Escapology: How to Shim your way out of Handcuffs

Tools of the trade: Bobby pins, Key Style Shim, and Straight Shim

Today we will be discussing Handcuff Shimming. This technique works with most handcuffs on the market when they are single-locked. Since handcuffs can be purchased by anyone for usually less than $30, it poses the risk of them getting into the wrong hands. With the possibility of handcuffs being used in a home invasion or other violent crime we thought this would be beneficial to know. I do warn not to use this if placed in the custody of Law Enforcement. They won't be too happy and could lead to further charges.

Shimming requires thin pieces of metal known as "shims". As seen above, you can use commercially available shims (straight and key style shim found in our store) or even a simple Bobby Pin (after modification).

For this demonstration we are using the Shomer-Tec Clear Cuff Handcuff Cut-away. It's basically a Handcuff with a clear front allowing one to see the internal mechanism inside the cuff. It's an excellent training tool for picking cuffs and we will go into that in the future.



We will try to illustrate this as best we can with the photo's below.

In the above tutorial we are using the key style shim, but the same technique can be applied with a Bobby Pin.

The bobby pin will need to be stripped of the plastic bulb as seen on the top Bobby Pin in the photo above.

Using a Bobby Pin to disengage the locking mechanism.

We will release a video detailing this in the coming weeks. Use this information responsibly.