Locked out of your car in The Beaches?
On a one-way residential street, the nearest cross street and the side you are parked on find you faster than a house number. The technician is driving slowly past a line of parked cars, looking for one of them.
From $95. You hear the full price on the call and nobody sets out until you agree. Open daily, 7am to 10:30pm.
What should I say so the technician finds the car?
Start with the street and the nearest corner, then the side you are on. Add the make and the colour. If you are in a parking lot, name the entrance you drove in by and roughly how far along you are.
Then stay where you can see the road. On a narrow street the van may have to stop in the lane for a moment, and a wave from the sidewalk saves a second trip around the block.
Parked in a laneway behind the main street? Leslieville covers how to describe one.
Where exactly are the keys?
It decides how the car is opened, so it is the second thing you are asked.
On the seat, in the ignition or in the cup holder
The standard job. An air wedge opens a narrow gap at the top of the door and a long-reach tool presses the unlock switch.
In a bag in the trunk of a sedan
A door is opened first, then the trunk with the release by the driver's seat or through the fold-down rear seat. More in keys locked in the trunk.
In the back of a hatchback or an SUV
Nothing extra. Once any door is open, the tailgate unlocks with the rest of the car.
You cannot see them
Say so. If the keys may be lost and not locked in, opening the car will not get you home, and it is better to know that before a technician drives out.
The wait, and what to have ready
A technician usually reaches you 20 to 30 minutes after the call. Summer weekend traffic near the water can add to that, and you get an arrival time for your spot on the phone. Opening the door takes a few minutes.
Have photo ID ready, plus the ownership or insurance slip. If they are locked in the glovebox, they are checked as soon as the car is open.
Two more things about a tight spot
Can the car be opened if it is parked tight between two others?
Yes. The work is done at the top of a front door, standing beside the car, so it needs about as much room as you need to get in.
Is there anything I should not try while I wait?
A coat hanger or a wire through the window seal. On most cars built in the last twenty years it reaches nothing useful, and it tears the seal and scratches the glass.
Keys on the seat, doors locked?
Call with the street, the corner and the side you are on.
Open daily, 7am to 10:30pm