In a brief moment of inattention, I accidentally locked my keys inside my 1993 Ford Escort, with all the windows rolled up. I need to get into my car and I can’t figure out how. A locksmith is out of the question (can’t afford one) and i’m not an AAA member. In desperation, I tried breaking a window, but discovered to my chagrin that the windows are made of “safety glass” that won’t break easily, and my attempts at bashing it open with a mallet, a piece of tile, and a steel-toed boot did nothing but scuff the glass. Anyone out there know a way I can get into my car, either by breaking the safety glass, picking the lock, or any other means?
What type of door lock does it have? I’ve frequently locked the keys in my car but have been able to open the car by using either packing tape or a wire coat hanger pushed through the top of the window and seal, hooking the door lock and lifting it open.
My car does have locks that stick up, and I can see how one might open it with a coathanger by pulling up on it, but all the windows are completely shut. Could you elaborate on pushing the coathanger through the seal?
Okay. first you need to bend a hook or loop in the end (which is for hooking onto the lock). Now you should be able to ease this through either at the top of the window (between the glass and the seal) even if it is wound all the way up. If not, then try going in through the side closest to the lock.
If Jasto’s method fails (it’s always worked for me), contact the dealer that sold the car new. If you can prove that you own the car, the dealer should be able to check its records and sell you a new key.
At the risk of stating the obvious, if you use the coathanger method, you’ll want to cut the hanger so that you are left with a 2 foot long piece of straight wire. The existing hook is usually too big to be useful, so cut that off, too. Use a pair of pliers on one end to bend a new hook that is just big enough to snag either the part of the lock that sticks up, or (on some cars) the button on the inside of the door that can be used to manually lock/unlock the car from the inside.
If you can’t afford a locksmith at around 50- 75 I’m at a loss to see how breaking a window would be cheaper as replacing it would be considerably more expensive. If you have to break it to get some safety goggles or glasses and use the edge of the claw part of the hammer to strike the window, or the prying edge of a jack handle. The key is to put a lot of force in a small area.
Here is a Ford escort technical message board forum. You might want to try there as well.
For older cars, police sometimes carry a long thin piece of metal that they slip down between the window and the door to push on the lock release. I had a cop get open a 1984 Civic for me that way.
I always carry a Slim Jim under my back seat, in case I lock my keys in the car.
I just finished a novel in which the protagonist took a plumb bob and used the small steel point to actually knock a “small” hole in the window of a car to gain access to the lock - have no idea if this would work. (he hit the plumb bob with a hammer or something(
And being inside the locked car behind the back seat, gets you inside how?
WHOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!
I hope you solved you problem without breaking the window. By the way, a spring-loaded center punch works just fine.
However, I think a locksmith is no costlier than replacing the glass in the window even at a wrecking yard.
Nope. Auto glass, excepting the windshield, is tempered in such a way as to shatter into little bitty cubes that are less likely to cut than large shards of ordinary plate glass. I have seen what you describe occur in the thicker tempered glass of store windows when a stone kicked up by a passing vehicle hits it. It sometimes knocks out a small cone of glass on the opposite side, occassionally with a through hole. Car window glass is too thin for this to happen, though.
Are you near any sort of car service station or repair shop? They should be able to Slim Jim the lock for you. If you’re not near enough to just wander over you might look in the phone book and call a few. They might charge $10 or something. A mechanic-type guy unlocked my door for me for free once, but I was parked in a parking lot right next door to their garage and it only took him like 2 minutes to do it.
WAIT WAIT WAIT
Don’t break anything
there’s a MUCH easier way, especially on an escort
You need a few things, and I hope your locks are powered. (even if not, this works.)
I hope I’m not teaching people how to steal old cars here, but take a screw driver or other such object, and wrap it in a towel or shirt. Jam it in between the door frame and the car at the top right corner. (drivers side) Pry the door out, and wedge something in there to hold it. This should give you a pretty nice gap to work with. If you have power locks, get something flat and rigid (i used to use a yard stick) and just go in and push the power door lock button. If you have a hatch back, it’s muuuuch easier to get a hanger under the latch that pops the hatch, and crawl in from the back. If all else fails, go directly for the lock itself with either a hanger, or a rigid object to force it up. Either way, this method is 100x easier than going through the seal above the window.
Oh, and astro I keep an extra set of keys in the car just in case, it’s easier than the slim jim. 
There must be some kind of call-out service you can get that can do the same thing that AAA does (i.e. open up your car for you) Also, do you only have one set of keys? You should have had at least two sets of keys.
Smapti:
If you want to break the glass you might need to have a tiny point of impact… e.g. use a hammer and a chisel or hammer and a screwdriver. That should cause cracks to go throughout the window, then you’d need to bang the glass to make it shatter into little pieces. But note that it would probably be expensive to fix. I suggest you ring around all the car-related places - there must be someone besides AAA that can help… or ring AAA and try and join or offer to pay and see if they can come out…
In most places, unless this has been abused in your area, the police will open it for you. Otherwise find any nearby garage with a tow truck and call them. Usually around here (Long Island, not know as cheap or “consumer friendly”) they will charge you about $10. I once was locked out at LaGuardia Airport and their “Parking Lot” tow came and helped, in a snowstorm at about 1 AM and did not charge anything and would not take a tip! I almost had a heart attack because I am a 50+ Y/O guy!
Ditto on the tow truck recommendation. Here in Austin, there is also a service called “Pop-a-Lock” who will come out and slim-jim your car for about $20. Certain cabbies will do the same thing (call the cab dispatcher & ask about it).
Believe it or not, these things are illegal in some states. Just being in possession of one can be a misdemeanor…