Im can be bad with keys---so I leave just about everything unlocked--of course I know you cant do that everywhere.
just a stowry
I went to visit my Father a few years back , he was out and the house was locked, I had to wait around for him. The next time I went to visit there was a big note on the locked front door.
Im can be bad with keys---so I leave just about everything unlocked--of course I know you cant do that everywhere.
just a stowry
I went to visit my Father a few years back , he was out and the house was locked, I had to wait around for him. The next time I went to visit there was a big note on the locked front door.
in gigantic letters it said
I Hid the Key under the mat
good thing he locked it!
gotta love Papamstar
Gotta love him, indeed! That's a great stowry!
I recently locked myself out too. We had a power outtage and I thought I had changed the housekey on my ring when I changed the front door locks last, but apparently didn't. So I came home and couldn't get in the garage (since my garage door opener runs on electricity), my usual way to enter the house.
I have a locked 6 ft. privacy fence too and the key was on its hook in the kitchen (INSIDE THE LOCKED HOUSE). When I realized I was really locked out, I broke the aluminum frame around a living room window and using a plastic milk crate from the trunk of my car, I climbed into the front window and landed on the loveseat.
Worst part was, I had actually given a spare key to a friend when I changed locks, so I really could've avoided the whole mess.
Funniest part was - later wondering what the police thought if they saw me, as I live across the street from the police station.
Plus, you can easily change the combination back and forth if you need to let a workman in when you are not home.
I have one for my garage, but I've developed a bit of paranoia and press extra buttons first so it's harder to figure out the combination if someone wanted to break in. If you keep the same code for a while, you will wear down those numbers faster than the others, so it will make it easier for someone to brute force your combination and get into your house.
I would stay away from Schlage locks and stick with Kwikset. Most Schlages will let you open the locked door from the inside but the door will remain locked so if you go out and shut the door you are locked out. Kwiksets do not do that, when you go out, the door unlocks.
The new Kwikset locks are also labeled "Smartkey and "bumpproof" (you can do a search on bumping locks to find out what that is), but the Smartkey is pretty cool. You can actually rekey the lock in about 30 seconds, to any kwikset key, which lets you give a key to a service person while they need access to your house for a job. When they have finished their job, you can rekey it back to your original and the other person no longer can get in.
Another idea is to get one of those realtor locks and fasten it to the gas meter, railing or somewhere accessible. I hate them on the door itself as they get in the way and are tacky. This would be the cheapest "fix".
So I keep a spare key hidden on the property in a place it would take some ill-intentioned person quite a while to find. And it is not the key for the nearest door (the back door) but for the front door which actually means a hike of several minutes round a couple of other streets - can't go round the side of the property as there is no side.
Now my latest party trick:
Thursday: I went out in my car, brought something in through the front door, drove the car to its parking spot round the back, locked it, and entered the house. Friday. I left the house and deadlocked the back door. Went to work on my bicycle (not worthwhile driving). Came home from work late and had no house keys. Couldn't be bothered to go to the office to look for the house keys so used the secret spare. Saturday: went to the office, turned it upside down, no keys. No car keys either (separate bunch).
Next two weeks: sorted through my trash. Sorted through all the office trash. Sorted through my compost bin. Not to mention every drawer, every pocket, every item of clothing (boy, do I have some clothes...), under every piece of furniture... I was not exactly ROFLMAO.
To this day I have found neither the house keys nor the (only) car key.
Can I STRONGLY suggest that if you have only one car key you make a note of its number or get another cut. Man, the inconvenience of getting a replacement. Had to get the radio code as well as the interior light (cunningly left on...) had drained the battery.
Oh, I asked in every shop in the street where I usually shop too. Even though I had no recollection of going out to the shops on the fateful Friday.
Felt like the proverbial woman with the silver coin, sweeping the house out. But she got what she sought.
Dot, hide a key in your garden. You must have a hole or crevice or similar unless your yard is concrete and nothing else. Under the mat and under a plant pot are not good ideas.
