by ASHLEY MILLER
for the Sequim Gazette
 

The Loch-Ness Locksmith has returned to Sequim.

 

Larry McCormack, owner, started the business in the late 1990s. When he and his wife left their home in sunny Sequim to care for ill family members in Oklahoma, McCormack took the mobile business with him. A few months ago, the couple returned — for good, hopefully.

 

“I’d rather be here than anywhere else,” McCormack said about Sequim. “I couldn’t handle the heat anymore, so when our help was no longer needed we came back.”

 

Being a locksmith is a third career for McCormack, who served more than 20 years in the U.S. Air Force and then went on to join a police department. After retiring, for the second time, McCormack knew he wasn’t ready to give up working.

 

“I got tired of fishing so my wife asked me, ‘What do you really want to do?’” McCormack said. “It was then I decided to go back to school and get certified as a locksmith.”

 

As a child, McCormack remembers spending time with a close friend’s father who was a “cat burglar.”

 

“He started teaching me how to pick locks and make keys and I really liked it,” he said. “I always kept it in mind and over the years I always helped people with locks, in the Air Force and on the police department.”

 

McCormack is available around the clock, 24 hours a day and seven days a week. He keeps his cell phone on the nightstand and answers calls no matter what. To him, being a locksmith is more than a job — it’s a passion.

 

“I love the challenge,” he said, swearing that there are no two locks exactly the same.

 

McCormack is outgoing and friendly. The middle child in a family of 13 children, McCormack has no problem striking up conversation with strangers. His favorite customers to help are senior citizens, he said, who often are on a fixed income and lonely.

 

To be prepared, enter the Loch-Ness Locksmith phone number into your cell phone or write it on a scrap of paper and stash it in your wallet, McCormack recommended.

 

“You never know when you might need it,” he said.

 

For assistance, call 360-808-6565.