Woman Uses Daughter's Key to 'Steal' Car

[snopes]

A college student who reported that his car was stolen got a surprise when he learned a woman had mistaken it for her daughter's car and taken it - using her key.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070207/D8N4KPA80.html

[Tantei Kid]

I've heard rumors of keys being not highly varried for earlier cars, but to have two together in circumstances like this is a pretty big coincidence. It also fits nicely that the mother wouldn't recognize in short order she had the wrong car, like the actual owners would. I guess that's why it made the news.

[GoMeZu]

The contracting company I used to work for had a chevy S-10 that was the same make and model of the one I used to own ('92 S-10 Tahoe), and they worked off the same set of keys. I used to just pick which one I was going to use at the moment and get in and go.

[FrogFeathers]

In 1985, in Anchorage, Alaska, my parents bought a 1984 Ford Escort from a car rental place when they sold off inventory. In 1987, my brother bought a 1972 Ford Pinto.

They could use their keys in both vehicles. My dad mentioned it to a dealer when he took the Escort in for maintainance and the guy said the same thing about "key technology".

ETA: of course, there's no mistaking an Escort for a Pinto.

[Dactyl]

Not cars, but my housemate at university could open our student digs front door with his home house key.

[RainyDaze]

Growing up my family owned a sedan and a pickup truck which were purchased years apart. It was not until we had the pickup home that we noticed they both used the same key. This does not seem to be as rare as I would have expected.

Back in the '60s my Dad & my uncle had almost identical Chevy Nomad wagons. My Dad got into his wagon to roll the back window down using the power window button, then he realized that it was missing, because he was in the uncle's wag. That was the only difference between the cars, including the keys.

Also, my co-workers house key will unlock the work door & vice-versa.

[diddy]

My uncle sells cars and he said that there is only a certain number of cut types per brand and year to make it easier to cut new keys. It was set up though so that you wouldnt be able to explait it (the cars would look so different that mistaking it would be tough. It was several years ago when he told this to me.

[Fantine]

The year after I graduated from college, I lived in a high-rise apartment building for low income residents while I completed a year of national service with AmeriCorps. The walls, doors, and apparently the locks, were cheap, cheap, cheap. A man who lived in apartment 617 once unlocked the front door of my apartment (517) with his own key and walked in before realizing he was on the wrong floor. Scary.

My daughter-in-law borrowed my Bravada to go to the grocery store. She brought her youngest daughter with her. When she put her in her carseat, she set her purse down beside the car seat, closed the door, and went around to the drivers side. Before she got there, my granddaughter had gotten the keys out of her purse and pushed the lock button on the fob. My DIL went into a panic attack when she realized what had happened. She was ready to break out a window when one of the people who had gathered (attracted by her yelling and crying) suggested that they try other vehicle keys. The 7th or 8th set they tried unlocked the door. From what I was told, I believe the keys went to a Chevy Suburban.

[Lunasa]

I've seen it too... in the early 90s my parents had a Dodge Sundance. The keys to it also worked on my great aunt's car, I think it was a Chrysler Dynasty. At the time we heard several other stories of the same thing.

[8Ball]

A couple of years ago I drove away from home in my Ford Aerostar. I was only after I came out from the store and went to unlock the door (it would not unlock) that I realized I had grabbed the keys to my Ford pick-up.

[Delta-V]

I've heard wildly different numbers for the possible variations of car keys. Everything from 64 for early GM vehicles to 10 million for modern ones. For a classic pin-style lock, it depends on the number of pins and the number of possible positions. Plus certain adjacent grooves may not be allowed (max depth next to min depth, for example) because of the angle or weakening the key. Add to that the fact that the key and lock must be able to operate in temperatures from -60 to 160degF and from brand new to well-worn. That means the lock must have a pretty large tolerance of pin position due thermal expansion/contraction and wear.

[franjava]

I could open my in-laws' Escort with my key and they could open mine with theirs. Wouldn't work in the ignitions, though.

A coworker could use his Ford pickup key in a couple of our Ford ambulances.

I accidentally put my key in someone else's Matrix, but it wouldn't unlock. TDOYC!

I'm not at all surprised this happend.

(My key in someone else's Matrix. HA!!)

[kanazawa]

Actually, mid-80's Japanese cars are notorious for this. When I bought my 86 Toyota truck a few years back, one of the door locks was missing. I just walked around the junkyard with key in hand and got one that worked. Probably only went through 3-4 different trucks.

My girlfriend in college had an 84 Nissan that I could start with my Honda key.

And I recently saw something on Cops where they were trying to figure out how a guy stole a car (no evidence of hot wiring, etc). The crook made some comment about it being mid-80's and Japanese.

Now that I think of it (big score for me), once my former boss locked her keys in her Toyota at an offsite meeting we were attending. I just asked around at the meeting if anyone had a Toyota key, and with a little jiggling the lock popped right open.

[Not_Done_Living]

I think this is why keys now-a-days are chipped. Which is actually not such a good thing..

I had my key go bad while out on an emergancy run to pick up my haloween costume while the kids were at dance...

Stuck my key in teh ignition and it said "key not valid" on my console..

luckily i had the spare in the my coat pocket... kids would been upset if they had missed halloween!

[Victoria J]

Originally Posted by Fantine

The year after I graduated from college, I lived in a high-rise apartment building for low income residents while I completed a year of national service with AmeriCorps. The walls, doors, and apparently the locks, were cheap, cheap, cheap. A man who lived in apartment 617 once unlocked the front door of my apartment (517) with his own key and walked in before realizing he was on the wrong floor. Scary.

Some of the housing at my University was like this. I think it was just their properties off campus so there weren't as many keys as they might have been but there seemed to be just 10 different locks/keys. They were numbered differently but any lock number ending with a 2 could be a key ending with a 2, even if it was a 32 and a 02 etc. Worse the ones ending with a 1 could be opened with the buildings front door key...

Victoria J

[Signora Del Drago]

Once my daughter, her family and I started to get in what we thought was their car. My son-in-law, using his key, had unlocked the door. My granddaughter, then six years old, said that it wasn't our car. We were all tired and told her to get in. She did, protesting all the while. I got in the back seat with her, son-in-law started the car, and all three of the adults said at the same time, "Hey, this isn't the right car!" We got out very quickly, looking around and hoping we hadn't been seen. :o Daughter's car was one row over, facing the same way, in the same row position. We all apologized to granddaughter for not listening to her. She was very mature about it and didn't say "I told you so!"

[Eddylizard]

I once hired a car on a small island from a firm that operated a fleet of identical small red hatchbacks.

After parking in the town square we went about our business, then returned to the car. I inserted the key and nothing. It wouldn't open. I became increasingly frustrated over the course of the next fifteen minutes (what the nfbsf is wrong with this nfbsking thing), until Mrs. L. pointed to an identical vehicle parked nearby and said "perhaps that's our one."

When I was at school, I could open (but not start) my car with my locker key.