LaggedyAnne's tips above are really good. There were a couple of instances that were not mentioned that I wanted to bring up.
Don't
- Lock your keys in the car with your kid inside.
- Lock your keys in the car with your kid inside and your car not running.
- Lock your keys in the car with your pet inside.
- Lock your keys in the car with your baby inside his or her car seat.
But, if somehow you have managed to do any of the above, there is a handy solution if you are near any decent sized
town -
call 911. Seriously. All of the above situations classify as an
emergency whether you want to make a big deal out of it or not. Most
firetrucks carry some form of vehicle entry, whether it be a
Slim Jim, a
Z-Tool, a lock-picking kit, or an
axe.
And for those of you wondering, it is a very common occurance for the above to happen. I am a firefighter for Hillsborough County Fire Rescue, and we run over 1000 calls for child locked in a vehicle a year. I personally have run quite a few and three memorable ones:
- Mom needed to run into the local grocery store for a minute. Decided to park in front of the store (in the fire lane) and leave the car running with her four-year old inside. She runs inside, and when she comes back out he has gotten out of his seatbelt and locked all of the doors. We get called out, and just as I manage to get the passenger door unlocked, he runs over and locks it again. We spent about 10 minutes distracting him enough to pop the lock again and open the car.
- Mom decides she needs to run in and mail a letter, and since her 6-month old is sleeping and she really doesn't want to wake him, she parks, shuts off the car, and runs inside the post office. About two minutes later when she comes back out she realizes she has locked the keys inside the car. She ran back inside and they called 911. We were on scene in less than three minutes, and simply broke the window (Hillsborough County = Tampa, FL, and it was about 93 degrees outside). Infant's temperature was around 101, and we transported him to the hospital (he was fine afterwards, but mom got a ticket for it).
- Mom decides she needs to run inside the grocery store, leaves the car running, with her 3 and 4-year olds inside it. When she comes back out they have locked the car door. She goes back inside, and calls 911. We respond out there, and as we are pulling up, the 4-year old figures out what that lever near the steering wheel is for, throws the car into drive, and we watch it drive forward into a concrete pilling. Did about $500 damage to the car, and mom got a ticket (the kids were fine).
Though the three cases above were all
moms, we have had dads do it too. Usually they just break out the window before we get there to show their
masculine pride.
So please, please, please, if you are going to take your kids or pets to the store and you aren't going to take them inside - DON'T TAKE THEM TO THE STORE. But if you do, and you do run into a similar situation, don't be afraid to call us out there. It's our job, and we promise not to laugh until after we get the car unlocked.