I always keep a spare key in my purse, having locked myself out of the car before. My SO also has a spare key. Beyond that, I’d call a locksmith or a dealer - I have an older car.
Back in the late 1980s, me and a couple of buddies drove down to the beach area of Ft. Lauderdale, FL, to go for a run. We get back to the car and discover that the driver had pinned his apartment key to his shorts, and his car key was locked in the car. As we were standing there scratching our heads trying to figure out what to do, a couple of seedy looking guys drove slowly by. They were driving a car that was way more expensive than they appeared to be able to afford, and its plates indicated that it was from the Tampa area. They stop and ask if we locked our keys in the car. We say, “yes, do you happen to have a slim-jim?” They look at each other, then slowly say, “as a matter of fact, we do.” The passenger then got out, opened the trunk, lifted the carpet in the trunk, got the slim-jim, and opened our car in about 5 seconds. He never really looked at what he was doing, he was mostly looking around for police and the like. He admonished his buddy to keep a look out.
We thanked them and bought them some Gatorade at a nearby convenience store. So it seems that we got our car opened by a couple of car thieves, and that was likely the least that they got for breaking into a car.
If I ever expect to be in a situation (say, canoeing for a few days) where I might lose my keys, I just lock them in the car (out of sight). People without keypads on their doors underestimate the utility of having a keypad on the door.
I lost my keys at the beach one time; they had fallen out of my pocket when I was jogging. There I was in the parking lot with just my jogging shorts and a towel…crap! Luckily I was able to pop the moonroof of my 4Runner and climb in from the top. I’ll always wonder why nobody raised an alarm when I was crawling around on top of my truck. Now I had access to my clothes, and I had one of those “credit card” keys in my wallet, but they’re not supposed to be used in the ignition. Before chancing it, I decided to check where I had been jogging one more time, and found the keys. The whole ordeal took almost an hour. Whew!
After the beach incident, I modified the credit card key and hid it in my roof top bike rack. It really saved my bacon later on when I locked myself out of the truck in Death Valley.
In my experience, you can easily get a copy made, that won’t start the car but will open the door locks. That’s handy for carrying in a wallet.
I keep all my keys on one key ring (car, home, office, etc.). It makes it a lot harder to lose one, but I’d be that much more screwed if I managed to lose the whole key ring.
So do I. I also have left a complete set of keys with a good friend, and I know where she keeps them, as well as where the secret key to her house is. Finally, I have a complete set hidden in my back yard, where it is protected by two dogs who have loud, scary sounding barks. Peace of mind for less than 30 bucks!
This happened to me, except it wasn’t actually my car, which made it much worse. My friend was out of town and she let me borrow her car. I ended up somehow losing her keys, with the car parked out in the city. Since the keys weren’t in my pocket I figured I locked them in the car, so I called a locksmith to pop the door open for me. The keys weren’t in there. Now I’m freaking out. They offered to make me a new key, but they needed authorization from the car’s owner, of course. She was on a cruise ship and was not in contact range, so I was out of luck.
Long story short, I managed to find the keys, but what a nightmarish couple of days.
When my hubby bought his little BMW X3 (with big fat keys), it also came with a “valet key”, that is theoretically to be given to a valet to use to park your car (not that we ever go anywhere with valet parking); it’s skinny, and it’s made of some kind of plastic so it can’t be copied. It does, however, fit neatly into his wallet so he has a spare.
My mini van has a somewhat fat head on it, too, but the spare is skinny and lives in my wallet.
Not only do we both keep a spare for our vehicle in our wallet, but I have a key to his car, and he has a key to mine. So, worse come to worst, we could come to one another’s rescue, if only by FedExing another key.
But years ago, I was in the situation outlined in the OP (I’ve learned a lot since then) and a locksmith was able to use a set of instruments that allowed him to make a new ignition key for my car. Don’t know if it would be harder with newer cars; probably.
I guess I can’t get a skinny spare for my car as it has an immobiliser chip in the key. The dealer told me a new key costs about $NZ800:eek:. You can be sure I’m going to look after the two keys I have for the car, a 2005 Subaru Legacy.
Still, I have never lost a key, of any kind, in over 55 years. I haven’t locked my key in the car either, as I always use the key to lock the door when I leave the car.
My sister on the other hand, had to call me a couple of times because she had locked the key inside. After the first time, I can’t figure why she’d use the same punch-down-the-button, lift-the-handle-and-slam technique, and end up locking her keys inside, yet again. Fortunately, it was a 80’s Corolla and you could slide a loop of packing tape down the window of the back door and lift the lock almost as quick as using a key in the driver’s door.
If I were the local thief, I’d take the key but not take the car. Then I’d come by every month or so, unlock the door, and see what you brought me for Xmas.
Whenever I go on a trip with other people, I give each one a car key (until I run out of people or keys). If I go alone, I make sure someone at home has a key so they can mail it to me if necessary.
For a while I drove a car to which I only had one key. The previous owner had lost the other, and it was an expensive chip key, so I figured that I might as well wait until I actually lost it to get a spare made. Never did, so now it’s some other guy’s problem.
And did you drive home then, a couple of hours after being “drunk as f*ck”?
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It was 350 dollars for a new key to a 6 year-old PT Cruiser. This vehicle has been the biggest POS since POS were invented, but the douchiness of HAVING TO HAVE THAT KEY was the end of it, for me. I will never again own a car that requires a specialty key fob to get into. And we didn’t WANT THE FOB. We just wanted a spare key, as it seemed ours wasn’t working very well anymore. But nope, the only option was a week’s wait and 350 bucks. To hell with Chrysler, that’s all I’m saying.
I was at a museum a few years ago and saw a family w/ strollers and toddlers in tow trying to cram onto an elevator. They were distracted and hurried and the dad didn’t notice that he’d dropped his keys. Not only did he drop them, but he dropped them right where the elevator meets the floor, and they fell into the crack.
Luckily I saw them fall and let him know so that he could get assistance from security, but if I hadn’t noticed - those keys would have been gone forever.
I keep a spare key in my pocket. It’s come in handy a couple of times.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think all cars today require “smart” keys, or the type with a big electronic head, or an electronic key fob. I don’t think there are any cars sold today that use a simple mechanical key.
I vacationed once with my sister and her husband. When we arrived at Assateague (sp?) he jumped out of his truck and dove into the ocean with his keys in his pocket. When he got out of the water, the keys were gone.
He had a tool kit that he used to take apart the steering column. Then I hitch hiked to a dealership and got a key. Someone from the dealership drove me back.
That was the first and last vacation I ever went on with them (coincidentally).
Here’s the thing, though. Few of them REQUIRE anything but the mechanical part to operate the car. You can lock, unlock, and start the car without the fob, at least on the vehicles I’m familiar with. I’m sure there are a few that are completely hands-off or something, but I don’t know why anyone would actually WANT that in the long run.
Screw it, I’ll just keep driving old cars then. 
In high school, I locked the keys in my car as I was on the way to a football game. There we were, a bunch of girls ready to have fun and suddenly the evening looked bleak. Just as I was sure my bff was about to cry, a couple guys we kinda knew walked up. One said no problem, did a hip check sort of thing with the door and it popped open.
That was sorta our first date and we were sweethearts for nearly two years. So it’s not always a bad thing to lock your keys in the car! 