How to Open a Locked Suitcase Without a Key

Hacks World demonstrates how to easily open a locked suitcase without a key by using a ballpoint pen.

Whether you’ve lost the key to your own suitcase and need to get it open in a hurry or you’re trying to plant some contraband in your dodgy roommate’s bag, in this video you will see have to easy open a locked suitcase.

A pen can be turned into a suitcase cracking tool. Use a ballpoint pen to exert pressure on the zipper of a suitcase. The pressure causes the teeth to separate, effectively opening the suitcase.

The secret sauce in this hack of dubious ethics, however, isn’t the pen (you could always slice a suitcase open with a knife if you wanted in that badly after all) but in the zipper mechanism itself. Zippers are self healing and if you run the zipper pull (still securely locked to the other pull, we might add) along the zipper track you’ll reseal the suitcase as though you were never there.

Scott Beale
Scott Beale

Scott Beale founded Laughing Squid in 1995 in San Francisco and is currently based in New York City. When not running the blog, Scott can be found posting on Bluesky and sharing photos on Instagram.