Ever Been Locked Out???

[cabinetman]

Have you ever locked yourself out of the house or car, or shop? Yeah I heard the story about the guy who locked the keys in his car and it took him 2 hours to get his family out.

I put in a new front door last week, and the new lockset has a keyed alike deadbolt and handle lock. The knob lock when locked to the outside will still allow it to be opened from the inside. It's strange getting used to that. My wife locked herself out last weekend, fortunately I was home.

Today, she went to the store and I was in the process of unscrewing one of the front windows to get an inside measurement (I have 8 left to replace). I went outside to see what was binding and on the way out the door, I tried the handle and it turned, and without thinking, opened the door, and the wind caught it and slammed it shut. I tried the handle and it was locked. My first thoughts were MOTHER MAC REE (not really those exact words).

Well we have 21 windows for me to try to see if I could open, and two doors. I already knew one was locked. No luck. My last resort was a flip up garage door that never really closed real tight. One side was loose, and I took a shovel and forced the other side over to release the catch. Voila, it opened.

Of course I could get a good laugh with my wife about my stupidity, but I think I'll keep this one quiet. At least one good thing came out of this. I found a security weakness with that garage door that I'm going to fix. Next thing is a couple of hide-a-keys.

I'll bet some of you have some great stories, so lets hear them.
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[ragswl4]

Talk about being locked out. So this lady calls a tow truck service to have her car unlocked. When the guy gets there he asks her what's the problem? She pull the remote from her purse which is attached to her key ring and pushes the button and nothing happens. She tells the guy she thinks the battery is dead, can he unlock the door.

So he tells her, its $70 are you sure you want me to do this? She says yeah, she's gotta get to her Yoga class. So he walks over, puts the key in the door and opens it. My god, she exclaims, I didn't know you could do that!! Rumor has it she may have been a natural blonde. (No offense meant).

[MilDoc]

OK, so I'm a dope. Locked my keys in the car 3 times. The house once. TG for locksmiths!

[cgallery]

The day my wife told me "we" were pregnant I had to run to Kinkos. No parking spots and I was just running in for 1 sec. to drop something on the counter. I double-parked what I later learned was an unmarked cop car in. And I locked the keys IN the car. Cop was NOT impressed, but after hearing from my dad (who brought another set of keys because the cop couldn't get the door open) that I was a soon to be father, the cop cut me some slack and didn't write me up.

I thought that was pretty nice of him. Good think he didn't get a call in the ten or so minutes it took my dad to get there.

[Daryl]

Am I the only man who keeps a spare car key in his wallet and a spare house key hidden around the house?

[MilDoc]

Am I the only man who keeps a spare car key in his wallet and a spare house key hidden around the house?

Nope. I do now.

[Tom H]

Cabinetman, my front doorknob is like yours. I never use it for that reason, and asked my gf to do the same, but, ya know...stuff happens.

So I walk out to the porch in my robe to get the paper, and instinctively close the door. I spent the next 10 minutes or so trying to break into the garage without actually busting the lock (screwdriver happened to be on the porch) until a sympathetic neighbor let me use his phone. GF didn't answer after about 10 attempts, so I got a locksmith, said it would be an hour or longer and set me back $80. Luckily, the neighbor decided to try the credit card swipe, and it worked. Always use the dead bolt if you want the door secure.

So my friend, I know how you feel.

And yes, the spare key for the truck is in the wallet, and there's a special place for a house key as well now.

[footprintsinconc]

well, when we moved into our house we also had to get use to the locking system where the knob turns from inside when locked but it wont turn from outside! my wife locked herself out twice. i had to come back from work to open the door. she was fortunate to have the phone with her when this happened. the third time it happened was on thanksgiving, and the lock smith took nearly two hours to get here because he was at a dinner. when he came, he opened door in such an easy way that i felt like an idiot. however, he wasnt able to pick the lock, i dont know why. now we have just learned to make sure you grab a set of keys before going out or make sure its unlocked. not much more than that.

[cabinetman]

My worse case of being "locked out" happened many years ago while living in an apartment. It was a "garden apartment" setup. When you walked in the building from the outside, you're in a hallway with two doors ahead, and a door on either side. From that hallway, there is a stairway up and one down with the same arrangement. All the doors were steel.

One Sunday morning, very early, I went to the door to get the paper. It was usually right at the door. I opened the door to grab the paper, and the cat darted out into the hall. Since I was in the buff, I knew this had to be a quick mission to grab the cat. Well, the cat was about three feet from the door and just sitting there staring at me, kinda smiling. I whipped open the door, ran out, grabbed the cat, bent down to get the paper, and WHAM the door slammed shut.

