Storage compartments accessible through side panels of vehicles are extremely well known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,990,757 issued Feb. 12, 1935 to Stiles from an application filed Apr. 15, 1933, and describes hinging various body panels to afford access to storage compartments. Although this type of storage compartment became increasingly popular during the effective period of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1919-1933), when lack of detection was paramount, the concept of providing exterior access to storage compartments was popular long before vehicles became motorized and was commonly employed on carriages and wagons as evidenced by U.S. Pat. No. 527,339, which issued Oct. 9, 1894 to Lins from an application filed Jul. 11, 1894. More recently, utility vehicles, RV's and buses have generally included storage compartments that are accessible from outside the vehicle. Within the context of pickup trucks, U.S. Pat. No. 4,135,761 issued to Ward on Jan. 23, 1979 from an application filed Apr. 14, 1977. Ward discloses that this type of compartment may be constructed as original equipment at the factory or done as a conversion using the original outer sidewall.
Typically, vehicle storage compartment doors use rotary paddle latches like the one described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,668,907, which issued on Jun. 13, 1972 to Pastva from an application filed Feb. 19, 1971. For added security of outside accessible compartments, the widely employed conventional solution is to add a lock mechanism for the storage compartment's operable panel, included as part of the latch release handle assembly. A drawback of that type of arrangement is that a separate lock must be provided for each latch release handle assembly. It also means that each compartment must be unlocked separately. An alternative suggested in the prior art is to place the latch release inside the vehicle. However, this tends to be inconvenient when the compartment is accessed from outside the vehicle, and the individual seeking access is also outside. Additionally, in a typical assembly operation for a pickup, the cab and box are married to the chassis as separate components, and in individual albeit related operations. Therefore, the addition of a latch release cable that extends between the cab and box complicates assembly and is not preferred. Accordingly, a simplified locking arrangement is needed.