CLOSE-UP : Easy Pickin’s

James Bond is my biggest competitor,” says Elyse Rothstein. It’s 007’s ability to pick a lock with aplomb that leads customers to think that Rothstein, owner of El Segundo’s Industrial Lock and Security, can walk up to any lock and, with one tool in one try, coolly pick it.

It usually takes longer in real life than in the movies, but in her 12 years as a locksmith, Rothstein has rarely been foiled, and then only in her early days. “There were two BMWs I couldn’t get into, and a Porsche,” she admits.

But those failures pale compared to some of her successes, like the many times she’s freed infants accidentally locked in cars--”That happens probably once every two months”--or when she unlocked a birthday boy whose friends had handcuffed him to a street sign. “I usually get to be a hero,” she says.

Rothstein now has six people working for her--all men. “At one point, though, this was a three-woman shop,” she says. Of the 1,200 or so locksmiths and safe repairers in L.A. County, about 8% are women, Census figures show--and that includes staffers who cut keys and answer phones.

It figures, then, that most people who call a locksmith don’t expect a woman to show up. Some call Rothstein a “key girl” or a “lock lady.” Others insist on carrying her toolbox. But Rothstein is so good at picking locks that U.S. Customs officials at LAX, who wanted to get into suspect suitcases without breaking locks or cutting bags, recently hired her to teach them the tricks of the trade.

“As a kid, I used to try to break into neighbors’ houses,” she explains. “I loved tools; I loved puzzles,” adding that if her mother hadn’t suggested she apprentice with a family friend who was a locksmith, she might have turned to crime.

Now that she has the expertise to crack any lock she pleases, is she ever tempted?

“No way!” Rothstein insists. “I’d hate to get caught. Can you just see the headline? ‘Lady Locksmith Caught Breaking Into 31 Flavors.’ ”