As above, what's the best place to hide spare keys to avoid locking yourself out from home.
Where to Hide Spare Keys to Avoid Getting Locked out?
dcep on 17/04/2018 - 11:22
Comments
Are you referring to the problem of locking yourself out, and the keys are still in the House?
If so, then the ideal solution is to have a 'dead lock' fitted to your entry/exit door. That way the door has to be physically locked with the key, so no chance of locking the key inside.
You can leave them with me.
Under a rock in a waterproof bag.
Leave the key in the door. Seriously, well sort of. I'd leave the key anywhere out of plain sight but you don't need to over think it.
I often wonder why we care so much about locking our house up when we have windows that any motivated intruder can simply smash and get in. Or take a roof tile off and come in through the manhole. How many people leave the door from their yard into their garage open or unlocked (but lock the door from the garage into the house)? Enter the garage through the already open door and kick your way through the plaster wall.
My point is, if someone wants to break into your house they will! They probably aren't going to search your yard high and low for a key you may or may not have hidden somewhere.
Exactly. I have a glass sliding door, and rocks that are less than 2m away from it. Any thief can get in easily. If they're slightly less brazen they could break one of the smaller windows.
Locking in the doors stops low effort intruders, and helps with insurance liability.
If you don't have patio locks then you can push it forward (sometimes you just rock the top forward) and lift it over the lock.
I've never seen a sliding door I couldn't open in less then 10 seconds.
Our sliding door is covered by a security screen with a three point lock. You're not going to get around it by lifting it. But, as mentioned, breaking and entering is pretty easy.
Can't remember where I read it, but the gist was that the idea of locks is not to make your house impenetrable, so much as it is to make your house more trouble/less desirable to break into than someone elses. Opportunistic thieves don't want to climb walls/move tiles/smash windows/kick through doors/make noise/get caught, but they will happily go through your car/house if you leave the door unlocked and they can be in and out in a minute.
The main issue with your suggestion is that it will void an insurance claim.
Locks are only for keeping out honest people. Intruders know all the hiding places people use anyway.
Leave a spare key with a neighbour you can trust
…and who will be at home when you are locked out.
Maybe have your key in great hiding spot at neighbors house, and there key in great hiding spot outside your house. That way if neighbor not home or too late at night and dont want to wake them, can still get your key.
Most criminals and thieves aint too bright. And nobody would suspect it (until now) . They would probably just keep trying the key in every door, then give up. I doubt they would think to try it on the houses next door to see if it fits.
Before you overthink this, imagine that you have locked yourself out; how would you get in?
90% of the time that is how the burglar will get in.
If that is easier than searching for a spare key, then rest assured a burglar won't bother either.
Never, ever leave a key on top of the door frame, under a mat or plantpot or hanging on a string in the letter box.I hadn't thought of a string in the letterbox, will need to start checking the neighbour's boxes.
Lol a mate cut into above the doorjam and puts toothpaste so it's flat again lol
Hide a key rock !
Fake power point. While on the subject of security, don’t put home on your gps, they have got your car, address and garage remote.
Very good advice.
Use an address nearby, so you can still use the 'home' feature without revealing your actual address.
Don't leave your garage remote in the car.
If you have a GPS enabled sports watch and you run or cycle from home, make sure you don't share your track publicly.https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/28/fitness-tracki…
Funny story:
Quite a few years ago (pre-machinery), my Uncle worked as a sextant in a small country town’s cemetery.
So he would have to dig the hole, go home and change into a suit for the burial/funeral service, go home change again to do the final part of the burial.
There could be more than 1a day too and the day in question was a busy day.
He had forgotten his key, so in his grubby and very dirty clothes he was climbing through a window when caught by the police. He could not convince them it was his house and he had to change to get back for a funeral (even named the deceased). He did convince them to get the wife to identify him - which they did. He was late for that funeral!
Do you mean sexton or did he act as a navigational instrument from time to time also?
Hmm I said the same thing two hours earlier but didn't realise this comment was a dupe.
Yep, I saw your post a second after I posted this. Looks like I've nicked your upvotes. I humbly apologise and give your comment the single upvote I have to offer :)
Funny story:
Quite a few years ago (pre-machinery), my Uncle worked as a sextant in a small country town’s cemetery.
So he would have to dig the hole, go home and change into a suit for the burial/funeral service, go home change again to do the final part of the burial.
There could be more than 1a day too and the day in question was a busy day.
