Locked out? Know who you are calling.
Danny and Marisol handle locks and keys in Southwest Detroit. Check our business details, see how a call works, or speak to us directly.
(313) 555-0164 Danny or Marisol answers. Not a call center.
What you can verify
- Owner
- Danny Ruiz
- Shop
- 4218 W Vernor Hwy
- Since
- 1996 — second generation
- ALOA
- CRL #4471-M
- MI LLC
- #8016-44201
The thing nobody in this trade advertises
Michigan has no locksmith license.
Not a hard one to get. None at all.
Thirty-odd states license this trade. Michigan is not one of them. A business registration and a phone number is the entire legal barrier to standing in your driveway at 2am with a drill, and that is exactly why this category is full of people who are not locksmiths.
So stop asking whether someone is licensed — in this state the answer means nothing. Ask the four questions further down instead. Ask them of us, and ask them of whoever else you are considering. We would genuinely rather you called a different real locksmith than a fake one.
Four questions, and our answers
Everything here is checkable without taking our word for it.
My father opened the shop on Vernor in 1996 and I took it over in 2014. My sister Marisol runs the overnight rotation. Two people, one van each — when you call, one of us picks up, and one of us shows up. A company that will not give you a person's name is telling you something.
A real storefront you can drive past today, with our name on the glass. Look it up on any map with street view before you call. A map pin over a parking lot or a residential block is the most reliable scam signal there is.
Certified Registered Locksmith #4471-M. Michigan does not certify us, so the trade body does. Their directory is public and searchable — check the number, not the logo.
Every price is published below and quoted on the phone. When we arrive you get the total in writing before any work starts, and it is the number you were quoted. If a locksmith quotes you a price on the phone and a different one at the door, that is the scam — it is not a surprise, it is the business model.
Green lettering, our name and the shop number on both sides. If an unmarked car turns up, do not open the door — that is not us, and we will not be offended.
Photo ID and a business card before we ask anything of you. And we will ask you to prove the property is yours — a deed, a lease, a registration, a piece of mail. Any locksmith who does not ask is one you should not have called.
What it costs
Every price we charge, in public.
These are the real numbers, not a starting-from figure. The only line that ever moves is a safe, and that is because we cannot quote one honestly without seeing it.
No call-out fee on top. No "service charge" separate from the price. No card surcharge. If we quote you $85 and the job turns out to be harder than we thought, it is still $85 — that risk is ours, not yours.
How the scam works
It starts with an ad that has no name on it.
- ✕No name of a person or a business
- ✕No address, and no way to find one
- ✕No price, and no way to get one before the work
- ✕A number that reaches a dispatcher in another state, who sells your job to whoever is nearest
What actually happens next
You are quoted $19, or $29 — a figure low enough that you stop calling around. What arrives is a subcontractor with no relationship to the number you rang, who says the lock is "high security", drills it out in ninety seconds, and hands you a bill for three or four hundred dollars plus hardware.
By then your door is open and your lock is destroyed, which is precisely the moment they have chosen to tell you the price. People pay because it is 2am and arguing with a stranger holding a drill is not a thing most of us will do.
Four things to demand — of us too
- 01The legal business name and the address, on the phone, before you agree to anything. Then look it up while they are on the line.
- 02A total price, not a starting price. If they will not commit on the phone, hang up.
- 03"Will you drill it?" Most residential lockouts do not need drilling. An immediate yes means they cannot pick.
- 04ID at the door, and a marked vehicle. If either is missing, do not let them start.
Where we go, and how long we take
Two vans, one neighborhood, no franchise map.
Southwest, Delray, River Rouge Dearborn, Melvindale, Lincoln Park, Downtown
The emergency line is open — it always is
Someone is on call right now
25–40 min
Typical time from your call to a van in front of you, anywhere in the inner ring. We will give you a real number on the phone, and we will call you if it slips.
The shop on Vernor is open Mon–Fri 8–6 and Sat 9–2 for rekeying, keys and hardware. The emergency line runs every hour of every day — that is the whole point of it.