Where did I put that application form for the Alzheimer's Society...
So I keep a spare key hidden on the property in a place it would take some ill-intentioned person quite a while to find. And it is not the key for the nearest door (the back door) but for the front door which actually means a hike of several minutes round a couple of other streets - can't go round the side of the property as there is no side.
Now my latest party trick:
Thursday: I went out in my car, brought something in through the front door, drove the car to its parking spot round the back, locked it, and entered the house. Friday. I left the house and deadlocked the back door. Went to work on my bicycle (not worthwhile driving). Came home from work late and had no house keys. Couldn't be bothered to go to the office to look for the house keys so used the secret spare. Saturday: went to the office, turned it upside down, no keys. No car keys either (separate bunch).
Next two weeks: sorted through my trash. Sorted through all the office trash. Sorted through my compost bin. Not to mention every drawer, every pocket, every item of clothing (boy, do I have some clothes...), under every piece of furniture... I was not exactly ROFLMAO.
To this day I have found neither the house keys nor the (only) car key.
Can I STRONGLY suggest that if you have only one car key you make a note of its number or get another cut. Man, the inconvenience of getting a replacement. Had to get the radio code as well as the interior light (cunningly left on...) had drained the battery.
I hate to admit this, but I've had three memorable lockouts. There might have been more, but these are the ones that stand out. :) I don't mess around. When I lock myself out, I do it up right, as you'll see. I only have time now to tell about the first and third times. Number 2 is a doozie.
Lockout #1
Actually, now that I think about it, my first lockout was more like a lock-in.
I could have sworn my entire ring of keys vanished into thin air. It was early spring. I came home from work, so I obviously had car keys, and I got into my house (had to have keys for that!). So far so good. Next day, which fortunately was a weekend day so I didn't have to go to work, I couldn't find my keys. I looked everywhere (I thought).
I finally had to call a locksmith. He had to change the locks on my front and side door, on my garage door, and the one for my car doors. He had to install a whole new ignition in my car. I was baffled about where my set of keys had gone--and considerably poorer.
Fast forward 8 or 9 months. Winter had arrived. I came home from work through sloppy wet snow and couldn't wait to get out of my work clothes and into my warm, toasty bathrobe. The winter bathroobe. The one that had been hanging on a hook ever since I had last worn it on one of the last cool days of early spring. Yep, I reached into the pocket of my bathrobe, and whaddaya know...keys!
Heres two things that I do, and Ive had good fortune with them....
1) I have "deadbolts" so...they never can be locked from the outside unless you do it with a key ( they are flat bars so they dont slide and lock when the door is closed, if the lock is actuated when I close the door it wont allow the door to close! It will hit the door jam with a "thunk!" and the door will stay open)
2) As for being away from home and losing keys.....I always keep 2 keys in my wallet....A spare car key ( for those times you lock your keys in the car) and a spare house key
Ive never had to use the spare house key yet, but I did lock my keys in my car 2 times, but I didnt panic, just went into my wallet and got the spare
The third and most recent memorable lockout occurred on the 4th of July last summer. We'd had a pretty long drought, and I was worried about several neighbors' annual tradition of setting off enough fireworks to rival any community's display. Our houses are close together and everything was super dry. The day before, two houses in other parts of the city had burned down because of fires started by fireworks.
When I heard the booms and whizzes begin, I went out on my front porch. I sat there watching, as several of my next-door neighbor's "misfires" landed in the dry grass in my front yard. I cringed as his grandchildren, in their little bare feet, ran across my front lawn where I could see the still-glowing embers. My stomach knotted as the two little boys ran right up to where the fireworks were being lit just about at their eye level. The longer I sat there, the more my concern and anger grew.
At one point the neighbor's son ran over to grab one of the kids from my front yard (at least someone was finally looking out for them!!). He passed close to my porch, and I stood up indignantly and said, "Oh, good. Now I know who to sue if you catch my house on fire!" then I turned to stomp dramatically into the house and slam the door behind me. Alas, my dogs had already jumped on the door from the inside and slammed it for me.