He had forgotten his key, so in his grubby and very dirty clothes he was climbing through a window when caught by the police. He could not convince them it was his house and he had to change to get back for a funeral (even named the deceased). He did convince them to get the wife to identify him - which they did. He was late for that funeral!
learnt new word today … sextant
But is the word sextant or sexton?
maybe the uncle was used to navigate to the grave site - sextant.
I feel like I've read a story like this not long ago
OMG deja vu
In your pocket
- Use a lock box
- Don't get locked out, seriously, how hard is it to remember your keys?
- If you have to leave something out, leave a lockpick kit in a hiding place. You'll get back in after a while, but you'll probably never make the mistake again.
Don't get locked out, seriously, how hard is it to remember your keys?
Occasionally I have gone out without keys assuming there will be someone home upon my return (for a run or ride). I've been locked out because of this. Now I stash a key before I leave and use it to get back in upon return.
Hide one spare house key in the fuse box in your car. Many cars have two fuse boxes so the inside one (under the steering wheel) is probably better. Use blu-tac to stick it to the side.
You probably want to hide another somewhere else though, because you won't always come home in your own car.
One awesome hack I learned, is to take a good photo of your house key. Maybe encrypt the photo and save it in the cloud. A good locksmith can cut a key from a photo (assuming it's a two dimensional shaped key).
I'd be hesitant to add superfluous metal objects to my fuse box. I think on top of the spare tyre would be safer.
Harder to access though, depending on the car.
I doubt there would be any added safety risk of a single key stuck to the lid/side of the fuse box under the steering column? The fuse box is full of highly conductive copper wires and terminals anyway. Fuse boxes in the engine bay are surrounded by an abundance of metal.
If you stuck the key on the spare tyre and didn't take it off when you need to fit the spare tyre, that key will then become a lethal, flying projectile.
I'm not afraid of it staying in place, I'm afraid of it come loose and causing a short.
As to not removing the key from the spare tyre, how would you not notice it?
And a key coming off a tyre is going to have a maximum speed relative to the ground, of twice the speed of the car. A 200km/h key might hurt, but I don't think it's lethal. But mud guards are a thing and do a pretty good job of stopping things. Small objects (and large) get flung up by tyres all the time, and you don't see pedestrians falling down dead, the chances of something coming off at the right angle to have a significant velocity, and missing the guards, and hitting someone? You're much more likely to get hit by the vehicle itself.
What if you forget your car key? :)
Then you can't get home?
If you have a scary dog, could hide it around dogs neck. There is probably something already available, if not, im sure it wouldn't be hard to attach some charm to dog collar which can put key inside. If its a really scary/dangerous dog, have the key highly visible around dogs neck. That way if they are dumb&desperate enough, dog will bite their hand off when they try it.
hang it around his nut sack, no one will touch that
Good idea, or an outside cat that is shy of strangers but will come when you call it.
Solved - xiaomi door lock
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/373002
Then you only need to trust Xiaomi and you know you can ;>Hidden in a locket on the collar of my not so friendly rottweiler?
Just saw that someone else thought of this trick too >.<
Smart lock to sit inside the house, and the outside is still key operable.
If you lose your key use phone to unlock door.
I put the spare key in the mailbox and the mailbox key inside the house.
what if you lock yourself out without the mailbox key?
well you can't really lock yourself out of the mailbox, but if you do then just simply go into the house and get the mailbox key
unfortunately i live in an apartment building with a lockable mailbox.. So far we've locked ourselves out at least twice..
@cray: I see, then keep the mailbox key inside your unit, so if you lock yourself out of the mailbox, you can just go inside the unit and get the mailbox key.
@cray: Lol.. just having a crack.. in all seriousness, just make a copy of your mailbox and keep it in your wallet or something.. and tape the spare key on the top part of the mailbox :)
I just leave my doors unlocked. Problem solved!
Don't hide it in the electricity meter box, it's not very secure.
There's a shock.
Inside an old shoe in the shoe rack
Ive blu-taced a spare front door key to the side of my switch which is inside my rack in the garage. It's come in handy when Ive left my bunch of keys in the house. Wont be useful if Im locked out of the garage though.
In dog poo
Didn't see this posted previously thought it was a unique idea lol
If you walk around the exterior of your house, and can't find an out of sight spot where you could fit a key, then you're not trying hard enough.
I hang it on my scary dogs collar
I like to use the combination style key Box's.
BUT
I hide the box on the street somewhere, hidden, but not to close to me house. In doing so, even if they get into the safe they do not know what house the key is for.
