The Brain Burp That Became a Class Lesson

[Nashida]

It's Thursday. That meant this morning I had the luxury of traveling downtown to the elementary school for my weekly field study visit. I pull into a space, shut the car off, open my door and tossed my keys onto the other seat, intending to walk around to the other side of the car to nab them and my heavy book bag. I locked the driver's side door and shut it, forgetting that I still had to get my stuff. Too late now.

So imagine my surprise when I go to the passenger side and try to open the door, only to find it locked. When my teacher pulled in she found me with my face pressed against the window, still in shock. She suggested calling AAA. I forgot I was a member, and remembered I had my phone in my pocket. I gave them a call without my member card, but they somehow managed to pull up my info with a few other details. They gave me an ETA of 45 minutes, and somebody would be there.

20 minutes(fast!) later my phone goes off in the middle of a lesson about city jobs. It's the towing company. They want me to meet them in the parking lot to pick out my car and pretty much do a B&E on my car. Teacher decides this would be a great way for the kids to learn about a job that a lot of people aren't familiar with (as opposed to a fireman, doctor, etc.)

So 1 teacher, 2 aides (myself and another girl from another college) and 23 2nd graders watched this guy shove a rubbery doorstop into my door and stick a long bendy pole in through the crack he'd made to reach the button to unlock the whole car and let me get my things. He got a round of applause from the class-I bet that made his day somehow.

I'm still slapping myself upside the head for having such a severe brain burp at 8:30 in the morning. Perhaps I shouldn't drive anymore. XD

[Aethian]

That is one of the reasons why, since I got the lock clicker, the keys stay in my hand and the doors aren't locked by the door. Using that method I've only locked myself out once when Mom was being 'helpful' by locking the door manually. Thankfully she had her spare key in her back pocket and it only took ten minuets to remember that.

But yea awesome lesson for the kids and I hope the tow truck driver had a better day from it.

[Evil Queen]

One of my roommates had a terrible habit of locking his keys in his car. Once he got the bill from Triple A (they only let you use their services for "free" [membership fee] four times a year. The rest you pay for out your nose) I got a slim jim, The SO has one too.

Which is good because since I got it, he's locked his keys in the car three times. The "forth" time was just this week. But he has a spare key now in one of those car lock thingys that stick to your car.

[jedimaster91]

I've lost count of the number of times I've locked my keys in my car. But in those days, I was driving a family car, so I would call my parents for their extra set of keys. Can't do that anymore because we only have one set of keys to our one car.

One time I was at my then boyfriend's house (he's my husband now ) and as I was getting ready to leave for the night, I realized I didn't have my keys. Sure enough, they were still in the ignition of my locked car and I was parked behind him. Being the sweetheart that he is, he somehow manuvered the car onto the street, drove me home to get my sister's keys, and then drove me back to his house to get my car. It's a 30 minute drive between his house and my parents' house, and this was approaching midnight on a night he had to be at work early the next day. I luffs him.

[wynjara]

After locking my keys in my car for the second time in a week (the second time while the car was still running and I was standing outside, in the rain, without my jacket, wallet or cellphone, inspecting for damage on the car I'd just backed into while I was lost- it was a lovely night) I got a copy to stick under the car. Huzzah for cars that only start with the chipped key.

[greek_jester]

I used to carry all my keys (house, work, car) on one ring. Then came the time when I managed to lock everything in my car by accident. Everything. Including my mobile phone. If it hadn't been for a (very rare) nice person walking past who let me use his mobile, I'd have had to walk home (3/4 hour) knock on the door (hoping someone would still be in) get my spare keys & walk back. Given the town I lived in at the time, the chances of my bag still being in the car, & the car being there with the keys in the ignition, were slim to none. Luckily, my step-dad was in & ran the keys out to me

Since that incident, I've separated all my types of keys onto different rings, & I never get out of the car until I'm sure my mobile is on my waistband.

[edible_hat]

My car doors only lock if the driver's door is closed. Also if you leave the lights on it nags at you to turn them off.

[smileyeagle1021]

this is why I love my car... it has a sensor system and it will NOT lock as long as it senses the keys still inside the car... (exception being engine on and all doors closed it will lock from the inside).