I had unlocked the deadbolt but not the lock in the door knob. Great. I've just threatened to sue my neighbors; I can hardly ask to use their phone now. And here I am, locked out in my bare feet with no key and no cell phone.
Lucky for me, my neighbor across the side street from me came home, so I borrowed his cell phone and called my sister to have her bring my spare key. I learned the hard way after lockout #2 to make sure she has a full set of my keys at all times.
I'm not a dingbat, honest. I just seem to have this knack for losing keys and locking myself out.
Yeah, I've locked myself in too. But I know where the spare key is/should be, in the house.
I keep thinking I'll just put my hand in my pocket and hey presto! But not so far...
ZShot - true, but my garden is 80' long and has two lawns, a shrubbery, a rockery, a fish pond, various flower borders, a patio, a parking spot, a solid wall (no hiding there), two or three rickety fences (potential hiding place there), lots of "things" just lying or stacked around, and all sorts of hiding places. Neither is the garden overlooked. If a burglar wanted to spend a couple of weeks hunting in the garden they might find a key. They will not find much inside that is worth the risk.
However, if a burglar were so good at finding keys, he might also find himself a job - locating my missing two sets of keys...
Sorry to leave you hanging, Twinky. Had to work! Now I'm on my lunch break.
Lockout #2
This was by far the most traumatic. It's funny now--a veritable comedy of errors--but at the time, I was soooooo not laughing.
It's a Sunday in March several years ago. The weather in Ohio in March can be very iffy. On this particular day, snow, sleet, and freezing rain are falling. It's about 30 degrees (F) and windy. Just a miserable day.
I had learned after lockout/lockin #1 that since I'd had a tendency to lose my keys, I really should keep spares with family members. However, only a week or so before this day, I had just had all new windows and two new doors installed. I hadn't had a chance to distribute the spares for the new keys yet.
I decide to let EmmaDog out to do her thing and because it's such a nice day (ha! what was I thinking?), I'll tag along and smoke a cigarette while she takes care of her business. I let her out, throw on a jacket, and walk obliviously into my back yard. No hat. No gloves. No socks. Just funky clothes--the kind you clean house in when no one else is around--and a jacket and a pair of sneakers.
EmmaDog completes her duties and nods and wags to me that she is ready to go inside. Still oblivious, I walk with her to the side door. Uh oh. I'd undone the deadbolt to get out, but I didn't know my new doors had doorknob locks that you could open from the inside that would still stay locked (see HAP's explanation above...good advice, HAP!) from the outside.
None of the neighbors I knew were home. I had no cell phone at that time. I was in deep doo-doo.
Finally, after about a half-hour of sitting out on my patio freezing, with ice pelts hitting me in the face and Emma glaring at me as if to say, "What is wrong with you. Let me IN!" I spot the young couple across the side street coming home. I run across the street and borrow the husband's cell phone so I can call a locksmith. I get back to my yard and then realize that since I don't have any locksmith's phone number memorized, and I'm not about to call information and run up my neighbor's charges, I have to go back and ask for a phone book. Turns out, he and his wife and the kids have just popped in for a minute and are on their way back out again. He hurriedly tears out half a page of locksmiths from the yellow pages, hands it to me, and they leave again.
I sit on the patio and start calling locksmiths. You'd be amazed at how many of them are closed on Sunday! By now it's dusk and getting colder. I finally get one locksmith's voice mail. I leave a message and pray he checks his messages often.
A little while later the cell rings. "Yes, I can send someone out." Great! I give him detailed directions.
I wait. And wait. And wait. One hour. Two hours. I call again. Voice mail. I leave another message.
Eventually the phone rings again: "Oh, I sent my man out, but he couldn't find your house. You're on the East Side, right?"
"NO!" I'm on the West Side. I gave you the directions."
"Oh. Well, I'll call my guy again."
So I wait again. And wait. And wait. One hour. Two hours.
