock. And when I was on the east coast I do remember seeing more locksmiths (at least their storefronts/trucks) than on the on the west.

I don't think that's true at all - replacing even cheap locks would be much more expensive than having them re-keyed. I'm sure replacement happens, say if someone wants to upgrade to better locks at the same time or is unaware that locks can be re-keyed, but I doubt it's the norm.

I think 'changing the locks' is just the American way of saying 'getting the locks re-keyed'. If that phrasing is even uniquely American, which I'm not sure of either.

> replacing even cheap locks would be much more expensive than having them re-keyed.

Replacing a cheap (or even average household) lock is cheaper than the minimum labor charge a locksmith will charge to show up, but you still need someone to do the labor of replacing it.

Also, if you use certain brands of lock, if you buy one new lock of the same brand it comes with a special rekeying tool that will allow you to rekey all your matching-brand locks to the key that comes with the new lock.

Replacing Home Depot-style locks in Home Depot-style doors is extremely easy, it’s only a couple of minutes of work using only basic tools. Maybe up to 30 minutes if you’re doing it for the first time, and forgot where you put your screwdriver.

>> replacing even cheap locks would be much more expensive than having them re-keyed.

Getting a skilled tradesperson to your house is going to cost $100 at an absolute minimum. Then parts and such. New home depo locks will be cheaper.

It really isn't. I replaced my front door lock last year and I think the replacement cost me about $30. I hadn't done it before but it was easy to figure out, took about 15 minutes.

I live on the west coast of the US. When we say 'change the locks' we don't really mean changing out the physical locks for new ones. We mean having them re-keyed. It's not very expensive, and contrary to your anecdote, there are locksmiths everywhere here. A lot of them have no storefront, they are entirely mobile (and a fair bit of the time, unmarked vans). Storefronts still exist, but much of the regular interaction consumers have with keys these days is easily handled at the local home improvement stores.

Here in Sweden everyone uses Yale style locks and it’s super trivial and cheap to change just the barrel bit inside the lock. Everyone can do it themselves in a few minutes and there are no locksmiths about.

Not entirely according to my experience, the simple Assa Abloys are indeed rather cheap and easy to change. But the more secure, thus approved by insurance, can be tricky since they contain traps.

There are instruction available on how to change them, but even me, and I am not afraid of DIY, called one of the many locksmiths around here in Stockholm.

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