Locking myself out, again...

As soon as I heard my car beep to notify me that it was locking I knew I was in trouble.

With my work camera in hand I quickly tried all of the doors.

No luck.

I tried the tailgate.

No luck.

This just confirmed what I already knew, but was fighting hard to believe.

Yep. Once again, I had locked myself out of the car.

As I glanced at my purple purse to sitting on the driver’s side seat, I couldn’t help but feel like a real dummy.

Of course, I blamed it on the weather. If it had not have been snowing, I would have put my purse on the ground while I snapped a quick photo, but no I decided for some reason to put my car keys back in my purse; and put my purse back in the car.

I should have just put the keys in my jacket pocket, but no I am so used to slipping them into my purse pocket that I didn’t think twice about it.

Luckily, this all happened in the office parking lot. So, I thanked God that I had not locked my keys in my car at the interview I had just come from.

As soon as I walked into the office, everyone was telling me they had been trying to call me because someone had called and asked me to come and take photos for them.

I had to immediately confess that I had locked my keys in the car and couldn’t drive anywhere. I then asked if anyone could find time in their schedule to drive me to my house so I could pick up the second set, which I hoped was where I thought they were and not in my husband’s pants’ pocket.

Then, a coworker asked me how I was going to get into the house. Oh no. I hadn’t even thought of that.

Luckily, I have also locked myself out of the house enough times that we had to have a hide a key in a very secret location. I just hoped it was still there.

My coworker drove me to my house and I found the hide a key and opened my door. I then found the car keys.

At least a couple of things were going right. As we were driving away, I could not remember whether or not I had locked the front door. So, we turned around and went back to check. I had locked it, but the way my day was going I was glad we double checked.

After work, I had some time to reflect on my day and I started thinking about all the times I had locked myself out of something.

I think it started in college, but my parents seem to think it started way before that. In fact, I think they said something to the effect of “Why do you think we made sure to get you a car with a keyless entry pad on it?” Hmm. I thought.

I did have one of those vehicles for a long time. I also wondered why I can remember the code to the car, but not my keys. I may never know.

I have since moved on to vehicles without keyless entry and so the locking myself out resumed again about seven years ago.

I think the worst was when my oldest son was about six months old. I was in a rush to get to work and it was around 18 degrees.

It was cold. Since my car was parked outside I went out and started it up to get it warm for my son.

After I swept all of the snow off of the car; and it was warm enough I put my son in the carseat and put him in the car. I must have accidentally locked the door without knowing it. I then went and shut the front door.

Yep. That’s right. I locked myself out of the house and the car, with the car running and my six-month-old son in it. I panicked. I didn’t know what to do. I thought “I’ll call for help.” Then I realized my cell phone was also in the car. Doh. I think I started crying.

I ran over to my neighbor’s house, who thank the Lord was at home, and asked if I could use her phone to call a lock smith. I called and explained to them what had happened.

I also remembered I needed to get gas that morning and was afraid I would run the vehicle out of gas. The lock smith said he would come right over.

My neighbor had to go to work, but she was kind enough to trust me to lock up her doors. I guess I was good at locking things up after all. I declined though, because I didn’t want to be too far away from my son.

It seemed like it took the lock smith forever to arrive, but it was really only about 10 to 15 minutes. I kept looking in the car to make sure my son was OK. He was just sitting in there listening to music.

When the lock smith arrived I told him what happened; and he asked if I wanted into the house or the car. I told him whichever he thought was the easiest. We chose the car, which was a Dodge Avenger. I’ll never forget what he said to me.

“Oh. It’s an Avenger. The good thing about those cars is they are hard to break into. For us, that’s bad news.”

He got his tools out and set to work. Within a few minutes the door was open. He said I had lucked out after all because the vehicle decided to let us in.

Once the door was open. I shut the car off and immediately checked on my son. The car was warm because I had the defroster on full blast and on high heat. My son was sweaty, but other than that OK. I paid the lock smith and repeatedly thanked him for coming so quickly.

The sad part was about three months later I did the exact same thing, which is when the hide-a-key idea became a reality.

I know I will probably lock myself out of my car or house several more times in my lifetime, but hopefully none of those times will be as traumatizing as when my son was locked in the running car.