Keys locked in car boot.

Keys locked in car
Lexus IS200 non destructive entry.

90% of the time when called to a vehicle with keys locked in the car / boot it will be raining. This case of keys locked in the boot in Ross on Wye was no exception to the rule.

It was dry when taking photos of the vehicle before touching it. By the time tools touched the car it was a cloudburst for the next few minutes.

We open vehicles without damage. We have the correct tools for the purpose, and the knowledge how to use them. We do not bend doors open, stick bits of coat hanger or string down the side of the door, or try any of the YouTube fantasies such as half tennis balls. That’s just going to damage or bend your door, perhaps shatter your window, or at best make you look a wally.

If your car has been deadlocked then no amount of fishing about with bits of wire down the side of the door will open it. You need an auto locksmith to make a non destructive entry, or find yourself a brick and a new window.

A few weeks ago I was called to cut a replacement car key somewhere in the Forest as it had snapped. It was a weekend evening. One of the national breakdown companies was sending somebody from Luton to cut the key – at a cost of £600!!!! The customer was required to expected to pay this up front and the breakdown company would subsequently reimburse them. The customer understandably rang around locally instead and cancelled the guy coming from Luton.

Last week I opened an car for a customer who had been locked out, standing in a supermarket car park for 10 hours. 2 patrols from a national breakdown service had been unable to open the boot to retrieve the keys and they had sent a recovery truck to take it away. Due to being a cabriolet there was no boot release inside the main body of the car. The boot had probably never been opened with the key since the day the car was built. It’s always worth using your metal key to open the doors every so often, just to stop the locks from seizing.