Finding yourself being locked out of the car will surely spoil your day. But it's truly a disaster if your 18 month old baby is locked inside the car as well.
And it's what happened to me late afternoon yesterday.
It was a usual evening when I was picking up my son from the babysitter's place. He wanted to play with my car key, and as always, I absent-mindedly let him so I could have a peaceful brief conversation with my babysitter about his day. Then I buckled him up in his car seat, and as I was about to grab the car key he had dropped under his car seat, my cell phone rang... Now if you ever exprienced those gold-fish memory moments, then you might be able to relate to what I did... Well, being a sleepdeprived, 8 month pregnant working mother most definitely (and maybe permanently) damaged your brain! I hurriedly closed his door, reaching toward the driver's door to get to my cell phone only to find that the car is locked! I couldn't believe it! My son must've locked it while playing with the key. And the key is inside the car. And my baby... I panicked. I hopelessly ran around the car pulling on every door...
So many thoughts ran through my head, and then I ran to ring my babysitter's door bell, barely could find my voice to speak: "auntie, auntie, I locked my boy inside the car. Hurry, can you lend me something so I can break the window to get inside?" She immediately realized what happened and tried to calm me down, insisting that breaking the window was not the best idea, and went to get her husband to help.
Meanwhile I ran through every possible solution in my mind... I had a spare key at home but of course my husband was out of town... Maybe I could borrow their car to drive home, but my car already blocked the driveway... Maybe I could call a locksmith but it was gonna take an hour or more for him to get here and by then my baby'd probably be running out of air inside there... I ran inside their home again and yelled: "auntie, uncle, I need to break the window, there is no other way, please lend me something..."
By then my babysitter had been able to explain what happened to her husband, who came out and dismissed my idea as crazy and unnecessary. Derek was crying in the car as I looked through the window, probably wondering why mommy left him in the car alone for so long. Meanwhile, my babysitter's husband got online and searched for a locksmith. I tried to calm down as she said being panic only made my unborn feel distressed (oh!) and went googling for a locksmith myself. I found a few legitimate looking contacts, and called them. One of them told me that he'd get here in 15 minutes. Good. Another one gave me a bit of advice: in general no locksmith will be able to get here that fast, I'd probably be better off calling 911... I called the other locksmith again to check to make sure that he'd get here fast only to find out that he's on the 101 and Indian School. I just drove here from Phoenix myself, and I knew he'd get here in more like 1 hour in stead of 15 minutes!
I was dialing 911. I couldn't wait anymore. I had barely hung up the phone when a huge fire truck came from nowhere and parked right in front of the house, and 6 huge firemen jumped out! They were huge (yeah, I know I said "huge" before), and yet so friendly, and I immediately felt somewhat relieved. I've got help. They tried to unlock the car, assured me that my baby was fine as it was cool outside... (apparently the baby was doing fine as he was smiling and watching the 6 firemen curiously.) He said if this had been a hot summer day then they'd just break the window. (My idea wasn't crazy, see...) It took them a while, as my car had a motion sensor and with my son inside moving, it had automatically activated the alarm, which meant that only using the remote key would work. They used a device to crack the door open a little bit, then using a stick to get the car key, and then finally the car's doors flung open...
It was a while after holding my baby that my senses came back to me. Now that I'd pulled myself together and all of them had gone, I realized how entertaining it must've looked watching six tall, well-built men surrounding the little car trying to rescue a baby, all of them very professional, polite, very caring, and handsome ;) One guy even gave my baby a little bear afterward before waving goodbye. It was not the first time that 911 had come to my rescue this year, and all of these incidents could've been avoided if daddy was home... Well, let's just say daddy has missed a few chances to look like a true hero in mommy's eyes :) The other time that I dialed 911 for help, well, is another story...
NOTE: 2 things I learned from this:
1. I would never ever again got locked out of the car, at least not with my son in it.
2. Calling 911 in situation like this, especially when it's hot outside, is appropriate. However, you can also call your auto dealer who will have the best mechanism to unlock the car. You can also call 1800-POP-A-LOCK who will unlock the car for you, for free, if your child is trapped in there. Also, breaking the window is appropriate if it's extremely hot outside because there's a risk that your child will get overheat very fast.
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