That's Just Wrong: Wrong Lock

WSVN--After being in business for almost half a century, you could say CK's Locksmith knows the keys to success.

Robert Stephens: "We have customers that have lived here for 40-plus years and have been doing business with CK's."

But recently, Robert Stephens and his staff couldn't lock out a man from almost ruining their reputation.

Robert Stephens: "We go by CK's Lock Shop. He's used CK's locksmith...or just CK's... or CK's of Delray."

That man tried to cash in on CK's good name by creating accounts in Verizon's online yellow pages.

Robert Stephens: "He puts his own phone number in the ad."

So customers think they're calling CK's... Until something goes wrong.

Robert Stephens: "We've had customers call us and say you need to come back out here. Your technician was here yesterday and something's not working right."

Robert definitely knew something wasn't right when we showed him several listings for his business online.

Robert Stephens: "Definitely not our phone number."

But when he learned anybody could do this to any business without employment verification, he told us that's just wrong.

Robert Stephens: "Verizon's websites allows you to go in and set up an account and make your own password and basically put in anything in there you want."

Seven News has since learned the same man has targeted other local locksmiths... Not just CK's.

But until Robert can stop him, he wants to make sure CK's image remains untarnished under lock and key.

Robert Stephens: "We don't know how much he has taken from out pocket, but it's certainly business that we have earned and he has not."

In the meantime, when Seven News contacted Verizon's online yellow pages, they responded with a statement saying...

"When we discover that listings on our site either aren't accurate or otherwise don't comply with our listings criteria, we take the appropriate action to either correct them or remove them."

In CK's case, Verizon removed the listing.

As for the other locksmith, he says he legally registered the name CK's locksmith with the state of Florida.

That means if Robert wants to protect the trademark of his name, he'll have to go to court.

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