So I locked myself out of the house

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I honestly didn’t know it was possible. I unlocked the door to take some trash out and left the keys in the door while I was outside. I kind of slammed the door which may have been what caused the key to turn. Whatever happened, when I came back, the door refused to open. Much cursing and pulling on the door convinced me it wasn’t going to open. The cats were amused though.

So it was 10:45 at night, I was barefoot and my cell phone was inside the very firmly locked house. After going around to all doors(My god there are a lot of doors on this house, all locked), I briefly, okay it wasn’t really that brief, consider breaking a window to get in. This was the frustration stage. Unfortunately it seems that while the “tool shed” was unlocked, all the tools were in the locked house. I couldn’t find anything that would break a window.

So it was off to the neighbors. Luckily he was awake so I could the use phone there. My aunt came over and let me in with her key. I’m not pleased.
-Lil

2

Well at least you did get in. I did this to myself about a week ago. Except I was stuck on a balcony, and it was 2am! We have a little bar that slides down to lock the sliding glass door from the inside. Well, my roommate had only propped it up, so when I closed the door, it slid down. I didn’t notice til I was done with my ciggy, and my roommate had “gone to bed” (turns out she was just in the shower, which was a blessing). So I was getting very frustrated on the balcony for about 20 minutes, thinking I was going to be there all night (and had a test the next day!).

I can sympathize. :slight_smile:
(hope that wasn’t too much of a hijack)

3

I have to agree with the “at least you got in” sentiment. My husband and I have had a couple of discussions in recent days about the fact that there is no one with a key to our home should we get locked out or have some kind of emergency. Unfortunately, though we’ve lived in this home for a year, we are not yet acquainted enough with any of our neighbros to entrust them with a key. The people we’re most comfortable with giving a key live at least an hour away by car, longer in rush hour, and don’t drive to work, lengthening the time it would take for them to get to us in the middle of a workday.

I think it’s time to make friends with a neighbor or two.

4

Well, they do make those hide-a-key false rocks and whatnot, so you could look into getting one of those if you don’t know your neighbors. Although while looking for images of nice ones to link most of the Google hits were warnings not to.

5

I know this isn’t a solution for apartment dwellers, but you can buy locks that don’t need keys - just a PIN. We had such a lock on our garage door in one house, so we could always get in, as long as the power was on. I’ve seen similar locks for regular doors, too.

Years ago, I was locked out of my apartment. Luckily, I hadn’t locked the living room window, so I was able to climb in. I had to go to the landlord for a spare key and call a locksmith to make spare car keys, only to discover that the large shrub outside my door had picked my pocket! I heard them jingle as I brushed by a few days later.

Stupid shrub.

6

One of the unbreakable rules of my life is I never leave my apartment without having my keys in my hand. I’ve never locked myself out.

7

I’ve locked myself out of my house a couple of times. You’d think I’d learn. Last year, on the Saturday before Christmas I was going to meet my sister and other friends for a Christmas exchange lunch. I usually have keys in hand when I go out the door, but I had my hands full with the present I was taking, a short shopping list, and some bills I intended to pay. I was halfway down the walk when I realized what I’d done. Now usually I carry a spare set of car keys in my purse. They weren’t in there. (There’s a story about that from the time that my dog locked me out of my running car). And neither was my cell phone; it was in the house charging. So I’m off to find a neighbour whose phone I could use. This wasn’t easy on the last Saturday before Christmas. Finally I did manage to find one neighbour home and a friend who could come and get me. And relatively speaking it wasn’t even that cold. Now the spare car keys are back in my purse, so if I lock myself out, at least I can get into the car. :slight_smile:

8

Yeah, I won’t be leaving the keys in the door anymore, but the thing is, as I kept muttering under my breath last night, the door is only supposed to lock with a key. Which is what it did. Somehow. Damn evil keys.
-Lil

9

This isn’t a story about accidentally getting locked out but, rather, purposefully getting locked out. :dubious:

Quite a few years ago, I was visiting my sister when she lived in an apartment complex. One key was needed to get into both the apartment complex and the apartment itself. (The door to the main entrances push open from the inside but, once closed, can not be opened from the outside without a key.)

