Someone broke in and took your keys
The break-in is over. The part that keeps people awake is what they walked out with — the keys off the hook, and the address on the envelope beside them. That is the problem we are here to close, usually in one visit.
If this happened tonight, call rather than book online. The booking form is built for planned work. A house that somebody has the keys to is not planned work, and a person on the phone can tell you in ninety seconds whether this needs a locksmith at ten at night or whether it can safely wait for the morning — which is often the honest answer, and the cheaper one.
Why this is different from a normal rekey
A rekey after a lost key is housekeeping. A rekey after a break-in is not, and the difference is not sentiment — it is that a burglary hands somebody three things at once, and most people only think about the first.
They have a key. They have your address. And they have already been inside, so they know what is in there and where it is. That is what the fear is actually made of, and it is a completely rational fear. It is also the thing that a single afternoon closes almost entirely.
So we treat it as three questions, in this order: what opens with a key, what starts a car, and what would make them pick a different house next time.
1 · The locks — every key they took stops working
Rekeying changes the pins inside the cylinder that is already on your door. The lock stays, the hardware stays, and every key ever handed out for that lock — the one in their pocket, the one the last owner never returned, the one a contractor kept — stops turning it. You drive nothing to a shop and we replace nothing that does not need replacing.
| After a break-in | Price |
|---|---|
| Mobile service charge daytime, once per visit, however many doors | $250 |
| Each cylinder, with a working key a cylinder is one keyhole — most exterior doors have two, a knob and a deadbolt, so a three-door house is usually six | +$55 |
| Each cylinder with no working key where every copy went with them — we make a key to the existing lock first | +$100 |
| A lock damaged forcing entry, replaced keyed to match everything else the same day | $150 |
| Typical three-door house $250 + 6 × $55, keyed alike, five keys cut and tested before we leave | $580 |
| Whole-house package up to six cylinders, no working key needed — the better buy when keys are missing outright | $695 |
Every figure there already includes coming to you. After 5 PM the mobile service charge is $350, collected before a locksmith is dispatched. Prices effective August 2026. Full detail on the rekeying page.
Count the ones nobody thinks of. The side door into the garage. The basement bulkhead. The shed with the ladder in it. A burglar who took a ring of keys took all of them, and the door you never use is the one they will try when the front of the house is lit and the street is awake.
2 · The car — if the keys were on the same ring
This is the one people do not connect, and it is the more serious half. Rekeying the house fixes the house. It does nothing to a car key, and a stolen car key still starts the car sitting in your driveway.
What fixes it is an immobiliser reset. In Timmy’s words:
“An immobiliser reset erases all the keys in the system and only adds in the new keys that are present. The stolen key will no longer be programmed to the car — it cannot start the car anymore. If it had a mechanical door key they could still open the door, but they’ll never drive it away. And once the key doesn’t start the car, they’ll probably just leave.”
We are NASTF-registered, which is what makes this legal to do and traceable afterwards. It is also why we can do it on the same visit as the locks rather than sending you to a dealer and a tow truck on a day you have had enough of both.
We have not put a price on this line, on purpose. What an immobiliser reset costs genuinely depends on the year, the make, the model and the key technology — two cars in the same driveway can be hundreds apart, and any number published here would be wrong for half the people reading it. Tell us the vehicle when you call about the locks and you get a firm figure before anyone drives out. The honest ranges are on the car keys page.
One thing worth saying plainly: if the car keys are gone, say so when you call about the house. It is the difference between one visit and two, and between a van that arrives with the right equipment on board and one that has to come back.
3 · The walk-round — making yours the harder house
The locks are the part we get paid for. This part is the part that actually stops it happening again, and most of it is not locksmithing at all.
Somebody choosing which house to try is making a quick, lazy decision from the sidewalk. Almost everything that changes their mind is cheap, and none of it involves buying anything from us. Timmy’s summary of the whole approach: “let’s get a nice balance of deterrence on the property.”
- Motion-sensing lights. The best value item on this page and it is not close. “People don’t like doing evil in the light — they like doing evil in the dark, they don’t want to be seen.”
- A camera or a video doorbell. Being recorded is a reason to walk on to the next house. A visible sign saying you record does a surprising amount of the work by itself.
- A lock that watches the door. The MK-3 Lockbell records when it detects motion, and a smart garage keypad does the same down the side of the house — which is where people actually try, not the front.
- A dog bowl. We are serious. Put one by the back door with a name on it even if you do not own a dog. Criminals do not like dogs — dogs are alert, dogs make noise, and nobody wants to find out which kind you have.
- A code instead of a hidden key. If there was a spare under something, they have it now. A keypad means nothing to find, nothing to steal, and a code you can change in thirty seconds the next time you are uneasy.
We make money on almost none of that, and we tell people about it anyway. It works because it changes the answer to “is this house worth the trouble?” before anybody touches a door.
If you want it done properly rather than off a list, the home security assessment is $250 and it is one of us walking every entry point on the property with you — doors, windows, the garage, the sightlines from the street — and rating what is actually weak. It is the right visit when the locks were never the way in, and it is what we would book first for anybody still uneasy a week later.
