Home » Posts » 2004 » November

Can You Spare a Key?
November 9, 2004 at 3:09 pm AST by Rodney MacLeod

Just got back from rescuing my sister in-law. She borrowed our roommate’s car and the key snapped off. Our room mate did not have a spare key. Luckily we were able to get the key out of the ignition and the locksmith at Burke’s on University Ave was able to cut a new key from the broken one.

Two weeks ago my brother was coming home from Halifax and stop off at the in-laws before he came to Charlottetown. While he was there he locked his keys in the car. This being our parent’s car they had an extra key and drove from Summerside to Tryon to unlock the door for him.

It is very important that you always have at least 2 sets of keys, this way if you lose/misplace them then you have another one to fall back on. The spare key is not very good if you can not get to it, so it might be best to keep it on you in a place that probably will not get lock in the car. Women can keep it in their purse, men can keep it in their wallet, or you can hide it on the outside of the car so that would be thieves can easily steal your car.

Having a key buddy helps. When Dwayne and I were roommates we were key buddies. I carried his spare and he carried mine. This came in handy for Dwayne when he had to call me up to get his keys out of his locked and running car.

Just remember to take a spare key with you on trips. Unless you have an incredibly dedicated key buddy, your key buddy probably will not drive out of province to help you get a key out of a locked car, or replace the key you snapped off in the door.

A friend of a friend was visiting the first friend, and being the gentleman that I am I offered to go out to their car and bring in their stuff.. I accidentally snapped the Key off in the lock. They were from out of province and did not have a spare. My buddies Frank and Shawn came out and helped me get the key out of the lock. This is when campus security (my friend lived in UPEI’s Blanchard Hall) drove by and saw three men fiddling with the lock of some car in a dark parking lot. Oops. The police (yes they are legitimate police, not just mall cops) were nice and I believe they even tried to help us. To our relief we retrieved the key and the good man at Burke’s cut us a new key from the two pieces.

There are some situations that a spare key will not help you and for these it is good to carry lock de-icer. Only problem is this does not fit into your wallet and it does absolutely no good inside your car. Assuming your trunk is not going to freeze also, that might be a good place to put it.

Once I had the misfortune of being locked outside of my car on what could have been the coldest windiest night of the year, followed by the coldest windiest day of the year. After fiddling with the locks for a long time while my passengers and I froze, I borrowed the car of someone I was designated to drive home. The next day I brought my father back armed with lock de-icer, at hangers and warmer clothes (which did not seem to keep me any warmer). One bottle of lock de-icer and a whole lot of coat hanger scratches (to us and the car) later we manage to crawl in through the trunk (its lock did not freeze) and get the back seats to fold down. To this day I am terrified every time I lock my car doors in the winter.