However, the key was also needed to lock the actual apartment door whenever you wanted to leave. The door could be locked from the inside of the apartment by just turning a handle. The handle would spring back to its neutral position when you let go, but the door would be locked.

When leaving the apartment, however, you had to close the door, turn around and use the key to lock the bolt. If, while the door was open, you turned the handle like you would to lock the door from the inside, the bolt would stick out and you wouldn’t be able to close the door.

My sister had two keys. She had one and her boyfriend had the other. For reasons of time management, I couldn’t get her boyfriend’s key before she went to work in the morning. She would be home in the afternoon, but I couldn’t leave since I couldn’t lock the apartment door. (And if I left the complex, I would be locked out of the whole building.)

But, after a cup of coffee, and some study of the inside handle of the apartment door, I came up with an idea. I called my sister at work and told her my plan. I’d get the apartment door locked, then head to the nearby mall and be back to the complex around the time she got home.

The inside door handle was lever style - a bar sticking out to the side of the actual turning mechanism (toward the edge of the door). To lock the door, one would pull/push down on the lever, which would push the bolt inside the door into the strike plate hole.

So, I simply found some string in my sister’s “junk drawer”, made a sliding noose and looped it around the door handle. I opened the door, drew the string outside, and closed the door. I slowly pulled down on the string, tightening the noose on the handle while pulling the handle down.

Eventually, I heard the bolt lock into place. While I could have just left the string hanging there, I decided it would look better to get rid of it. As it was, a strong pull of the string, and the noose easily popped off the handle. I put the string in my pocket, and went to the mall.

Anyhoo…

10

I am forever locking myself out. I just don’t have the sort of brain that checks if I have my keys before I close the door.

Fortunately, I also frequently forget to shut the windows. My neighbours are now quite used to me sheepishly asking to borrow their ladder so I can climb in my bedroom window.

11

We got locked out of the house one time when I was about 17. My father and I had gone to a baseball game together, but neither of us had made sure the other had our house key. When we got home we quickly found out that we couldn’t get into the house. We knew all the doors were locked so they were out of the question.

I remembered that I had left one of my bedroom windows open, but of course it was the one that you needed a ladder to reach. My dad decided this is where we would gain entrance. It was either that or we wait for my mother to get off work at 8 am the next day. So, my dad squatted down low enough for me to throw each leg over his shoulder, and after he stood up I was to stand up to be able to reach the window sill. Well, I stood up, but I was at least a good 2 feet short of being able to see in the window, which would have been alot easier. As it was, my fingers barely wrapped around the inside of the window, so my dad had to lift me with his hands straight up so I could try to pull myself inside.

Just as I got my one arm hooked inside the window, I hear the short siren of the police pulling up. You know the one that sounds like a squawk? Well, my dad let go of my feet, and just left me dangling there. The police came over to the side of the house, hands on their guns. My dad had to walk out from the darkness to let them see that it was him and not a burglar. he’s a cop and works with them

Apparently he forgot about me, until he heard me yelling to come and get me. By this time my arm is killing me and I’m using my feet to kind of keep me from falling by propping them on the wall as I cling to the window. No one could reach me so they called the fire department. :rolleyes:

We bought one of those “hide-a-key” things after that.

12

I did this a couple weeks ago. I swore I wouldn’t ever lose the key again. I did only a week later and had to go find the person that I gave my spare to.

:smack:

13

I’m just glad the the way the lock on my door is, it’s impossible for me to lock myself out - I need the keys to lock the door after I’m outside.

14

I don’t see why anyone uses anything other than a big, fat deadbolt that you need the key in order to lock from the outside.