Finally, here comes my guy, but he's not riding on a white horse. He's in an old beat-up car with a bunch of junk in the back seat.
"Where were you," I ask? "Oh, I got lost. I thought he said it was on the East Side." Then, here's the real kicker. "By the way, all my tools were stolen, but I'll see what I can do."
He pulls out a little piece of metal something or other. He fiddles with the lock mechanism. He pokes. He jiggles. He prods. Again, and again, and again. He asks me where the nearest Home Depot is, because, duh, maybe he could get a couple of tools that would work. I point out that it's Sunday night, and now it's well after the store has closed. It's pitch dark. I'm still outside and getting unhappier by the minute.
Then he gives me the really bad news: "Um, well, I'm afraid all I can do for you is break down the door. These new locks are almost impossible to pick if you don't have the right tools." My brand-new, virgin, lovely sound-proof door. I want to cry, but I manage to mutter, "FINE! I don't care what the hell you do. I'm freezing. I'm wet. I have to go to the bathroom. I just want to get inside my house! Do it!"
So the man repeatedly throws his shoulder into the door until "CRAAAAAAACK, the door frame (my nice, new, freshly painted door frame) finally gives way so he can break the wood around the lock mechanism and push the door open.
The final insult is that he has the nerve, the cojones, to write me a bill for $75.
Being reduced to absolute idiocy after spending 5 hours in the freezing rain and sleet with no socks, no hat, no gloves, I go get my checkbook and actually write this man a check for $75.
I don't know. I can laugh about the keys in my bathrobe. I can laugh at myself for getting all huffy with my neighbor and then enduring the embarrassment of getting locked out. But this one still doesn't make me laugh much, come to think of it.
Linda, I'm laughing. But probably wouldn't be if that had happened to me.
Dot... why'd'ya put this idea in my head? You know what? Went to my church house group last night, locked the door, dropped off at home... and no keys. Had to go round the back and get the spare (needed to use the bathroom, couldn't stand outside half the night!). Once inside I rummaged through my pocket book again and finally found the keys in a place I had looked six times already.
Dot, in defense of my neighbors, they were new to the neighborhood then and didn't know me all that well. Besides, I had EmmaDog with me, who might not have gotten along with their dog with his family gone. I was just thankful the husband left me his cell phone! He's the same one who let me use his phone when I got locked out last summer.
This happened to me years ago when I was about 16 yrs old...............my parents had gone out of town for the weekend and I and a friend were left on our own to take care of the house for the first time, we thought we were pretty cool!! We went to go hang out with some friends just down the street and we got back to my place that's when we realized we had left the only spare key inside. Everything was locked, both the doors and windows, but the only window open was a little window on the 2nd floor that measured about 18 inches by about 14 inches. There was no ladder to get up to the 2nd storey....what to do? I happened to notice down the street a "cherry picker" you know one of those trucks with two buckets that extend pretty high, that electricians use for fixing electrical wires overhead.............so down the street I went and began to explain my dilema to them, I'm locked out and my only way in is a little window on the 2nd floor. Can you believe it, they drove their truck up to my property, parked and lifted me into one of the buckets and then raised me up to the window and in I went and was able to retreive my keys, I was so thankful that they were able to help me out.................
If I was there Id try and fix your door, and Id work on a plan to avoid future lockouts....
Just glad to hear that you eventually made it back in...but next time...plz call 911...thats what the cops get paid for ya know, I bet they woulda got ya back in, maybe broke the door ya, but it appears you waited 3+ hours, I wouldnt want ya to go through that again, if fact call the cops now while your safe inside, and ask em that same thing.
Or....call a good skilled locksmith and tell em the problem and see if they have some as yet unthought of solution to this chronic problem
I have never tried this but I heard if you left your keyless remote keys in the car and have your cell phone in your pocket. You can call home and have some one push the remote on your spare remote while holding the cell phone near the car and it will unlock the keyless remote to get inside the car.
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dmiller
If you knocked over the *rowder*, does that make you the *rowdy*?? ;)
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waysider
Get keypad locks.
