In the days before electronic locking systems on automobiles, a similar locking mechanism was used in cars. A good car thief could use a "shim" and get a car unlocked in seconds. When I was just entering college, my brother-in-law helped a fellow dormmate get into a car that he had locked himself out of by doing almost exactly this but with a coat hanger. My sister had been married to my BIL for about five years at that point and I knew him as an upstanding guy, but I must admit that, in those pre-YouTube days, I began to wonder about how he knew how to do what he did and what his life was like before he met my sister!