est. 2012 · Broad Street, Durham
A shop you can walk into, run by people you can look up
Cardinal exists because the fastest-growing business model in this trade is pretending to be local, quoting $19, and billing $600. Our answer is boring on purpose: a storefront, marked vans, a public licence, and a price book anyone can read.
Fourteen years, one rule
Marcus opened the Broad Street shop in 2012 with the rule that still runs it: the price comes before the work. Everything else — the published book, the flat after-hours adders, the ID checks, the itemized invoices — is just that rule wearing different clothes.
Four of us work here. We cut keys at the counter, rekey half of Durham every time a lease turns over, and spend a surprising amount of each week undoing work billed by companies that don't have an address.
please, check us
Our licence, and how to verify any locksmith's
NC Locksmith Licensing Board licence #2417
(a fictional licence number — this whole site is a design demo — but the verification steps below are real, and worth using on any locksmith you ever call.)
Look up the licence
North Carolina licenses locksmiths through the NC Locksmith Licensing Board, and the register is public. Search the number from our van, quote, or invoice — it takes about thirty seconds.
Ask for the card
Every Cardinal tech carries the physical licence card and photo ID, and shows both before starting. A legitimate locksmith is glad you asked.
Match the name
The name on the ad, the van, the invoice, and the card should all agree. When they don't, you've found a dispatch network — not a locksmith.
Only about a quarter of US states license locksmiths at all — North Carolina, California, Texas, New Jersey, Oregon, and a handful of others. If you're somewhere without licensing, lean on the other checks: a real street address, a marked vehicle, an itemized invoice, and a price before the work.
the four of us
Who shows up when you call
Marcus Reyes
Owner · master locksmith
Apprenticed in his uncle's shop in Greensboro, opened Cardinal in 2012 after one too many customers told him what the last locksmith had charged them. Wrote the price book; still answers the overnight line on Tuesdays.
Dana Okafor
Residential lead
Rekeys, installs, and the gentle art of telling people their door just needs a longer screw. Teaches the free renter's-security workshop at the library twice a year.
Pete Larkin
Automotive tech
Keys, fobs, and immobilizers. Keeps a spreadsheet of every make we can and can't serve so the phone answer is a fact, not a guess.
June Whitaker
Dispatch & the front counter
The voice on the phone. Quotes from the same book you can read on this site, and will tell you when a cheaper option exists — it's in her script because Marcus put it there.
The whole promise, one more time
Every price on this site is the price we charge. The number you approve before we start is the number on your invoice.
90-day workmanship warranty on every job. 12 months on hardware we supply.
no bait · no switch
One call. One honest number.
Tell us what's wrong and we'll quote the range from the price book on this site — with the after-hours adder, if there is one, said out loud before we roll.
Mon–Sat 8 am – 6 pm · lockout line answered 24/7