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Comment by StavrosK | Hacker News Reader

Lockpicking skills come in handy in those situations. This reminds me of the time a friend got locked out of his car, but his trunk was open. The car only had 4 doors, however, so it wasn't much use.

In the trunk was a broomstick, some rope and a, erm, we call them "parrot wrenches". Fortunately, one of the rear speakers could be lifted up a bit, so I fastened the wrench to the broomstick with the rope and slid it through the small hole (it was just enough to fit). Through that small hole, I manoeuvred to the rear door lock and pushed it up.

All my friends remember that MacGuyver moment to this day.

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I miss having an old car -- a few years back I had recently moved overseas, and was driving a car I could reasonably buy with cash from the ATM (no bank account yet, etc). Well, one day I managed to lock my keys in the car (and myself, my wife and 2 friends out of it) while we were at the grocery store. I turned around, jogged back into the store, bought a screwdriver and a coat-hanger, and jogged back out. The screwdriver was to push the upper corner of the door away from the frame (easy to open a little space, but hard to do with just fingers); the coat hanger was to snag the lock and pull it up.

The hardest part was actually getting the screwdriver out of its damned unbreakable-but-dangerously-sharp plastic packaging.

All-in-all, we only got home about 5 minutes later than we would have!

I've helped people into their cars by using a hatchet blade to bend the door just enough to take a long rod and press the "unlock" button. I learned to do this on my own car, and would demonstrate to anyone who thinks that bending metal is a Bad Thing.

My bf and I broke into a property we were staying in for the weekend after we accidentally locked ourselves out by unscrewing the entire door handle (it was an old house and in the country). We tried picking it before we cottoned onto this idea but neither of us had any picking skills... then we noticed that the screws for the door handle section were entirely on the outside of the door! Many high fives were had.

I've had to break into a ridiculous amount of vehicles for friends that have locked their keys in. Pretty much every car window will give you at least an inch or two of room with enough wiggling/pushing. And then at that point you just need to move it a bit to get your wrist in and a stick to flick up the lock.

Though you're screwed if there's no 'lip' on the lock to get something under to flip it up.

When I was in high school my parents once gave me the ignition key to their van, but didn't tell me there was a separate door key. Fortunately I'd left the windows open a crack, and used the cable from my headphones to make a lasso to pull the lock open.

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