Have you ever locked your keys in your car?
By rx4life
@rx4life (1930)
United States
March 17, 2007 8:12pm CST
Recently I had a friend that locked the keys in her car and was far from home where the second set was located...she had never learned the key code for her door so knew she couldn't use that. She was in a hurry to get to an important job interview and was truly in a panic...she used her cell phone and called the auto club she belonged to. They ask all the pertinent questions and then ask her if she did have a second set of keys at home. She told them she did and they asked if anyone was at home that could bring them to her...she explained the fact that she was 45 minutes away from home and that she indeed would miss her appt if someone had to drive the keys to her..Then they had the most unique suggestion...They told her to call her home and have the person hold the key fob close to the mouthpiece of the telephone...then she was to hold her cell phone very close to the door of her locked car...the person at home then pushed the unlock button on the fob and IT WORKED!!! It unlocked her car...She was delighted and took off for her appt after thanking the auto club person for their help!!! I was amazed...have you ever heard of this? What a time saver and money saver...no locksmith ...no long drive out to bring the keys...Would you have ever thought of this? Since this happened my other friend and her co workers tried it and it worked for them too!!!! What do you think?...Am I just sheltered?..Does everyone else know this but me?...I wonder what percentage of cars it works on ?
7 people like this
39 responses
@lkbooi (16070)
• Malaysia
10 Jan 08
Hi rx4life, my husband did experience this before many years ago. In those days we didn’t use transmitter to lock the car door. He locked by closing the door and carelessly locked the key inside the car when he was outside the car. Then he asked his friend to take him home to get the spare key. After this incidence he always carries a spare key in his wallet. Nowadays he never makes this mistake any more, as he is using a transmitter to lock the car door. For me, I am rather cautious and never have such careless behavior.
2 people like this
@rx4life (1930)
• United States
14 Jan 08
It is a bad feeling when it happens..just yesterday a friend told me that her husband was downtown and had locked his keys in his car...he is usually a very organized fellow...so he was really feeling bad...she had to drive down through intense traffic to take him a spare..he had a spare in his wallet but had left his wallet in the car!!!! So he locked his spare key and wallet in the car with his usual keys...wow.. he was feeling very stupid..
1 person likes this
@elshaddai123 (3981)
• Kottayam, India
9 Jan 08
several times then I made a seperate key and kept it in the pocket.
@mansha (6298)
• India
26 Oct 07
My hubby did that once and then we took out a window pane to open the car and then had to take the car to the workshop to get the pane refitted -incidentally even now we do not have the spare key made for it. We bought a second hand car but the previous owner had lost his keys and we have also never got around to getting it made till now..
@wmg2006 (5381)
• United States
18 Mar 07
WOW! This is awesome technology at work. I would lOVE yo have had that the last time I locked my keys in my car. I was at a beach with 2 small boys and could have cried when we walked back to the car to them dangling from the ignition. We were at least 1/4 mile from a phone, no cell phones at that time. I had to walk about half way to the pavillion and someone stopped in a car and said they would call a locksmith for me. I had to wait with hot and tired and whiney kids in the heat for over an hour. The locksmith came, but he could not get in because the locks were power locks. He had to make several phone calls and then we watched him make a key in the back of his truck by using the vin number, it was very interesting. After it was all said and done, the cost was unbelievable and he ruined the lock on the passengers side. I found out right then they are not even liable for any damages. It was a nightmare and I hope I never have to endure that pain again.
@rx4life (1930)
• United States
18 Mar 07
Poor you!!!!! Anytime things like this happen it is bad..but with 2 little boys and the heat..that would be awful.. I have the luxury of a keypad on my door and memorized the code the first day I got the car!!!!! But I'm still wanting to try this technology!!! I just would never have thought of it!!! ( Which is why I am not rich and famous for my inventions and engineering abilities!!!LOL)
@Juliephine (286)
• United States
18 Mar 07
NOPE, I didn't know this until now. I can't say it really surprises me, with all the technology today. But, it's also kinda scary, isn't it? With all the identity theft going on, there are a lot worse things that could happen. For example, if someone who worked for a dealership, knew what frequency the brand of cars are on for locks, they could potentially break into people's cars with no problem! Police wouldn't even find any clues left behind to try and solve the case. I don't mean to put a damper on the whole thing, because it is pretty time saving, especially in your friend's case. Anyway, just something to add to your discussion.
@daycarepal (1998)
• United States
18 Mar 07
Yep I've locked the keys in my car, well rather my teenage daughter did. We went to the bank, I went inside and she stayed in the car with the air conditioning on cause it was summer. All the doors were locked while she was inside the car. The line inside the bank was really long and it was taking me forever. My daughter came inside to see what was taking me so long. Well she locked her door as she got out of the car, which meant all the doors were now locked! I didn't have a spare key with me and my husband was out of town. So we had to call a locksmith to come out and open it up for us. ugh!
1 person likes this
@Kasssy (107)
• United States
19 Mar 07
Yes I have locked it in several times. Then i got smart and got one of them boxes and put it under the car and the next time I did, the box had fallen off(ha,ha) One time i locked them in my toyota and had to wait until Monday to get in. I live in a small town and it was a $50 difference in price for the weekend deal. I just caught a rid to the store and waited it out.
1 person likes this
@LivingADream (48)
• United States
19 Mar 07
YES! Only once though.
I've heard about the phone/remote thing. But the ppl I know that have tried it failed.
1 person likes this
@pookie92 (1714)
• United States
18 Mar 07
I've never locked my keys in the car, but I am very diligent as to where the keys are. I learned this diligence from my mother, when I was a kid she was constantly locking her keys in the car, or losing her keys. Every time we had to leave the house, we would all have to search for her car keys. She always locked us out of the house too. I was the smallest and got very good at crawling throught any open window we could find.
@sangita999 (210)
• United States
18 Mar 07
wow ,what a great technology,never heard of it.really amazing .yesterday itself i locked the keys in the car while returning from walmart,n call my friend for help.
@unbroken (3)
• Canada
18 Mar 07
wow that would def be an interesting experiment. If you think about it that type of thing would be impossible since a phones mouth piece is designed to pick up sound and not radio waves. But if it worked all the power to her!!! lol Ill have to try it myself one day.
1 person likes this
@rx4life (1930)
• United States
18 Mar 07
I thought the same thing...but everyone keeps telling me it works... so as soon as I am over my pneumonia and feel up to it, I will head out to test the theory..but I don't have a Lexus...or a Honda..interesting that the auto club was the one to give her the info!!!
@orangegreen (5)
• United States
18 Mar 07
Wow. That's really interesting. My neighbor recently purchased a hybrid car, and it's pretty cool actually. If you accidentally leave the keys in the car, then the door won't lock.
@gotarheelsgo (1)
• United States
18 Mar 07
Haha, this actually happened to one of my good friends a few weeks ago. He was parked a little bit up a hill, and his keys were on the seat because he was reaching to the other seat to grab something.. he stood back up to answer his phone, and the door just shut on him. Needless to say he had to call AAA to help him.
That cellphone thing is crazy though... I'm tempted to go try it, to be honest... maybe I will later, and reply back? That would make things so much easier..
@rx4life (1930)
• United States
18 Mar 07
I would love to hear others try it..today another friend tried it and it didn't work for him...but he says his remote isn't the right kind!!! and I don't know about the other info about it having to be a Lexus or a Honda...AAA is the best...they've helped me a lot...Well..report back if you have any info!!! Thanks!
