Calling 911 (already)

A cool front blew in Saturday afternoon, so Sunday morning it was in the mid 60’s and beautiful outside. We decided to take Logan to the park, and the Hubs was going to pass out samples from his company to runners/walkers/cyclers.

I walked about a mile and Logan got a little fussy so I decided we would wait in the car until the Hubs was done. I used the remote start (circle symbol pushed once, lock symbol pushed twice) so the a/c and radio would be on. I clicked Logan in, shut the door, folded up the stroller and walked to the back to put it in. The back door wouldn’t open. Weird, we usually just touch the button and it opens since the key is in range. I tried the passenger door and the driver door and both were locked. Then I looked inside Humphrey and the keys and my phone were sitting on the console. The circle symbol-lock symbol combo locked the effing car WITH the keys in it…AND our Milkshake. How does that happen?!!! By this point Logan was screaming.

I saw the hubs and tried to yell to him what happened without everyone in the park hearing ‘I locked the baby in the car!!!’ because I knew she was ok, but we had to get in the car ASAP. It wasn’t hot and the a/c was on…take a deep breath MommaE. The Hubs called a friend that lives close to see if be could bring us the key but he wasn’t available. I knew it wasn’t necessary to break a window just yet, we don’t have AAA or OnStar so I suggested we call the fire department. I knew there was one a block a way but I didn’t know the phone number. So for the first time as a mom I called 911.

The fire truck arrived at the park with sirens and lights on in about 3 minutes. They jumped out and went to work trying to pop the lock. One firefighter’s main job was to keep checking on Logan with the flashlight to see if she was perspiring or not moving. Not our girl, she was still screaming (made me feel terrible but I was glad we could tell she was ok). Next, two constable cars arrived, then the constable that patrols the park on the Polaris arrived. By this time there was a crowd and one very annoying park goer that kept asking me (while I had tears running down my face and was obviously super upset) if someone passed out. I told her we locked the keys in the car. She still would not leave my side (no, I did NOT want her there) and said to her friend in a very rude tone, “I didn’t know they call the fire department for locking your keys in the car.” Obviously it was more serious than that, but telling a nosey stranger I locked our baby in the car was not something I wanted to do.

The firefighters and constables struggled for about 10 minutes, then a wrecker driver arrived. He worked on getting the passenger door open, while the firefighters worked on the drivers side door. After a few more minutes (it felt like hours) the Hubs asked if he could try because he had experience doing this (no , he is not an ex con, he worked at Enterprise Rent-A-Car for 7 years and had to break into cars quite frequently). After a few tries the Hubs, along with assistance from the fire fighters, popped the door open.

I quickly unlocked all the doors, got in the back seat and pulled Logan from her car seat faster than ever. She was still crying, was a little sweaty from being so worked up and really wanted to nurse. I was a sobbing, shaking mess and didn’t even give the fire fighters a chance to check her out before feeding her.

I am SO incredibly thankful it wasn’t hot, the Hubs was with me AND the fire department was very close. We have 2 plans to make sure this does not happen again:
1) I will keep my key and phone with me until I am in the car.
2) We are programming the numerical code on the driver side door to a sequence we can remember.