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I locked myself and the missus out of the house yesterday. Cost $160 Aus to get a locksmith.

submitted by paul_neri to Rants 10 monthsAug 1, 2024 06:34:52 ago (+17/-3)     (Rants)

We have an internal door to the laundry and in 15 years of living in the place didn't notice it was lockable until I inadvertently locked it. Pushed the button in as I opened and closed it. Suddenly the missus and I were homeless except for a laundry. It was terrifying. We had spare keys outside to the outside door of the laundry, which is the door we always used to enter the house, but only one spare key to the front door (which was on my key ring in the house which I couldn't access) because we don't use it and certainly no key to the internal door I managed to lock.

Went next door to our new neighbours and asked if I could use their phone and this very competent young lady who was visiting found the locksmith's number and put me on to him. But he had another job and was unsure if he could come. We were locked out. Had no money and it's very cold at night. Anyway the locksmith turned up and he wasn't happy about it. He couldn't open the front door and after much trying managed to open the internal door I locked.

Today I went into town to get three new spare keys for the front door ($32 Aus). Came home and not one worked. Went back and the man worked on them again and said he was 99.9% sure they'd work but the only sure way of matching the keys to the lock was to have the lock. Came home and not one worked. So I took out the lock and brought that back to the shop. The man said it was a paper-width of difference that was causing the trouble. Took the lock and keys back home and after much effort (I'm not mechanically skilled) reinstalled the lock - upside down and the thing wouldn't lock. After much effort took it out again and repositioned it so the button-lock worked and after much effort got the stupid thing in the door where it worked and the new keys worked too.

Moral of the story - how one tiny action (me accidentally pushing a button) can have such consequences. Anxiety, effort and cost. I also bought a box of chocolates ($20 Aus) for the people next door. The overall cost ... $200!


46 comments block

Pasty 1 points 10 months ago

We all got to pay it at some point. I got a two gallon lava lamp that only works a quarter of the year because of how long the thing takes to heat up because I thought it looked cool.