... and then I realised that I had no driving licence .....

[jackwall5]

Most of the time, I'm fairly sensible and manage to avoid doing silly things, then one in a while, boy can I really get myself in a pickle.

I live and work in Vienna and I'd just driven into Hungary and to set the scene, picture [if you can] an old Soviet era military camp, now unused, in dis-repair, grey, barren, cold [particularly in January] and pretty much unforgiving.

I'm there with some friends for a photo shoot. For the purpose of not loosing my other keys, I'd taken my car key off the key ring and planned to just carry the car key with me. Pointless I now feel and the first silly action of the day!

I had the key out of the ignition and in my hand when a friend asked me for something. I opened the boot of my W203 C220 CDI Elegance to retrieve the lens or whatever it was, and with the boot lid open and needing to use both hands, I foolishly put the put on the rubber seal to the side of the boot mouth, just where the side of the boot lid meets the main boot body of the car.

Suddenly, I realised I'd left an important bag at my local house [a short drive away] and being a little annoyed with myself for forgetting it, and indeed, not wanting to delay proceedings, I instinctively closed the boot and moved to the driver side of the car in a bit of rush.

I think it was the flashing of the indicators that stopped me before I got to the drivers door.

"Bugger" to put it politely was quietly uttered and a moment later when my brain has caught up with my utter muppetness, I may have uttered a couple of other words :-?

The boot lid, upon being closed, had pressed against the key, triggered the lock button and locked the car.

I ran the scenario in my head, Gaby looking at me trying to translate my facial expressions for the first 10 or 15 seconds before he himself worked out what I had done.
Only thing to do was get the spare key. 'Don't suppose you have the spare key handy Jack?" he asked. As if!!!!!

House keys [both houses], mobile, equipment, everything was locked in the car. The second set of car keys were in Vienna, quite a trip away. My partner was out of town.

I had my wallet in my pocket, and that's all. Now I have two wallets, one is my regular and the other is used for times when I'm out and about and don't need all my cards and so on. Problem was I didn't swap over my driving licence, which is a bit of a no no over here!

I needed to cross the old iron curtain border, get back to Vienna and hope my neighbours were in [spare house key] as they are outdoors people who seem never to be in.

As a group here, we'd only planned a couple of hours and now this was all in the toilet.

I figured it'd take me 7 hours round trip, plus 'get into my house in Vienna and find the spare key' time .... not forgetting my driving licence of course.

The shoot was kinda banjaxed at this stage so sheeplishly I explained the situation to the chuckles of everyone and we agreed to do it the following weekend!

They said they didn't mind too much .... and I knew they were being kind!

Gaby offered to drive.

My biggest worry, once I worked out the logistical problem solving bit, was having to leave my new to me, shiny C220 sitting along on that abandoned base.

The story has a happy ending and all is well .... but that flat key [you know, the one with no buttons on it that stashes into your wallet ...... I've found that little design thought from MB to be outstanding and this unlikely mistake will not be allowed to happen again.

Drive Safe

 

[jberks]

Very easily done. Arms full of stuff but cleverly remembered to take the key out of your pocket before you loaded up, now, pop the boot with the remote, put everything in the boot and slam it shut - lights flash to say the car is relocking itself - now, where's my keys?
I used to carry that little slim key in my wallet but I didn't get one with this E class. Makes you think. I'm 60 miles from home at the moment -- if my key was lost/damaged, I'm stuffed.

 

[tromppost]

Bet you won't do that again.I love Hungary, spent 10 weeks working in Budapest.

 

[jon cash]

next time it happens, ring your neighbours and whilst they are on the phone to you get them to unlock the car using the spare key and it travels over the phone line and unlocks the car, i personally havent tried it but i have been assured it works.

 

[Blobcat]

next time it happens, ring your neighbours and whilst they are on the phone to you get them to unlock the car using the spare key and it travels over the phone line and unlocks the car, i personally havent tried it but i have been assured it works.

Unfortunately 412Mhz or IR don't travel over the phone network so that option is nothing more than an urban myth.

I must admit I miss my little flat key that I had with my W210, they don't do them now :-(.

My W211 locked itself this week at the top of a snowy hill in Yorkshire by a high power VHF transmitter. It would not unlock from the key at all so I had to use the metal blade in the back of it to unlock the car. The alarm went off but the IR and inductive part worked so I started it and drove off no problem. I have visited many transmitting stations but this is the first time it has locked itself.

 

[television]

There are many ways to get caught out, I normally keep my house key in my pocket, but this time I stuck it in with the phone, opened the electric garage door, and drove in. pushed the button to close the door, and walked up to the front door,,are key I thought and ran back and the garage door was closed, and this was at 1am in the morning. Having no access to the rear of my house it was dustbin out, climb onto a workshop roof and drop 10 feet down to the rear patio , go into the rear garage door and get the key. snag is that I am too old for this, and it will not be any better tomorrow