Jeremy emailed awhile back with a scary story and a request for help should it ever happen again!
My child locked himself in the car today and was unable to unlock the door. I was able to leave work early and take the extra key to my wife to unlock the car. I was wondering if yourself or your readers knew of a locksmith who does emergency service like this for free? Pop a Lock in Denver does, but they don’t have a franchise here.
Of course, when your child is locked in the car you just want fast service and shouldn’t spend half an hour calling around for the best deal – but if there are companies that do it for free here in the Springs, it would certainly be useful to have their number saved on your phone!
If you can recommend a local locksmith that will unlock your car for free if a child is inside, please leave a comment! Or, if you have a general recommendation for an affordable locksmith, we’d love to hear that to.
We locked our keys in our vehicle last year at the Labor Day Ballon Glow (that didn’t even happen because of the rain), and it cost $100 to get them out. I’d to know about a cheap locksmith that doesn’t charge based on the fact that it’s dark outside and you have three small children!
Could you please add a search function to your website. I want to find a particular article you posted a while back about selling gold and can’t find it easily.
Valerie, it’s there – just look on the Search tab next to the recent comments area in the sidebar.
the Fire Department.
that is, when kids are in the car
Oh, good one! I had no idea!
I was going to mention fire dept as well :- ) But I see that has been taken care of!
I accidentally locked my kids in the car one day, it was my parent’s car so I only had the one set of keys. I live pretty far out of town but I called my mom and she headed out but told me to call the fire dept too since it was a warm day. She ended up beating the fire dept there, but they were more then happy to come and didn’t complain a bit even though I had already gotten the boys out. They looked them over a bit and made sure they didn’t look “too warm” or other concerns. Let the boys see their truck and went on their way.
A non-emergency number for the police and fire dept would be handy to have saved in your phone and house since it took awhile to look up a phone number besides 911 :-)
AAA offers that, but of course you need to be a member, but also if you go down to their local offices they can make you a temp plastic back up key. It comes on a plastic card about the size of a credit card (so it can easily fit in your wallet or back pocket) & you just punch it out when you need it. I believe it’s free for members.
Yes, the Fire Department, if a child is locked inside.
This happened to me when my daughter was 1yr old. The fire dept came out and then checked her out to make sure she was ok since it was summer. It took only about 15 mins total!!!
The fire department will always come when there is a child locked in the car! I, too, had a scary incident during the winter (when it was FREEZING outside) where my son had pressed the lock button on my keyless entry attached to my keys while i was putting him in his carseat. Being that it was cold out that day I turned the car on and the heat on full blast and then I got out and closed the doors to go around the car to the other side for something and was so scared because the car was running and he was stuck in his seat. And I spent an hour trying to call locksmith’s to see if any of them to come because it was an emergency. At that time I didn’t care about cost or anything because my son was starting to get scared and was screaming and crying! So i just called the fire department! And they told me that it is actually very common and it is a good way for them to fill their time during their downtimes! lol they were very helpful!
While I think the fire department is the best bet for this circumstance, I have heard that pop-a-lock companies do not charge when there is a child stuck in the car.
Yep, fire dept. for sure – we locked our little one in up at Helen Hunt Falls and they came right up to help us out.
The police or fire department will. The police are better at electric locks. 911 can move quicker than any lock smith they get lights and sirens. The kiddos are really impressed that they were helped by them.
Okay, if you have an older vehicle where the locks pop up at the top of your door by your window, carry a 1/2 tennis ball with you! Put the tennis ball over the keyhole & punch it. The air pressure will force the lock up. New car owners – out of luck on that one!
I locked my son in the car when he was a baby, the police came and unlocked my car for free! Its considered an emergency when its a child, and I think it was a hot day as well.
I keep a spare car key in my purse. (Spare house key, too.)
Of course, if you also leave your purse in your car, you’re out of luck. :)
Embarassingly enough, my wife or I seem to lock our keys in our car about once every 6 months.We have USAA auto insurance w/roadside assistance and they get a lock smith there within about 30 minutes. I don’t know if they can expedite that if there is a child in the car, but we figure we have more than saved the cost of our roadside assistance over the years.
I had my terrier lock me out of my car by stepping on the automatic lock button once. I was in a rural area alone and had stepped out of the car and left the keys in the car because it wasn’t a security issue. I spent almost 45 minutes trying to get her to step on the button again, without success. I finally found a wire and picked my way back in!
I don’t know if this works for every car, but we have tested it out and it works. If you have a keyless entry car, you can call your spouse or someone else who has the second key and have them press the open door button while you hold a phone up to the car. Sounds crazy, but it did work.
Worked on my car! Just have your spouse hold their remote up to their cell phone and press the button. Hold your cell phone near the car. Apparently, from what I read, the cell phone is able to transmit a frequency that we human’s can’t hear, but the car sensor can.
The fire department comes out for free…you can call 911 or another emergency number and they’ll be there faster than any lock-smith in town…and it’s free
We do have a franchise is Denver, you can reach Pop-A-Lock by calling 800-pop-a-lock > that is our nationwide number that will direct you to your local Pop-A-Lock according to the phone you are calling from.
Sorry this happened to you and I do hope that everything is ok – please remember that Pop-A-Lock puts these calls above everything else and in most cases responds within 10-12 minutes depending on time of day and traffic. In Las Vegas the fire department acctualy calls us!! We do tell you at time of dispatch to please call the local fire or police department just to be safe.
Visit our web-site http://www.popalock.com to learn more about us!!
*OH YEAH – we do not charge for EDU service (Emergency Door Unlock – be it child or adult)!!!