There were metal knockers on these steel doors. This was about 5:00 AM. The only sounds in that hallway were of me panting. I gently tapped on the door with my palm to get my wife up. No luck. So, I thought what the heck. I let the knocker do its thing. I thought any minute, somebody would be opening their door to see what the noise was all about.

After a lot of knocking, she opens up the door, and sees me standing there holding the cat and the newspaper, not even strategically (because of the claws). She says "What the heck are you doing?". Not really the time for a smart reply like "Oh I was just taking the cat for a walk". Needless to say, I didn't do much explaining.
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[LinuxRandal]

The first time I locked my keys in my car, was the day that I had a spare one made. Not like a normal person, but I had it made FIRST, then was going home to grab another key ring to put it on. I got home and shut the door and realized.

Now what is my house (old family house), we once left some keys hidden in a crawlspace. They ended up falling down in the cinder block wall.

Now I keep a "coin purse" and keep one of each in it.

[Richard in Smithville]

LOML locked herself out once. By giving the garage door a quick yank to the right, she was able to get into the garage. From there it was a simple matter to get a pry bar from my tools and pop open the door to the house. I was busy that night and she never locked herself out again.

[mpc]

I have an attached garage... so I put a combination-controlled opener on the side of the house. If I ever forget the keys, just a couple keystrokes will open the garage. It's also handy for the bike - I don't need to lug a remote around.

And I have spare keys to the house and all 3 cars in my wallet. Being single, if I ever lock the main keys in the car there's nobody at home to call. They're the "valet" keys that come with many new cars - none of that nonsense plastic coating on the handle end so they're skinny. And good enough to unlock the car doors. Also handy when I drop a car off at the shop for tires, smog checks, etc.

mpc

[cwsmith]

I never locked myself out of the car, until of course I bought a car that had a buzzer warning to let you know that the key was in the ignition. It was so obtrusive that I found myself taking the key out immediately, where I would then lay it on the seat... forgetting to take it with me when I departed. Locked myself out of that car a dozen times. After the third episode, I kept a spare key in my wallet.

The best story I have though happened to my wife. We had a second floor apartment, with the landlord and his wife living on the first floor. There was a long flight of stairs at the back of the house, leading up to an enclosed landing, and a locked door to our windowed porch. It was the only entryway to the apartment.

So we had only been married about three weeks when I get this phone call at work. She asked me to please come home early, as she has broken the back door. Quite upset, she goes on to explain that she had just finished washing her hair and had heard the mailman on the landing (our mailbox was at the bottom of the stairs). She waited for him to leave and clad in only her underwear and a towel, and with soaking wet hair, she stepped out onto the landing to discover that he had left a package.

Well, the wind blew the door closed and there she was! Not about to go down stairs looking like that she decided to, in her words, "do like they do in the movies"... slammed into the door with her shoulder!

Now my sweet wife is only 4' 11" and at the time weighed about 78 lbs. So, how could this dear sweet little girl possibly break a door? So, I came home expecting to put some wood filler in a couple of rotted out holes and then re-attach an obviously weak mounted striker plate.

Much to my surprise, the entire door casing around the lock was split wide open. The latch plate was laying against the back wall and one of the window panes next to the door was cracked. It looked like it got hit by a truck!

I explained to the landlord and together we got everything fixed up properly, but we both did a lot of head scratching. She still says she only put her shoulder to it, and I figure that was about all she had to work with at the time.

Having learned early that "descretion is the better part of valor", I figured it was best to tow the line with her. So, whenever she asked me to take out the garbage, I jump to and say, "Yes Maam!" There's obviously a lot of power in that little package!


CWS

[andrew.r.w]

I locked myself out of my car on the BC Ferry from Vancouver to Victoria. I discovered it when they called people to their cars to offload. Since I was nearly the first car on it was going to be a real hassle for all the cars behind me being held up.

I crawled under the car to see if I could find a way to open the hood thinking that with a little ingenuity I could kick it into neutral so it would be easier to push or tow, and guess what I found .. a hide-a-key put there by the previous owner.

[mpc]

On many newer cars with electric door locks - those cars that unlock both doors when you unlock either one - a trick you can do is to add a wire to the switch/sensor on the key cylinder (inside the door) and run that to a new screw added to some unobtrusive place. Next time you lock yourself out, use a piece of wire, a coin, etc. to "jumper" that screw to a ground point.

It's a trick some (key forgetful) folks have done on the sports car forum I moderate.

mpc