Locked out of room with old key still in lock inside

ThisIsWeird

D'oh! How on earth did the door actually 'lock' from the inside, if there's noone in there?!
Did the lock bolt just slip out a tiny bit with the bang of the door being closed? If so, then there's every chance it'll only have been by a few mm, so it can persuaded back inwards by inserting a knife blade into the door gap, sliding the knife edge upwards against the door jamb until it contacts the lock bolt, and then pressing it firmly into the side of the bolt so it 'bites', and then twisting the knife clockwise in order to ease the bolt back in to the lock. You'll only have a few mm of space to work in, but repeat that process and see if the bolt moves.
Are you 100% certain that the door latch works - Ie the part controlled by the handle? You can seemingly see into that gap, so there's no door 'stop' present, which is likely a good thing in this case! So turn the handle and check the latch does fully retract. It is doesn't - if this is the actual issue - then a credit card should sort it!

ss2020jd

IT WORKED! 

Thanks so much @ThisIsWeird and all the helpful people on here. The knife jiggling (well, several different knives) finally did it! 

How it happened I’ll never know but I won’t be leaving the key in the lock ever again. 

Thanks to everyone else for all the replies, much appreciated.

theoretica

If it was just the bolt jiggling the key won't have had much to do with it - if you don't use the lock, I would suggest filling the hole in the door frame with something so the latch can't slip in there and/or a wedge pushed in beside the bolt to stop it moving.  If you do use the lock, perhaps investigate what is up a bit more and think about changing it?

TELLIT01

Now it's open, remove the lock completely and replace with a latch.  If you want/need to be able to lock the door from inside use a bolt.

ThisIsWeird

ss2020jd said:

IT WORKED! 

Thanks so much @ThisIsWeird and all the helpful people on here. The knife jiggling (well, several different knives) finally did it! 

How it happened I’ll never know but I won’t be leaving the key in the lock ever again. 

Thanks to everyone else for all the replies, much appreciated.

Lol!

Good feeling?! :-)

ss2020jd

ThisIsWeird said:

ss2020jd said:

IT WORKED! 

Thanks so much @ThisIsWeird and all the helpful people on here. The knife jiggling (well, several different knives) finally did it! 

How it happened I’ll never know but I won’t be leaving the key in the lock ever again. 

Thanks to everyone else for all the replies, much appreciated.

Lol!

Good feeling?! :-)

Fantastic! I am amazed and relieved. I won’t be sleeping on the sofa tonight! 
Thank you again. 

ss2020jd

theoretica said:

If it was just the bolt jiggling the key won't have had much to do with it - if you don't use the lock, I would suggest filling the hole in the door frame with something so the latch can't slip in there and/or a wedge pushed in beside the bolt to stop it moving.  If you do use the lock, perhaps investigate what is up a bit more and think about changing it?

Thanks, that sounds like a good idea. Prevention is better than cure! 

grumbler

https://hd-rezka.biz/40737-kak-ukrast-million.html  01:23 (was able to find only in Russian, but it doesn't matter).

Am I the only one who remembered this? That job was easier.

ss2020jd

grumbler said:

https://hd-rezka.biz/40737-kak-ukrast-million.html  01:23 (was able to find only in Russian, but it doesn't matter).

Am I the only one who remembered this? That job was easier.

Hahaha, brilliant! I watched from 01:21. Much quicker than me. I couldn’t find my mini pliers earlier! I forgot about that film. Found it on Dailymotion as couldn’t get the other link to load. Will have to watch the whole thing now. 

twopenny

Just in case I got a pair of long thin tweezers from my local diy cheapie store. About £1,50
Something like this
https://toolboom.com/en/long-nose-tweezers-pro-skit-1pk-115t/
Useful in the tool box for when a bit falls into a deep hole where it shouldn't be