Inside the cylindrical plastic door stop beside the door
Inside your rectum
Hide it in an outdoor wall light. Then it works as a 2 prong security system, if the robbers end up managing to find the key, they'll burn the hell out of their hand
But then how do you retrieve it without burning your hand? Unless you use it as a decoy, put a fake key in there with the real one hidden somehewhere else if you're really sick and sadistic. 😈
Hide some gloves under the front mat. Best case, they find them and think you're an axe murderer and will move onto an unsuspecting neighbour ;)
I guy I work with keeps one inside a pole on his pool fence. He just takes the cap off and puts the key in there. Best spot I've heard of so far.
Got one of these
https://www.groupon.com.au/deals/ene-logistics-pty-ltd-124Lockbox. Used it for the tradies when they were fixing my house.
Can change the code later tooIf you have an old house, there's probably a crack or two you could hide it in. Under a rock in the garden, hidden amongst bushes. Somewhere not very obvious.
Super glue a magnet and hide the key at the nearest Auspost Mailbox. In my case it’s a 300m walk. Good luck on locating the right house and the right door to the would be robber.
But there’s 7 keys on our nearest box. Can’t remeber which one is mine.
Take them all home, unlock your door, then take them all back.
Taped under the lid of the black/yellow bins, or taped under wheel arches of car if you need to leave the key out for somebody else.
Saw adverised someone had a stepping stone and glued a plastic box to keep the keys in on the underside. Dug a hole to fit the stone with the box. Cool idea!
Put it in a snap lock bag and bury it in the yard.
On the back of your phone. (Assuming you have a case and is not also your wallet)
We've got 11 pots of herbs in our small vertical garden, under the pot x lies the house key.
We have got access to side door so that we can walk towards the back of the house.
Serious question: how do you get locked out?
Do you just forget to take your keys?
My doors need to be locked with key if on the outside. And I always lock them when I leave. Which means I must have the keys on me or it won't lock. If I don't have the keys, then the door can't be locked, which means I can go back in and get them.
But I never leave home without my keys anyway. I rarely go places on foot, and if I do, it's for a walk, but I won't be alone. When I take the car, I obviously have the car keys, which is also where my house keys are attached.
I can imagine being locked out of a rental hotel, but the reception should have a spare key.
The door at my apartment can be locked from the inside and the door self-closes. If I happen to run out without my keys, I'm stuffed. I've done this twice and my partner once.. Didn't expect to be the forgetful type.
When you open the door from the inside, you have to undo the lock. So to lock it from the inside, you have to consciously lock it, right? Why would you do that? Or is it a case of, you thought you had your keys on you but actually didn't? I always know when my keys are on me, because I can feel them. It's hard not to notice that.
In any case, I'm not sure if there are good hiding spots for spare keys to apartments.
Unfortunately when we open the door from the inside to go out, we dont have to undo the lock.. Just pull the lever and off we go. Only when we return home and unlock with the key would we need to physically lock the door from the inside again.. hope that made sense.
Thinking of getting a combination lock (https://padlocks4less.com/mailbox-combination-locks) for the letterbox and put another combination box inside the letterbox where the spare key will be stored, now just need strata to give the OK to mod the letterbox lock..
When I was younger I locked myself out once or twice, but ever since I got a car the front door key has always stayed attached to the car key.
(unlike my wife who puts every single key on the car keyring! You never come in through the side door or windows so why take those keys everywhere!)Then when I leave I do the pocket pat test to make sure three pockets have something in them!
Hasn't failed me yet, touch wood.
Failing that, I always leave a windows or 2 open anyway :)
my keys buried under the ground . thief and me need an industrial metal detector to find it
I have a key safe in my meterbox
Where's the best place to hide a grain of sand? At the beach.
Fill your wheelie bin with 10,000 keys. Hide your key in there.
Gets expensive when you need to buy 10,000 keys each week.
You're doing it wrong, it needs to go in the recycling bin, then you only have to replace them each fortnight.
Fun fact: the keys can all be the same. Once the bandit sees all those keys he would think there was no way the owner put that many keys to the actual front door out in the open!
Under a W.. a big W !!
You live in a mad, mad world!
I was just thinking about this movie the other day.
In a plastic bag dug away in the garden. Make sure dog has no access.
I’d leave the spare key at work. You can always go back and get it - might take you an hour but it’s a safe option.
No mail box for me. But i have a few acres to hide keys.
Its when your out bush and you lose your car keys that scares me. I can easliy pop a few louvres to get into the house but i cant hot wire a car.