You don't have to fumble in the dark.
Plus, you can easily change the combination back and forth if you need to let a workman in when you are not home.
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dmiller
Good idea.
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mstar1
Im can be bad with keys---so I leave just about everything unlocked--of course I know you cant do that everywhere.
just a stowry
I went to visit my Father a few years back , he was out and the house was locked, I had to wait around for him. The next time I went to visit there was a big note on the locked front door.
in gigantic letters it said
I Hid the Key under the mat
good thing he locked it!
gotta love Papamstar
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bowtwi
Gotta love him, indeed! That's a great stowry!
I recently locked myself out too. We had a power outtage and I thought I had changed the housekey on my ring when I changed the front door locks last, but apparently didn't. So I came home and couldn't get in the garage (since my garage door opener runs on electricity), my usual way to enter the house.
I have a locked 6 ft. privacy fence too and the key was on its hook in the kitchen (INSIDE THE LOCKED HOUSE). When I realized I was really locked out, I broke the aluminum frame around a living room window and using a plastic milk crate from the trunk of my car, I climbed into the front window and landed on the loveseat.
Worst part was, I had actually given a spare key to a friend when I changed locks, so I really could've avoided the whole mess.
Funniest part was - later wondering what the police thought if they saw me, as I live across the street from the police station.
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Mister P-Mosh
I have one for my garage, but I've developed a bit of paranoia and press extra buttons first so it's harder to figure out the combination if someone wanted to break in. If you keep the same code for a while, you will wear down those numbers faster than the others, so it will make it easier for someone to brute force your combination and get into your house.
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HAPe4me
I would stay away from Schlage locks and stick with Kwikset. Most Schlages will let you open the locked door from the inside but the door will remain locked so if you go out and shut the door you are locked out. Kwiksets do not do that, when you go out, the door unlocks.
The new Kwikset locks are also labeled "Smartkey and "bumpproof" (you can do a search on bumping locks to find out what that is), but the Smartkey is pretty cool. You can actually rekey the lock in about 30 seconds, to any kwikset key, which lets you give a key to a service person while they need access to your house for a job. When they have finished their job, you can rekey it back to your original and the other person no longer can get in.
Another idea is to get one of those realtor locks and fasten it to the gas meter, railing or somewhere accessible. I hate them on the door itself as they get in the way and are tacky. This would be the cheapest "fix".
~HAP
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Twinky
Hey this is my party trick!
So I keep a spare key hidden on the property in a place it would take some ill-intentioned person quite a while to find. And it is not the key for the nearest door (the back door) but for the front door which actually means a hike of several minutes round a couple of other streets - can't go round the side of the property as there is no side.
Now my latest party trick:
Thursday: I went out in my car, brought something in through the front door, drove the car to its parking spot round the back, locked it, and entered the house. Friday. I left the house and deadlocked the back door. Went to work on my bicycle (not worthwhile driving). Came home from work late and had no house keys. Couldn't be bothered to go to the office to look for the house keys so used the secret spare. Saturday: went to the office, turned it upside down, no keys. No car keys either (separate bunch).
Next two weeks: sorted through my trash. Sorted through all the office trash. Sorted through my compost bin. Not to mention every drawer, every pocket, every item of clothing (boy, do I have some clothes...), under every piece of furniture... I was not exactly ROFLMAO.
To this day I have found neither the house keys nor the (only) car key.
Can I STRONGLY suggest that if you have only one car key you make a note of its number or get another cut. Man, the inconvenience of getting a replacement. Had to get the radio code as well as the interior light (cunningly left on...) had drained the battery.
A brain transplant is quite useful too.
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Dot Matrix
Man, Twinky that is awful!
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Twinky
Funny now but bloody annoying at the time.
Oh, I asked in every shop in the street where I usually shop too. Even though I had no recollection of going out to the shops on the fateful Friday.
Felt like the proverbial woman with the silver coin, sweeping the house out. But she got what she sought.
