QotD: Dude Where's My Keys?

What's the story behind a time when you got locked out?

There was a time when I used to work for a rental car company as a "deadhead".  In case you don't know this already, it has nothing to do with being an idiot.. or does it?  Read on and find out..

Our mission: Drive from Kamloops to Penticton with one car and return with another.  The drive isn't all that far, only about 150 miles, but it's not a very fast drive.  As any Canadian (or South Park fan) already knows, in Canada there is only one main road: The Trans Canada Highway.  If you can "follow the only road" to get to your destination, you can make decent time.  But, if you have to take one of the secondary highways, it's likely to wind through narrow mountain passes, a collection of small towns, fields and barns.. but, I digress.

Our instructions:  Lock the keys in the car we're delivering.  For the car we were to pick up, the keys would be under the floor mat. 

Our mistake:  Locking the keys in the drop-off car before checking if we had keys for the pick-up car.  Obviously, we didn't!  So there we were, stuck at a closed airport in the middle of the night with two cars that we can't drive. 

Our good fortune:  A friendly police officer showed up, probably having been called to investigate two hoods poking around the rental cars.  Once we proved that we were there to pick up the car in question, he actually helped us break into the car!  This police officer came equipped with a "slim jim" and was able to assist our ingress so quickly that we were on the road in less than an hour after locking our keys in the car.