By Clyde Noel

Although most people use lock devices without ever encountering problems, there sometimes comes a day when they need help.

“With the power outages the last few days, we fielded over 50 calls from people who couldn’t get their car out of the garage,” said Kurt Jehning, co-owner, with his brother Neil, of Mountain View Door Closer Key & Lock Service Inc.

“We asked the make of their garage door, then told them how to get the door open without the opener,” Kurt said. “We try to save people money because we don’t believe in charging them for something they can do themselves. I know we shoot ourselves in the foot by not going out to help them, but maybe people will remember our assistance. There were only nine that really needed help,” he added.

The key and lock business has been in the same Mountain View building since 1950. Kurt and Neil’s father, Albert, purchased the business from a neighbor in 1962 so the family had a means of support. The family ran the business, and when Albert retired in 2000, Kurt and Neil purchased it.

“I literally grew up with this business. I was 2 years old when my father bought it, and I played in my toy box,” Neil said. “Fortunately, the business has grown with us. There aren’t any schools to go for information. It’s stuff you have to learn on your own through experience.”

The business is divided into commercial, industrial, residential and institutional. That includes garage doors, safes and vaults and locksmithing services. Kurt is responsible for the garage door business and is out in the field most of the time. An employee, Don Andrews, works with different scenarios.

In a perfect world, no one would ever have to worry about his or her hardware lock device causing problems, but as a few stories show, it can happen.

“We do a lot of work for the government at Moffett Field and the Air Force. The safes are still all right, but with personnel turnover the combinations are lost, so we go and open them,” Neil said. “We also work with the Mountain View Police Department. Another part of the business is working with banks and safety deposit boxes when depositors lose their keys.”

“People come to us for help all the time,” said Kym Jehning, office manager. “A lady brought in her Army footlocker looking for her uniform, but it was empty when we opened it. Another customer brought in a small fire safe because he’d lost the combination. He said it was empty, but when we opened it, inside was $5,000 in bills.”

Neil said that every house should have a small safe. There is always the risk of a fire, and burglaries are increasing, but a safe in the home offers the convenience of not having to run to the safety deposit box for everything.

“We do a lot of work for Stanford, and one time we had to go and open a safe because someone left his lunch in it,” Neil said. “When we opened the safe his lunch was smelly.”

Kym said they do a lot of key service for customers. “We make good keys that are hard to find, and we do a lot of antique lock repair.”

Mountain View Door Closer Key & Lock Service is located at 171 Castro St., Mountain View. For more information, call 968-3323.