So before work last night I stopped at Quick Trip for a pack o' smokes and a gatorade. I locked my car(2008 Charger) via the electronic key fob. My car doesn't take a physical key. It locked up fine and then unlocked fine after my purchases. I then drove to work and locked my car. I usually like to double click the fob to hear the honk of locked reassurance. No honk. My key fob no longer worked. Not to lock, not to unlock and not to pop the trunk or panic. I thought to myself, "****".
A little backstory, a few months ago my car was broken into in my work parking lot. A non-functioning subwoofer and some other stuff I didn't really care about was stolen. Thats water under the bridge at this point. Although I am still peeved that three different police officers said they would file a report and all three failed to do so. STLPD blows hard. Anyway, to get into my car the perp punched the manual lock on my drivers side door in. That is the only physical key lock on my vehicle.
Now, my key fob has a physical key built into it to open the trunk and the driver side door. The trunk can only access the cab of the car if the seats are released from inside the cab. No pushing them forward from the trunk. I also have a spare key, but the battery in it is dead. All of these options were totally useless to me. I was effectively locked out. The VP of my company was helping me figure this out. At first we thought maybe the battery died in my main key. After switching batteries with his key fob we rules that out. My battery worked in his and his did not function in mine. At this point I thought that maybe there was something wrong with my car battery or the electronic mechanism to unlock all the ****. Seeing lights in my trunk, and the knowledge that I absolutely did not leave a light on in my car ruled out dead battery to me, theoretically at least. I figured a new key system would cost me a pretty penny that I didn't really want to spend. Now my VP is a really smart dude. He worked on helicopters in the army and has managed several very successful bakeries. He looked into the hole in my driver side door where the lock was punched, went and got a screwdriver and popped the door open the same way that the guy who broke into it did. I was amazed at just how easy it is to do that. I hopped in and put my key in and she started right up. No dead battery confirmed. The weirdest part was that after driving home, my key works perfectly fine now. Locks, unlocks panics and pops the trunk. **** you Friday the 13th, I win.
I am very similar in habit.
