Has anyone here been able to successfully pickpocket Reed's key?

 

With food/sugary drinks I managed to raise my stealth skill to 96 at level 6 and get spotted every time I pickpocket him.

 

I suppose there is no way to obtain the key and the unique hat unless you murk him and take the reputation hit?

I have pickpocketed him before, but the key only shows up on his corpse :/. There is nothing major in his locked area though, the most notable thing being a bowler hat that doesn’t do anything out of the ordinary.