Padlock incident

Once upon a time I had a padlock on my suitcase and I left the key inside the luggage... So when I arrived at St Pancras International I was sort of hoping they would search my luggage... They didn't ! I asked them if they could help me. They tried to open the lock with spare keys. I said "what would have happened if you had to search the luggage ?" No answer. I then added : "surely a crook could do it..." "Oh yes" the helpful officer said "you wouldn't have noticed anything" Anyway eventually they said all they could suggest was to call "maintenance" but that it always took ages for them to come.
I caught the Eurostar to Lille. At this station I asked for some help from the staff. They couldn't (or wouldn't ?) help me. At the end I sent a text message to my friend N. in Montpellier. She had one of her student bringing a saw for me.
Now I have a padlock with combination.