Locked Out With Keys

We were locked out of our apartment the other day. We had our keys, but they were useless. It's the worst-case scenario if you have a kid or a dog. For us is was just a strange inconvenience; we wondered for a while if we'd neglected to pay rent. The apartment people sent over an emergency tech. I speculated that he'd have to drill out the doorknob and rip the door down. Instead he took a small hammer and pounded the lock once, then it worked fine. They could have told me that when I called and saved themselves the trip. Then the tech asked if we open our deadbolt when we take our trash out so that the door won't automatically locks behind us. "Yeah." That's what's wrong, he told us, it messes up the alignment. "Well, we only do it sometimes." A bald-faced lie. Well, we won't do it anymore.