YouTuber with nearly 4M subscribers sued by lock company after he breaks into lock with just a can
Proving that we'll watch almost anything online, one YouTuber has landed himself in some legal trouble after his channel was flagged for virtual breaking and entering. While we're sure you've all seen the craze of kids sitting glued to videos where someone opens Kinder Eggs, it's more recently extended to adults with unboxing videos.
After all, how many times have you been suggested a Labubu unboxing video? There's no end to the millions of hours of bizarre niches found on YouTube, but it's not just Zack D. Films simulations, watching celebrities munch hot wings, and seeing enthusiastic content creators spend $10,000 on Temu jet boats.
Apparently, there's a massive market for watching a man break locks, with Trevor McNally having amassed nearly four million subscribers on his channel. A scroll of McNally's feed shows him testing and breaking various locks, as well as a link to a covertinstruments.com, where he’s listed as a designer on a series of lock-picking tools.
Unfortunately for the former US Marine Staff Sergeant, his unique set of skills landed him on the radar of a major lock company.
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As reported by Ars Technica, Florida-based Proven Industries released a promo for one of its products. With a title that read, "YOU GUYS KEEP SAYING YOU CAN EASILY BREAK OFF OUR LATCH PIN LOCK," Proven Industries is accused of 'begging' for the McNally treatment.
The March 2025 promo included a man proving "a lot of you haters wrong" as he attacked the $130 model 651 trailer hitch lock with tools that included a sledgehammer, bolt cutters, and a crowbar.
While the lock survived the barrage, all it took was one Instagram user tagging McNally's for things to go wrong. When someone wrote, "Let’s introduce it to the @mcnallyofficial poke," Proven responded by saying that McNally preferred “the cheap locks lol because they are easy and fast."
Boasting its own credentials, Proven was inadvertently throwing the gauntlet down for McNally.
An April 3 video showed McNally confidently walking over to a Proven lock and opening it with the metal from a can of Liquid Death. While McNally likely didn't think much of the incident, it has since gone viral and been viewed over 10 million times on YouTube.
Showing how a $2 can of water can bust a $130 lock in a matter of seconds didn't sit well with Proven Industries, which tried to sue McNally.
In the immediate aftermath, Proven owner Ron Lee contacted McNally via Instagram and definitely wrote: "Just wanted to say thanks and be prepared!”
Proven doubled down by sharing an April 6 response video that warned things were "going to get really personal" for McNally. Proven employees then publicly claimed McNally had prepped a 'perfectly cut out' shim for the video, maintaining that its locks were safe from casual thieves.
Multiple DMCA takedown notices were reportedly filed over McNally's use of the Proven promo, and after the YouTuber continued posting videos taking on the company's locks, the latter filed a federal lawsuit.
When the Honorable Mary Scriven heard the case on June 13, Proven argued the 15 seconds of promo used by McNally weren't fair use, as well as alleging he defamed the company.
Amid complaints of harassment and Proven having to disable comments on its posts, Scriven concluded: "I will pray that you all come to a resolution of the case that doesn’t require all of this. This is a capitalist market and people say what they say. As long as it’s not false, they say what they say.”
Things didn't go in Proven's favor, and with the case presumably costing a not-so-small fortune, it sounds like an expensive one.