Arabic version: «لوكسمِث غيرل أوف نيويورك» تكسب المزيد من الأعمال بعد فيديو واسع الانتشار

According to Cnbc, Sahar Yona, 27, runs Locksmith Girl of NYC as a 24-hour residential and commercial locksmith business in New York City. She sleeps next to two phones and a laptop with the volume turned up so she can hear client calls, saying that “every job counts” as she builds her clientele.

Yona launched the business under its current name in July 2025. In January, a TikTok video in which she told women in New York to call her if they felt unsafe asking male locksmiths to pick their locks at night received more than 600,000 views. She says the response has brought her more jobs than ever, from men and women, with as many as 60 jobs a week.

On her busiest day so far that summer, Yona says she worked from 4 a.m. until 1 a.m. the following morning. She declined to disclose her income because rates vary by job difficulty, but said she earns more as a business owner than she did as a subcontractor for larger locksmith companies. Indeed lists the average annual salary for a locksmith in New York at $76,745.

Yona spent $7,000 on her initial tools after entering the field in 2021, when an interviewer for a receptionist role at a locksmith office suggested she pursue locksmithing. She spent two years training, applying for a license and buying tools before gaining experience as a subcontractor. She became her own boss in November 2024 after working alongside men and experiencing misogyny from customers, peers and bosses, she says.

Women account for less than 1% of the country’s more than 5 million installation, maintenance and repair workers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Jennifer Richards, a fourth-generation locksmith and ALOA Security Professionals Association member, says more women have attended her classes over the past three years. Yona is now considering a physical storefront while continuing to practice lock picking and answer calls whenever she can.