Your Business — A Family Trade

— Page 1 · The Workshop

A father's bench,
a son's ledger.

The trade is a family one. Our father, J. Halloran, opened a fixed-storefront locksmith shop in 1978 across from the courthouse, where he cut keys by hand for thirty-one years. When the storefront's lease ran out in 2009, his son took the bench, the brass-shaving bucket, and the pin-tumbler kit, and put it all on a Ford E-350. The truck made its first call on a Tuesday in November.

Seventeen years on, we run two trucks instead of one, but the workshop philosophy has not changed: the smith who answers the phone is the same smith who arrives at your door, cuts your key on the truck, and writes the price into the same hand-tallied ledger we've kept since the first call. We don't subcontract. We don't dispatch from a call-center. We don't quote one price and charge another.

— J. Halloran IIMaster Locksmith · Owner

— Two trucks · one workshop on wheels —

The mobile fleet.

Each truck carries a full pin-tumbler kit, eight hundred key blanks, a transponder programmer, a safe-cracking rig, and a hand-key-cutting machine. We could re-open the storefront from either tailgate.

Vintage red service truck on a quiet street

— Truck No. 1 · “Bess” · 2014 Ford E-350Logged 412,000 mi · still on the original engine block

— Inside the benchPin-tumbler kits · 800 blanks · key-cutter

— Truck No. 2 · “Atlas”2019 Mercedes Sprinter · added Q1 2020

— Posted on the wall · ledger-style —

Licensed & bonded.

Every credential we hold, every association we belong to, every audit we've sat for. Documentation is on the truck and on the workshop wall — ask to see any of it.

— The Credentials Ledger —

No. MMXXVI · Vol. IV · Page 7 of 7

State Locksmith Licenseannually renewed since 2009

State Bureau · Lic.#L-3091

Surety Bond$25,000 in service-call coverage

Western Surety$25k

iii

General Liability Insuranceper-occurrence · in good standing

The Hartford$1M

Auto + Mobile Workshop Policyboth trucks · tools-on-board rider

Progressive Comm.$500k

ALOA Trade MembershipAssociated Locksmiths of America

Member since '09M-19772

BBB AccreditationA+ rating · zero unresolved complaints

Better Business BureauA+

vii

Certified Master LocksmithCML · J. Halloran II · 2017 cohort

ALOA Cert.CML

viii

Drug-Free Workplace · Background-Checkedannual third-party audit

Sterling Talent2025

— The smiths on the trucks —

Four hands, two trucks.

The whole roster — every smith who might pull up to your driveway. We've kept the same four hands on the trucks for the last six straight years.

J. Halloran II

— Owner · Master Locksmith —

Apprenticed under his father from age fourteen. Took the bench in 2009. Specialty: high-security mortise locks and pre-1940 hardware.

— 24 yrs in trade —

M. Atherton

— Lead Smith · Truck No. 1 —

Came up through automotive locksmithing in the diesel-mechanic shops. Joined in 2014. Runs all transponder & ignition work.

— 17 yrs in trade —

E. Doyle

— Smith · Truck No. 2 —

Trained at the ALOA national training school in Dallas. Joined in 2018. Handles commercial master-key systems & safes.

— 9 yrs in trade —

R. Halloran

— Apprentice · Workshop —

Daughter of the owner, now an apprentice. Cuts keys at the bench, runs the dispatch line, tallies the ledger every Friday afternoon.

— 3 yrs in trade —

— A working chronology —

The timeline.

2009

The truck rolls out

J. Halloran II takes the workshop mobile after thirty-one years at his father's storefront. The first service call is logged on a Tuesday in November — a re-key on a brick rowhouse, billed at $52 cash.

2011

First commercial contract

Foxhollow Property Group hires the trade to re-key sixteen hundred apartment doors across nine buildings. The contract runs eleven weeks; we still maintain the master-key system today.

2014

Bess joins the fleet

The 2014 Ford E-350 — “Bess” — replaces the original cargo van. M. Atherton joins as the second smith. The flat-rate ledger is formalized and posted on the workshop wall.

2017

Master Locksmith certification

J. Halloran II earns his Certified Master Locksmith credential through ALOA's national exam. The trade adds high-security and electronic transponder service to the line card.

2020

Atlas joins the fleet

A 2019 Mercedes Sprinter — “Atlas” — is added to the fleet to keep up with growing automotive volume. E. Doyle joins as the third smith. We never close, not even for the pandemic.

2023

The 25,000th service call

A residential lockout on a Saturday afternoon, logged as call number 25,000 in the ledger. The customer is given a brass key blank engraved with the number, on the house.

2025

The apprentice arrives

R. Halloran — the owner's daughter — begins a formal apprenticeship at the bench. The workshop becomes a third-generation trade, on a Tuesday in October.

2026

Seventeen years of the ledger

The ledger turns its 7,000th page. We've answered the phone for 31,400 service calls and have not subcontracted a single one. We expect to keep at it for another seventeen years, easy.

— What we stand on —

Three workshop rules.

The three lines hand-painted on the workshop's east wall in 2009. They've never come down.

The price posted is the price paid.

Every service is on the ledger. No trip charges, no diagnostic fees, no surprise add-ons. The number we tell you on the phone is the number on the paper invoice.

The phone gets answered.

One of us picks up — not a call-center, not a robot. Twenty-four hours a day, every day of the year, including the holidays. The truck rolls inside thirty-one minutes on average.

The smith is always the smith.

The hand that picks up the phone is the hand that turns up at your door. We do not subcontract, we do not white-label, we do not dispatch a stranger to your driveway.

A trade,
a family,
a ledger.

A father's bench,
a son's ledger.

The mobile fleet.