On Jun 2, 6:58*am, Justin wrote:
Hello,
After locking myself out of my apartment yesterday, I managed to make
the problem worse by fiddling with a piece of plastic in the lock
which broke off and ended up being shoved pretty far into the back of
the key hole. *I tried using some needles to get it out, but no dice.
Anyone have a reasonably cheap solution? * Would injecting acetone
damage the mechanism in any way?

If you start with the premise that the lock is already broken, then no
matter what you do you can't screw it up any worse.

Therefore, you could take your key (I think you said you got it) or a
paper clip and put a TINY drop of super-glue on it. Stick it and and
try to get it to attach to the paper clip and then pull it out.