Fun Fact: Did you know that locksmiths make $43 per minute? I know that. Now.
With this many people in our family, it can be hectic to leave the house, even if it’s not the entire family departing. With a variety of sports practices and kid meetings throughout the week, I’m constantly flitting to and fro. And by flitting, I mean swearing under my breath as I rush out of the house, yet again.
For the most part, getting children to said activities has gone without a hitch this fall.. until THIS happened.
Maybe it was inevitable, since I have a history of issues with locks and keys already.
Let me just say that since my keys had been misplaced once twice many times, I have been very diligent about placing in the exact same location in the kitchen cabinet, every single time.
If only that had been enough…
I’ll admit that #1 is usually ready to leave before me. She even started my car for me once,smiling proudly as the keys dangled from the ignition, with her own music station blaring.
NOPE. NO THANK YOU.
So, I sternly warned #1 not to start my car, ever, ever, ever.
My mistake: I didn’t tell her not to touch my keys– ever, ever, ever.
We were rushing to get to practice, & as I was handling some last minute urgent details* (*making coffee) prior to leaving, #1 realized that she’d left her water bottle in my car. In the interests of being efficient, she quietly slipped my keys out of the cabinet & brought them out to the car with her. She opened the door, placed the keys down as she hunted for her bottle, & came back in.
Quietly. She came back in quietly.
#1: “Umm.. Mom? I may have locked the keys in the car.”
Me: “MAY have?”
#1: “May have… I may have hit the lock button when I put them down & may have shut the door.”
Me:
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#1: “But you could just get the spare key…”
Ah. Now here’s the rub. Yes, #1 should have been correct. I should have been able to retrieve the spare key fob that came with our car, & merely unlocked the door. But- in some stroke of personal genius, the spare key had been misplaced a year prior, likely when my full set of keys was also misplaced. So for a moment, I was less focused on #1 and more:
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Yes, we should have bit the bullet & replaced the lost key, but we (I) never did. I thought at the time that I was being financially sensible, since a replacement key costs over $240- who wants to spend that??
But I tried. I tried the old coat hanger trick, which, like opening a locked door with a credit card, works way better in the movies than in real life. No dice.
Next, I tried to google, “how to open lo-” and before I could even finish typing it, up popped, “how to open locked minivan”, which made me feel that at least I was in good, albeit forgetful parental company.
Along with multiple locksmith ads, a few Youtube videos were suggested. I tried two, & quickly realized that, a- without a lockpicking kit, nope., and b- they must be time-lapse videos, b/c after 10 minutes of struggling, still no luck.
So I began searching for a locksmith. Most were not available to come immediately, or didn’t take credit cards. I don’t normally carry cash on hand since we don’t normally have really money anyway, so that wasn’t an option. I finally found one that was able to come immediately, for $130.
The man arrived within 10 minutes. He grabbed a tool, slipped it into the door, opened the door, wrote up an invoice, charged my card, & jumped into his truck… in three minutes.
$130 for 3 minutes.
Here’s a tip: If you lose your spare key, don’t be cheap. Buy a new one. Because I ended up spending half the amount of a new key on buying… entry into my own car.
So the cost of locking your keys in the car might have been $130, but the cost of the lesson learned?
Priceless ($130!)
$240! Why so much for a replacement key? We had the same situation, only one key for the van and I was seriously lying awake at night worrying about what would happen if we lost the only key in existence. We got a new one for $8 and I couldn’t remember why I waited so long in the first place!
Wow I’m surprised at how much you need to pay for a replacement key. Thanks for sharing your experience, as well as some advice when dealing with this kind of situation.