Oh my gosh, I locked my child in my car

I’ve always been petrified of this happening and had even bought one of those magnetized hide-a-key things just in case. But it was nowhere to be found Saturday when I actually locked Ella in my car.

I thought about not posting about this because it’s a little humiliating, but hopefully it will be a little cathartic for me, since I’m pretty sure I was way more traumatized than Ella was.

Anyway, Saturday at 10:30 I was vaccuming my car out at a carwash. I let Ella out of her carseat and let her roam the car while I tried to peel away the layers of cheerios and raisins and whatever else that was in her seat. The car was on so I didn’t let her go up front, exept for once – when I was sitting up front cleaning I let her sit on my lap. She must have hit the button then. After that I put her in her seat, buckled her up, then went to open my door. Locked. The next door – locked. All of them locked. Ella inside. Cell phone inside.

Luckily my mom had just pulled in. She was there to meet up with me for lunch and errands. I had her call my house to wake my husband to find the spare key. But no answer. I then called his cell phone. No answer. She then called my sister, who lives down the street, to go wake up Steve.

Meanwhile, Ella is as content as can be. The car is on, as well as the air conditioning. Thank god. I think I would have called 911 if I had locked her in a hot car. We tried to motion for Ella to unlock the door – she often locked it herself – but she had never unlocked it. But she didn’t understand what we were saying anyway. She just thought we were playing some silly game and she just smiled and waved back.

Finally I hear from my husband. He can’t find a spare. We thought we put it under the car, like I said, so perhaps it fell off? I tell him to call a locksmith for me ASAP.

And so we wait. And wait. I’m sure it wasn’t as long as it seemed. But it really was taking longer than it needed to. I call Steve back and he actually tells me he called the police. Perhaps they had more pressing things going on, but I was getting really impatient.

By this time, the man next to us at the vacuums realizes what’s happening. He notices that my sunroof is open a little bit. And the button to open it completely is just around the corner. My mom gets on top of the hood and tries to get her fingers in, but it’s just not open enough. Next, the man runs out of the carwash nextdoor with a coathanger. He bends it and reaches it in. I direct him to the button, but it seems pointless. Even when he’s right on the button, it doesn’t seem like he could push it hard enough to activate it.

My husband then pulls into the lot. Followed by my sister. And that’s when I fell apart. It was feeling like a real catastraphe at that point and I was getting so frustrated that Ella was STILL trapped in there.

And the next thing I saw was this strange man’s legs dropping into my car. He had pushed the button and gotten in my car! He unlocked all the doors, just as I see the police car pulling up.

I rushed to get Ella out and as I do it I notice the man hop in his car. Luckily I caught his eye and mouthed the most heartfelt thank you I could as he sped off. How awesome was he to really go to those lengths to help us, then to take off before he could he even be thanked?

Ella was still happy, even by this point. She was going through my cds and some toys in the car. She even had an ice water she was drinking in a new cupholder I had just bought for my car the day before.

So, yes, it happened. And it could have been way worse. But you can bet I had two spare keys made today. And next time I vacuum, I think I’ll put my keys in my pocket.