[Nashida]

I guess the best thing for me will be to get one of those spare key holder things. Where's the best place to find 'em, so I can keep watch for 'em?

I have a spare keyless remote(somewhere....), maybe I should start keeping that in my pocket...

[IT Grunt]

I feel your pain on this one. Several years ago I worked for a bank, and part of that job was to take company cars to outlying branch offices to do work on their systems. My boss at the time, for reasons known only to him, wanted me to document everything I did. Times, places, everything. Well, I'd already been raked over the coals for not being /exact/, so I got in the habit of writing down my travel time when I arrived at my destination. Unfortunately, I also had a habit of setting the keys down to get my notebook, then forgetting them when I got out to head in. I locked myself out of those cars at least a dozen times.

[PepperElf]

i've done that a few times
tho the times i had a wire hanger handy.... just did it myself by making a loop on the hanger, prying the door slightly open, and slipping the loop down inside... once the loop was around the inside handle i'd just try to open the door from the inside... and yeah it worked

[Munkie]

I've not locked my keys in the car yet, but I'm so anal about where my keys are that I make sure I have them in my hand before I get out of the car, even when I'm dead tired and can't think beyond "sleep". I accidentally lost my keys at IKEA once... I was trying out some of the beds in the bedroom section, along with my roommate, who needs a mattress (we kind of like the same type of mattress - just a little softer than the medium). Now, I usually clip my keys to my purse so I can hear them, but this time I had put them in my hoodie pocket, which I know from experience is notoriously easy to lose things out of.

I recall dropping my phone (which also has a bell on it, like my keys, since I tend to misplace everything), but my keys had apparently slid out of my pocket without a sound. We finished our shopping, headed back to the car and I go for my keys... only to discover I don't have them. I had had them in my hand on the way INTO the store, so I could only have lost them in one place. I went back into the store, talked to two cashiers and a Lost & Found person... I described my keys, then when she produced them, immediately began to list what each dangly was and why I had it. The lady laughed and said I could just take them, sign here, have a good day.

My roommate ribbed me about losing them - he tends to lose his phone more often than his keys. I was in such a panic about losing them, just OMG. I've been locked out of my house/apartment soooo many times before I just had to make sure I had my keys.

[It shouldn't]

I guess the best thing for me will be to get one of those spare key holder things. Where's the best place to find 'em, so I can keep watch for 'em?

They sell 'em at any car parts store or your discount retailers in the automotive sections.

The best thing is to get a 1/4" drill bit, drill a big 'ol hole in the middle of the head of the key and attach it under your license plate, held there by one of the license plate screws. Them screws usually have a big enough slot in the head of them, you can undo them with a quater and a bit of work.

Disclaimer: Do NOT drill holes in the heads of the transponder (chip) keys or any plastic headed keys (plasic gets briddle and breaks). If you do own a transponder (chip) key, get yourself a plain metal headed key made (it'll still work the door lock, just won't start the car) and proceed with hole drilling, etc.

[Shangri-laschild]

So a while back, my best friend had all three passenger windows smashed in by some ass. Because of the crappy people who worked on it, it took a while and one of the motors got screwed up. This also meant that when you rolled up the front passenger window, there was a big crack still open (because of the back motor being better than the front one) on the back part of the window.

We were about an hour out of town one day when we locked the keys in the car. That was the only time we were happy about those dumb windows! We got the thing unlocked with the only thing that the attendants had...a fly swatter.

[FuzzyKitten99]

That's not as bad as when my husband lost- not locked- LOST the ONLY set of keys we had to our Cadillac 3 years ago. We had just bought the car a week prior to his losing the keys, so we hadn't gotten around to getting a second set made. We didn't have anything but a sales slip and copy of the cashier's check from the sale, so there was no way to really prove the car to be ours because the title likely hadn't been processed yet. Not only that, is being the car is a 92 model, who knows if the ignition is the original.

But we got lucky. He took it to a Cadillac dealership, they ran the VIN number, and made a test key from that. The dealer took the documents we did have as proof. DH went back to his company's parking lot (where his car was left parked) and started the car right up.