What Should You Do If You Lock Your Keys in the Car

Every year, millions of drivers forget their keys inside their vehicles. The following advice may be useful if you are standing outside your car now and your keys are on the seat.

Call the Police to Unlock Your Car

If a child or animal is trapped in a vehicle, call 911 right away and tell them the make and model of your vehicle, as well as where you are. Emergency services such as police and fire departments will come sooner than a locksmith or roadside help.

We all know that if children or pets are locked in a car, they may be at risk of hypoxia or heat stroke, so the car door should be opened as soon as possible. The police will usually break the window or use a thin metal device to open the car door. The police will not charge you but you need to bear the cost of repairing the window. Remember, you should only seek help from the police in an extreme emergency.

Call Roadside Assistance Providers or Locksmiths
AAA and other roadside assistance services can be helpful if you lock your keys in your car. In addition to 24/7 assistance, AAA members also get one free lock opening annually which cannot exceed the fixed fee corresponding to the membership level. Of course, you can also find a locksmith, but their price for opening a lock is not cheap. Be aware that roadside assistance services and locksmiths may take half an hour or more to arrive. So if you are in a hurry to do something else, you can also try other methods of unlocking yourself.

Unlock a Car with a Shoelace
This method only works if the car being locked is an older car with a manual lock and you are wearing shoes with laces. All you need to do is tie a slipknot in the middle of the shoelaces, leaving a loop the size of your index finger. Then slide the shoelace into the car from the upper right corner of the door, and then move it back and forth until the hinge is on the lock. Finally, just tighten both ends of the shoelaces and gently pull upwards to unlock the car.

Unlock a Car with a Hanger
You've undoubtedly seen this technique employed in a few films. Similar to the shoelace trick, this technique is limited to older cars with manual locks. First, we need to use pliers to disassemble the hanger to ensure that one side of it can be hooked and one side can be straightened. Then place the hanger between the window and the weatherstripping. You can begin searching for the control arm after the hook is beneath the window. When you locate it, use the hook to pull it up, and the door will open.

Unlock a Car With a Cell Phone
If your car is a newer model from Hyundai, GM/Chevrolet, Nissan, Toyota, Subaru, Ford, or Honda, you can use the carmaker's app to unlock it. Free Apple and Android apps that let drivers open the vehicle door without a key are included in a lot of new cars. These applications enable users to remotely lock, unlock, and even start their cars by transforming cellphones into second key fobs.

If you feel that calling the police or roadside assistance will cost a lot of money, and  the above-mentioned self-locking tools are unreliable, you can purchase a portable car lockout kit just in case you need it.