"Car, Car Car... Trouble"

(Bonus points if you know the old punk Adam Ant song from his early days! Car trouble, oh yeah!)

Hello, people!

Up to my eyeballs in various things... but I had to tell this story. Yesterday afternoon, Lauren locked her keys in her trunk. It took us 3.5 hours and five service providers to get in there.

Locksmith 1. Got the door open to have us push the button to unlock the trunk. Charged $150 instead of the normal $15 because he had to use air bladders to do it. (Please.) Turns out the button won't operate without the key AND the back seats fold down to access the trunk, but only if you release a latch IN THE TRUNK. *sigh*

Hyundai Roadside Assistance. (Who I should have called in the first place, but didn't think of.) They get a locksmith on the phone and we have a three-way. Conversation. (ha) In this conversation, the locksmith tells me I need a key made to get into the trunk. Hyundai doesn't actually contract with any locksmiths, so they can't send a guy to make a key. They recommend towing the car to the dealer and having the dealer take care of it.

I said I would try to find a locksmith on my own to make a key. Jeff finds a service on Angie's List for me. I call.

"Locksmith": Hello
Me: Hi. I need locksmith services.
"Locksmith" (chuckling in a creepy way): What kind of services do you need?
Me: Um... you ARE a locksmith, right?
"Locksmith" (still chuckling): Yes!

I proceed to tell him my issue and he chats with another dude in the background and they tell me they are in north Austin, so they "have a guy" in south Austin and they're going to have him call me back.

Mmmmkay.

Not sure if that guy was the locksmith or a I dialed a wrong number, but that was funny.

I call Hyundai Roadside Assistance again and request towing, but they have tracked down a locksmith who can get into the trunk without making a key.

Locksmith shows up (a half hour late, but who's counting at that point?) He says he can stick his reacher in through the window and press the trunk release button. I remind him that the driver door is already unlocked.

Ah.

So he dismantles the door handle and presses something that tricks the car into thinking I have the key, and presses the release button and YAAAAAAY! It worked.

So if you get your keys stuck in the trunk, you don't have to have a key to get in. If you know a guy.