What people say after we have been out
We had excellent service. Timothy, the Locksmith arrived within a half hour of phone call. He repaired two locks for us and new keys for our front door. I would definitely recommend his service and I would definitely call him again if I needed him
Geraldine M.Google review
Timothy from Major Key Locksmith was such a nice and honest guy. He did a great job rekeying the locks at my house in Hasbouck Heights. He explained how the keypad works and was so patient with me. He is a very polite and cleaned up after the job was done. Would definitely recommend him to my friends and family.
Ann M.Google review
Called Tim this morning problem with two anderson French doors locks one not locking one loose handle keeps falling off. Tim was great fast efficient and resolved both issues quickly. We are in north caldwell private home in essex county. Highly recommend Tim he comes out and does the work himself.
Rima N.Google review
Excellent service and attention to detail. Tim was able to troubleshoot a number of mechanical issues with competence and creativity. Got everything working smoothly and efficiently. Tech options explained clearly. Highly recommended!
Julie G.Google review
Those are real, and they are quoted exactly as written — but they are still five we chose. Read them where they live — unedited, in whatever order Google puts them, including any we would rather you skipped.
400+ reviews is not a handful of friends. It is nine years of doors.
Opens Google · nothing to sign up for
What one visit usually looks like
On the phone
How many doors, how many keyholes, whether every key is accounted for, and what vehicle the car key belongs to. Four questions and you have a real number before anybody drives anywhere.
At the house
Every cylinder rekeyed to one new key, five keys cut and tested in their own locks, the vehicle sorted if it needs it, and a walk round the outside telling you what we would change and what we would leave alone.
The Major Key guarantee
- 90 days on our labour, on every job. Rekeys, lockouts, door adjustments, installations — residential or commercial, the same number either way. If something we did comes loose, sticks, or stops working the way we left it, we come back and put it right at no charge.
- MK-line smart locks — 2 years on the lock itself. If an MK-1, MK-2 or MK-3 we supplied gives you trouble inside two years, we come out, replace the unit and fit the new one free — the visit and the fitting included. Not a manufacturer's call centre, not a returns form. Us. This is the one place we guarantee the hardware, because it is the one lock we chose.
- Other locks we supply — Mul-T-Lock, Kwikset, Schlage, Master Lock — carry their manufacturer's warranty on the hardware, and we file that claim for you rather than handing you a phone number. Our labour on them is the 90-day baseline above.
- What none of it covers: damage, forced entry, or a lock that was sound when we left and has been attacked since.
Questions people ask after a break-in
Someone stole my keys. Do I need to rekey, or replace the locks?
Rekey, almost always. The moment the cylinder is rekeyed, every key that existed before stops working — including the one in their pocket. It is faster than replacing the hardware, it costs less, and a good heavy lock already on your door is usually better than what would replace it. We only replace where a lock is worn out, damaged in the break-in, or physically cannot be matched to the rest of the house.
They took my house keys and my car key was on the same ring. Is my car safe?
Not yet, and this is the part people miss. A stolen house key gets rekeyed away in an afternoon; a stolen car key still starts the car. What fixes it is an immobiliser reset — the vehicle's system is wiped of every key it knows and re-taught only the keys physically present. After that the stolen key will not start the car. If it has a mechanical blade they could still unlock a door, but they will never drive it away. Tell us the year, make and model when you book the rekey and we bring what the vehicle needs to the same visit.
Can you come tonight?
Call rather than book online if it is tonight — the booking form is built for planned work and this is not that. After 5 PM the mobile service charge is $350, collected before a locksmith is dispatched. If it can safely wait for the morning it is the daytime rate, and we will tell you honestly which one you are in rather than talking you into the expensive one.
The police told me not to touch anything. Does that stop you working?
Ask the responding officer before we start, and follow what they say — it is their scene, not ours. In practice a lock or a door that was forced is often part of what they want photographed, and rekeying an undamaged lock elsewhere in the house rarely affects that. If they want the point of entry left alone we work around it and come back for that door. We are not going to put you in a position of having disturbed something.
How much does it cost to rekey a whole house after a break-in?
A typical three-door house is $580 — $250 for the mobile service charge, then $55 for each of the six cylinders, keyed alike with five keys cut and tested before we leave. If keys are missing entirely, or the house is bigger than about five cylinders, the whole-house package at $695 is the better buy and covers up to six cylinders with no working key needed.
What if they got in through a window and the locks were never touched?
Then the locks are not the problem and we will say so. If nothing that opens with a key left the building, rekeying changes nothing about how they got in — the useful visit is the security walk-round instead, at $250. We would rather tell you that on the phone than sell you six cylinders you did not need.
Will insurance pay for it?
Often, on the contents or the emergency-repair side of a homeowner's policy, but it depends entirely on your policy and we are not the ones to read it for you. What we can do is give you an itemised invoice with the date, the address, every cylinder and every part on it, which is what an adjuster asks for. Ask for it at the door and it goes out that way.
Is there anything I should do before you arrive?
Three things, and none of them cost money. Get the police report number if officers have attended — every insurer asks for it. Check whether any spare key is missing from where it normally lives, including the one at a neighbour's, because that decides how many cylinders we do. And if a garage remote or a keypad code was in the house or the car, tell us — those are the two entry points people forget, and both are quick to change while we are already there.
Call, and we will tell you what you actually need
Sometimes that is six cylinders and a car. Sometimes it is two doors and a light on the side of the garage. You will get the same answer either way, because the second one is how we end up doing the first one for the next person on your street.