Another Myth Debunked

I was recently reminded about an incident earlier this year where I managed to lock myself out of my car. I now feel qualified to offer advice about how not to go about resolving the situation.

I was at a gathering of fellow photographers, 300 miles from home. My car actually does everything in its power to make sure you can’t lock the keys in it. If you try to lock the car from the outside while a key is still inside, it’ll emit a nice long beep as if to say, “Yo! Moron! Your keys are in the car!” But I learned that if you physically click the lock button and shut the door, you can indeed lock the key inside.

There were probably 20 of us standing around evaluating the situation when one of them suggested a rather unorthodox idea. He said that he had heard that if you call someone who has access to the wireless key, they can point it into their cell phone while you point your cell phone at the car. The wireless signal will transmit through the cell phone and will unlock the door – what a cool, clever idea, right?

Well, it would indeed be pretty cool if it worked. Here’s what happens for real. First of all, it means that I had to call Mrs. Smoot and admit to the fact that I had locked myself out of the car, several hundred miles from home (and this was with a car we had owned for less than a year).

Second, it means that I spent a good 5 minutes wandering around the car, pointing my cell phone at it from every conceivable angle, looking like a complete wonk.

And finally, it means that there are probably a couple hundred pictures of me doing all of this, considering I was doing it in the company of a bunch of photographers.