Dot, hide a key in your garden. You must have a hole or crevice or similar unless your yard is concrete and nothing else. Under the mat and under a plant pot are not good ideas.
Where did I put that application form for the Alzheimer's Society...
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Shellon
ROFL!!!!!!!!!!
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Linda Z
I hate to admit this, but I've had three memorable lockouts. There might have been more, but these are the ones that stand out. :) I don't mess around. When I lock myself out, I do it up right, as you'll see. I only have time now to tell about the first and third times. Number 2 is a doozie.
Lockout #1
Actually, now that I think about it, my first lockout was more like a lock-in.
I could have sworn my entire ring of keys vanished into thin air. It was early spring. I came home from work, so I obviously had car keys, and I got into my house (had to have keys for that!). So far so good. Next day, which fortunately was a weekend day so I didn't have to go to work, I couldn't find my keys. I looked everywhere (I thought).
I finally had to call a locksmith. He had to change the locks on my front and side door, on my garage door, and the one for my car doors. He had to install a whole new ignition in my car. I was baffled about where my set of keys had gone--and considerably poorer.
Fast forward 8 or 9 months. Winter had arrived. I came home from work through sloppy wet snow and couldn't wait to get out of my work clothes and into my warm, toasty bathrobe. The winter bathroobe. The one that had been hanging on a hook ever since I had last worn it on one of the last cool days of early spring. Yep, I reached into the pocket of my bathrobe, and whaddaya know...keys!
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Steveo
Heres two things that I do, and Ive had good fortune with them....
1) I have "deadbolts" so...they never can be locked from the outside unless you do it with a key ( they are flat bars so they dont slide and lock when the door is closed, if the lock is actuated when I close the door it wont allow the door to close! It will hit the door jam with a "thunk!" and the door will stay open)
2) As for being away from home and losing keys.....I always keep 2 keys in my wallet....A spare car key ( for those times you lock your keys in the car) and a spare house key
Ive never had to use the spare house key yet, but I did lock my keys in my car 2 times, but I didnt panic, just went into my wallet and got the spare
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Linda Z
Lockout #3
The third and most recent memorable lockout occurred on the 4th of July last summer. We'd had a pretty long drought, and I was worried about several neighbors' annual tradition of setting off enough fireworks to rival any community's display. Our houses are close together and everything was super dry. The day before, two houses in other parts of the city had burned down because of fires started by fireworks.
When I heard the booms and whizzes begin, I went out on my front porch. I sat there watching, as several of my next-door neighbor's "misfires" landed in the dry grass in my front yard. I cringed as his grandchildren, in their little bare feet, ran across my front lawn where I could see the still-glowing embers. My stomach knotted as the two little boys ran right up to where the fireworks were being lit just about at their eye level. The longer I sat there, the more my concern and anger grew.
At one point the neighbor's son ran over to grab one of the kids from my front yard (at least someone was finally looking out for them!!). He passed close to my porch, and I stood up indignantly and said, "Oh, good. Now I know who to sue if you catch my house on fire!" then I turned to stomp dramatically into the house and slam the door behind me. Alas, my dogs had already jumped on the door from the inside and slammed it for me.
I had unlocked the deadbolt but not the lock in the door knob. Great. I've just threatened to sue my neighbors; I can hardly ask to use their phone now. And here I am, locked out in my bare feet with no key and no cell phone.
Lucky for me, my neighbor across the side street from me came home, so I borrowed his cell phone and called my sister to have her bring my spare key. I learned the hard way after lockout #2 to make sure she has a full set of my keys at all times.
I'm not a dingbat, honest. I just seem to have this knack for losing keys and locking myself out.
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Zshot
What I do...
My girlfriend has a spare key to my house, and I have a spare key in a key lock (combination lock) attached to my house.
It is not a good idea to think that you can think if a "hiding place" that a burgler wouldn't think of
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Twinky
Okay, Linda, where's lockout #2?
Yeah, I've locked myself in too. But I know where the spare key is/should be, in the house.
