Kiss My Keys II

AmiMental.blogspot.com left a comment on the previous post about what a pain in the ass keys locked in a car can be. Reminded me of a keys locked in my car incident from the past.

1972 saw us on a combination business and vacation trip to Southern California. The business part was delivering a snowmobile to a high performance engine builder in Pasadena. While giving the snowmobile a wash down in a coin operated car wash, two older ladies, wearing tennis shoes, stopped by. “Is that a snowmobile?” one asked. When I gave an affirmative answer, she added, “I thought so, I saw one given away on the Price is Right.”

Our next stop was Long Beach to tour the Queen Mary. At the time it was a new attraction. My wife wanted to see it because her late father, a Norwegian immigrant, had crossed the Atlantic on her. We had a great time and our then only child was enjoying himself. Finally, his little legs tuckered out and we returned to our car, a Ford LTD four door hardtop, were I discovered my keys in the ignition and the doors locked.

The parking lot was new and the trees planted for landscaping were about six feet high and braced with three wires. I broke off a section of wire and used that to hook a lock button and get the car open. This took a few minutes.

While doing this, a policeman drove by the end of the parking lane. We made eye contact. What he saw was a large, red faced man with a piece of wire breaking into a car, a very unhappy brunette woman glowering at the man, and a squalling child (who only wanted a diaper change, a bottle, and a nap) on the car trunk. His head snapped forward and he accelerated out of my sight. Coward!

Must confess that isn’t the only time I’ve locked my keys in my car, or my house, or my office. And AmiMental is right, it is a pain in the ass.

Kiss My Keys

Saturday, out and about, cell phone rings and it is my sister. Wants to give me something. I’m West, going East, then South. She is South, going North then East. Our paths will intersect so a meeting place is arranged. I get there first. As she drives up, her significant other in riding shotgun. Good thing, his keys are in the passenger door lock. Business is conducted through his open window with both of them staying in the truck cab. As they are about to leave, I remove his keys from the lock and hand them to him. Light razzing and mild hilarity follow; then they drove away.

What I didn’t bring up was an incident from a few years before when my office called. I was 400 miles from home and had been gone a day when the little five foot nothing from the office called. Seems the keys to one of my vehicles, parked in front of my house, were in the drivers door. Some good citizen saw advertising material with my employer’s information lying on the seat and called. Since I had extra keys, I requested the little shit from the office (we mutually detested each other) have the good citizen toss the keys on the floor and lock the door. The car would have been hard to steal as it had an anti theft device attached to the brake pedal. Same concept as the CLUB, but goes on the brake or clutch pedal arm. That key, and my house key, are always separate from my ignition and trunk key.

Luck, or chance, plays a big part in our lives. Over the years, I’ve had more than my share. Once I came out of my motel room in Fullerton, CA to find all four doors of my Lincoln Town Car open.
Older Town Cars and Crown Vics are easily started with a “slap” key. Seems the motel had been robbed and I suspect my car had been selected as an escape vehicle. The cost of the anti theft device paid for itself that day.

One of the never ending problems of car lots are keys. Lost keys. Keys locked inside a vehicle. Keys in a sale person’s pocket. (I would NEVER keep the keys to some desirable vehicle so other sales people couldn’t sell it. NO, NO, not me) Over the years you get proficient with a slim jim and other lock out tools. Some vehicles I can open as fast with a slim jim as most folks can with a key.

So, anyhow, I only lightly ribbed my sister’s S.O. No need to invite bad karma and, once again, prove this blog title is accurate.