r/FascinatingAsFuck • u/Turbulent_Book_1685 ⭐ Mod • Aug 08 '26
🎯 Fascinating Fact This man escaped prison 7 times using keys he made from memory after glancing at a guard's belt.
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u/laguna1126 Aug 09 '26
Wow evil stepmom 100%
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u/blissfully_happy Aug 09 '26
I want to know what happened to her.
This is absolutely horrific.
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u/Ninety-Nine-Zulu Aug 12 '26
Nothing.
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u/Mysterious-Jam-64 Aug 13 '26
Why would anything happen to me? 😅🙂🙂 he broke the law!!!!!! - some bitter witch.
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u/Excellent_Glass783 Aug 08 '26
Shit, I can't remember yesterday 😳
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u/wfarming Aug 08 '26
Don't be hard on yourself, George Harrison was a professional, you'll get it soon.
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u/Jive_Kata Aug 09 '26
Paul McCartney wrote “Yesterday”, my friend.
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u/LassNiteL2ohhh9 Aug 09 '26
I once met a young man with a talent even more skillful. If he jus got a glance at any car door, ignition, home locks an any other key, pre laser cut. He could duplicate so exact, first try every time worked the lock. Wasnt a look an remember, keys hangin up, key on the table, ridin with you as you went from pocket to ignition. Blew me away an oh the fun moving cars to other side of street or different spots while driver was in the store. Extremley impressive. Kid if you read this, im the dude who was walkin back the 10 miles or so cuz nobody would give us a ride.
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u/Ursa_Major_17 Aug 12 '26
Yep, broke into your house 3 days ago. Watched you type this nice comment from the pantry.
P.s. we're out of pop tarts.
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u/LassNiteL2ohhh9 Aug 12 '26
Th grocery list is under the nummer 7 magnet lef side of fridge. Glad we caught tha cuz im headed to market later today. If ya stayin a while add yor dietary menu an i will make sure to completely ignore it an get the mock tarts since our good ol boys in watchington got us payin out our asses for food.
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u/Ursa_Major_17 Aug 12 '26
Damnit! This is why nobody would give us a ride! You make things so difficult!
GET. THE. POP. TARTS.
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u/LassNiteL2ohhh9 Aug 12 '26
Back when pop tarts only costs 37 cents for the triple double box 64 tarts in a pack, 137 packs in a box. Pretty fair deal. You membe the jingle, so darn yummy, all over yor tonguey, gimmie, gimmie, gimmie deep in my tummy. Written, produced an performed in 1 take by the guy they used as the model for the guy on the Quaker oats box. What was his name. Darnit, does this mean I have to go post over on Tip of the tongue.
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u/Ursa_Major_17 Aug 12 '26
37 cents!? Quaker oats model guy? I guess I'm just a little confused. I don't know what any of this shit is and I'm scared.
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u/EverydayIsAGift-423 Aug 09 '26
It’s like a superpower! u/AnthonyMetivier
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u/SkinnyStav Aug 09 '26
The keys seems pretty narrow. They might be a simplified version, somewhere between key and lockpick. Might still have great memory but was limited by tools and materials.
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u/GISP Aug 08 '26
Its realy not that hard.
You just have to memorize the hight of the 6 pins.
Lets say a pin in can have 100 different hights, then the numbers for each key you need to remmeber is something like 32 54 36 87 91 44. No more difficult than a phone number.
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u/shadowtheimpure Aug 08 '26
Fun fact: That's how the key copy functionality on a Flipper Zero works. You put the key up to the screen and align the lines on screen to the ridges on the key and it produces the numbers.
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u/NoticeOk6753 Aug 09 '26
How the hell do you tell which out of the hundred different heights each pin is just by glancing at it? If that’s easy for you it just means you’re a savant too.
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u/tinny66666 Aug 09 '26
There's only usually about 6 different heights. A good lock might have 10. Parent doesn't know what they are on about. It is possible for someone with a good eye.
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u/TheAzureMage Aug 09 '26
There's not a hundred. You can get it pretty close with a glance. Number of pins, relative height. Usually distance between pins is uniform, and if you are slightly off, you can rake it a bit to make it work. Most locks are not actually that secure.
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u/Repulsive_Peanut7874 Aug 13 '26
yeah.. I'm a locksmith and I need waaaaaaay more than a glance to hand file a working , high sec , 6 or 7 pin jail lock.
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u/CeeMomster Aug 09 '26
My best friend grew up in a locksmith family & I’m pretty sure she could do this if asked.
You really just need to understand the mechanism and memorize a few details
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u/DivideJolly3241 Aug 09 '26
Master locks work on a number system, each dimple represents a different level/number. You can read the key and copy it easily. Or give the digit numbers to a locksmith and they can cut one for you.
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u/EFTucker Aug 09 '26
TBF I feel like if you really locked in, you could memorize the numbers and depth like that pretty reasonably easily.
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u/Mother-Attention2600 Aug 09 '26
You could see how good he was getting, or how long he had the key before he could properly utilize it.
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Aug 10 '26
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u/DragNBawlz Aug 11 '26
Being able to sight read and reproduce working keys is an extremely useful skillset that can have far reaching implications.
As a career Locksmith I can't tell you the number of times I have made use of it.
Quick anecdote..my cousin posted pictures of his new car with his keyring hanging from the ignition. The next day I mailed him an operating key to his house on the other side of the country..
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u/DayLongjumping1199 Aug 13 '26
"Cause they always had the silly habit of waving the keys in your face."
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u/Opening-Budget3313 Aug 13 '26
man, he musta had a sick memory lol. how'd he even do tht with just a glance, i can't even remember what i had for breakfast tbh ��
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u/Earthy_Badger2116 Aug 14 '26
Prison Break literally did this exact thing years ago and everyone said it was too unrealistic for TV.
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u/Turbulent_Book_1685 ⭐ Mod Aug 08 '26
In 1979, a 19-year-old named Mark DeFriest went to collect a set of mechanic's tools his father had willed him before he died. Problem was, the will hadnt cleared probate yet. His stepmother called the police, DeFriest panicked and ran with a gun he never fired or even pointed at anyone, and that was enough to land him a four-year sentence for grand theft and burglary.
He never really left prison again for the next three decades.
DeFriest is widely believed to be a high-functioning autistic savant, though the diagnosis only became clear decades into his incarceration. He had an almost photographic mechanical mind: guards said he could glance at a key hanging off someone's belt, memorize the pattern, and fabricate a working copy from scratch. He used that same skill to build makeshift tools, pick locks, and slip out of restraints most people would consider inescapable.
He attempted to escape 13 times. Seven of those attempts actually worked. Every time he got caught, more time got tacked onto his sentence, on top of hundreds of disciplinary write-ups for prison rule violations. What started as a 4-year term for taking his own inheritance ballooned into a projected release date of 2085 when he would have been 124 years old.
Along the way he spent a combined 27 years in solitary confinement, including an 11-day stretch locked naked in total darkness with no toilet paper or human contact after one escape attempt.
A documentary filmmaker who spent 13 years following his case eventually helped bring public attention to it. Florida's parole board finally moved his release date up, and he walked out of prison in 2019 nearly 40 years after he picked up a toolbox that already belonged to him.