Recently in a Barry “The Key” Wel’s blog entry, he describes a German Discovery channel show featuring FBI agent Ed Tickel. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Mr. Tickel was the ‘go-to’ guy anytime the FBI needed entry into a locked area. In the video (an excerpt is available on Barry’s blog) Mr. Tickel not only talks about his adventures fighting crime but also demonstrates his favorite lock opening method “impressioning”. Using skills like these he legally broke into various Mafia strongholds allowing agents to gather information and plant bugs without anyone knowing.

Unfortunately it appears that Mr. Tickel didn’t limit his activities to using his impressioning skills to helping bring the Mafia down. Instead suspicion over a possible attempted FBI credit union break-in and a luxurious lifestyle featuring a $10,000 boat and multiple sports cars caused Mr. Tickel to become a suspect of the FBI himself. Eventually he was convicted of transporting stolen diamonds across state lines. Mr Tickel himself denied any wrongdoing during his trial and suggested that it was a vendetta against him to cover up illegal surveillance he had conducted for the FBI. To find out more about the adventures of Mr. Tickel and his eventual downfall, check out the following book references/news articles:

Here is a link to a summary of the Washing Post story:
Former FBI Agent Gets 8 Year Term

An excerpt from “The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI” that has a little more detail than the Post story:
The Bureau: Secret History of the FBI excerpt

And finally, after being convicted he claimed that the FBI used his talents illegally in several cases and this was used by a couple of Mafia members to file appeals:
Time Magazine Article

On October 13, 2007 lockpicking101.com reached it’s 50,000 member. Below is a graph showing the growth of LP101 since it’s inception (click to enlarge):

As you can see, since about July of 2006 LP101 has been growing at about 1,000 new members every 12-18 days.