I keep thinking I'll just put my hand in my pocket and hey presto! But not so far...
ZShot - true, but my garden is 80' long and has two lawns, a shrubbery, a rockery, a fish pond, various flower borders, a patio, a parking spot, a solid wall (no hiding there), two or three rickety fences (potential hiding place there), lots of "things" just lying or stacked around, and all sorts of hiding places. Neither is the garden overlooked. If a burglar wanted to spend a couple of weeks hunting in the garden they might find a key. They will not find much inside that is worth the risk.
However, if a burglar were so good at finding keys, he might also find himself a job - locating my missing two sets of keys...
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Linda Z
Sorry to leave you hanging, Twinky. Had to work! Now I'm on my lunch break.
Lockout #2
This was by far the most traumatic. It's funny now--a veritable comedy of errors--but at the time, I was soooooo not laughing.
It's a Sunday in March several years ago. The weather in Ohio in March can be very iffy. On this particular day, snow, sleet, and freezing rain are falling. It's about 30 degrees (F) and windy. Just a miserable day.
I had learned after lockout/lockin #1 that since I'd had a tendency to lose my keys, I really should keep spares with family members. However, only a week or so before this day, I had just had all new windows and two new doors installed. I hadn't had a chance to distribute the spares for the new keys yet.
I decide to let EmmaDog out to do her thing and because it's such a nice day (ha! what was I thinking?), I'll tag along and smoke a cigarette while she takes care of her business. I let her out, throw on a jacket, and walk obliviously into my back yard. No hat. No gloves. No socks. Just funky clothes--the kind you clean house in when no one else is around--and a jacket and a pair of sneakers.
EmmaDog completes her duties and nods and wags to me that she is ready to go inside. Still oblivious, I walk with her to the side door. Uh oh. I'd undone the deadbolt to get out, but I didn't know my new doors had doorknob locks that you could open from the inside that would still stay locked (see HAP's explanation above...good advice, HAP!) from the outside.
None of the neighbors I knew were home. I had no cell phone at that time. I was in deep doo-doo.
Finally, after about a half-hour of sitting out on my patio freezing, with ice pelts hitting me in the face and Emma glaring at me as if to say, "What is wrong with you. Let me IN!" I spot the young couple across the side street coming home. I run across the street and borrow the husband's cell phone so I can call a locksmith. I get back to my yard and then realize that since I don't have any locksmith's phone number memorized, and I'm not about to call information and run up my neighbor's charges, I have to go back and ask for a phone book. Turns out, he and his wife and the kids have just popped in for a minute and are on their way back out again. He hurriedly tears out half a page of locksmiths from the yellow pages, hands it to me, and they leave again.
I sit on the patio and start calling locksmiths. You'd be amazed at how many of them are closed on Sunday! By now it's dusk and getting colder. I finally get one locksmith's voice mail. I leave a message and pray he checks his messages often.
A little while later the cell rings. "Yes, I can send someone out." Great! I give him detailed directions.
I wait. And wait. And wait. One hour. Two hours. I call again. Voice mail. I leave another message.
Eventually the phone rings again: "Oh, I sent my man out, but he couldn't find your house. You're on the East Side, right?"
"NO!" I'm on the West Side. I gave you the directions."
"Oh. Well, I'll call my guy again."
So I wait again. And wait. And wait. One hour. Two hours.
Finally, here comes my guy, but he's not riding on a white horse. He's in an old beat-up car with a bunch of junk in the back seat.
"Where were you," I ask? "Oh, I got lost. I thought he said it was on the East Side." Then, here's the real kicker. "By the way, all my tools were stolen, but I'll see what I can do."
He pulls out a little piece of metal something or other. He fiddles with the lock mechanism. He pokes. He jiggles. He prods. Again, and again, and again. He asks me where the nearest Home Depot is, because, duh, maybe he could get a couple of tools that would work. I point out that it's Sunday night, and now it's well after the store has closed. It's pitch dark. I'm still outside and getting unhappier by the minute.
Then he gives me the really bad news: "Um, well, I'm afraid all I can do for you is break down the door. These new locks are almost impossible to pick if you don't have the right tools." My brand-new, virgin, lovely sound-proof door. I want to cry, but I manage to mutter, "FINE! I don't care what the hell you do. I'm freezing. I'm wet. I have to go to the bathroom. I just want to get inside my house! Do it!"
So the man repeatedly throws his shoulder into the door until "CRAAAAAAACK, the door frame (my nice, new, freshly painted door frame) finally gives way so he can break the wood around the lock mechanism and push the door open.
The final insult is that he has the nerve, the cojones, to write me a bill for $75.
Being reduced to absolute idiocy after spending 5 hours in the freezing rain and sleet with no socks, no hat, no gloves, I go get my checkbook and actually write this man a check for $75.
I don't know. I can laugh about the keys in my bathrobe. I can laugh at myself for getting all huffy with my neighbor and then enduring the embarrassment of getting locked out. But this one still doesn't make me laugh much, come to think of it.
Oh, I guess it's a little funny. :unsure: :)
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Twinky
Linda, I'm laughing. But probably wouldn't be if that had happened to me.
Dot... why'd'ya put this idea in my head? You know what? Went to my church house group last night, locked the door, dropped off at home... and no keys. Had to go round the back and get the spare (needed to use the bathroom, couldn't stand outside half the night!). Once inside I rummaged through my pocket book again and finally found the keys in a place I had looked six times already.
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HAPe4me
omigosh Linda, I woulda done that for no more than $40, and I would have given $20 of that to get some big hunk of a kid to use HIS shoulder! LOL
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Dot Matrix
Linda
I am so sorry. First of all time number 2 - the worst one --
The neighbors did not let you sit in their home? Geez
Ahd the lock smith sends out a direction impaired idiot with no tools?
Nightmare
That is an awful story, I am so sorry you had to live through that.
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Linda Z
Hahahaha HAP.
Dot, in defense of my neighbors, they were new to the neighborhood then and didn't know me all that well. Besides, I had EmmaDog with me, who might not have gotten along with their dog with his family gone. I was just thankful the husband left me his cell phone! He's the same one who let me use his phone when I got locked out last summer.
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Cowgirl
This happened to me years ago when I was about 16 yrs old...............my parents had gone out of town for the weekend and I and a friend were left on our own to take care of the house for the first time, we thought we were pretty cool!! We went to go hang out with some friends just down the street and we got back to my place that's when we realized we had left the only spare key inside. Everything was locked, both the doors and windows, but the only window open was a little window on the 2nd floor that measured about 18 inches by about 14 inches. There was no ladder to get up to the 2nd storey....what to do? I happened to notice down the street a "cherry picker" you know one of those trucks with two buckets that extend pretty high, that electricians use for fixing electrical wires overhead.............so down the street I went and began to explain my dilema to them, I'm locked out and my only way in is a little window on the 2nd floor. Can you believe it, they drove their truck up to my property, parked and lifted me into one of the buckets and then raised me up to the window and in I went and was able to retreive my keys, I was so thankful that they were able to help me out.................
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Steveo
Linda Z...
Sorry to hear you had so much trouble!
If I was there Id try and fix your door, and Id work on a plan to avoid future lockouts....
Just glad to hear that you eventually made it back in...but next time...plz call 911...thats what the cops get paid for ya know, I bet they woulda got ya back in, maybe broke the door ya, but it appears you waited 3+ hours, I wouldnt want ya to go through that again, if fact call the cops now while your safe inside, and ask em that same thing.
Or....call a good skilled locksmith and tell em the problem and see if they have some as yet unthought of solution to this chronic problem
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fellowshipper
I have never tried this but I heard if you left your keyless remote keys in the car and have your cell phone in your pocket. You can call home and have some one push the remote on your spare remote while holding the cell phone near the car and it will unlock the keyless remote to get inside the car.
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