Locked in Peter's Car

While we were in Tennessee this Spring, my cousin Peter came to visit. He travels all around the country in his car and has stayed at our house before, so I asked him if he had room to take Mike's old bike (which we had accidentally left there when we moved to Wyoming) and bring it out the next time he comes to visit us. He said that would be fine, so he, Alayna, and I went out to load the bike into his trunk.

The bike didn't fit perfectly in his trunk, so he asked me to pull down the back seat to make a little extra room. Strangely, however, his car has a lock in the back window which you have to use the car keys to unlock in order to pull down the back seat. So, I did that and we fit the bike in no problem.

When we got that done, we were just standing by the car talking and Alayna crawled into the front seat of the car. Peter closed the door behind her and was letting her play around in the front. Well, you know kids, she reached up and started playing with the manual lock on the driver's door. I wasn't too concerned because I figure that would just lock the driver's door. Meanwhile, Peter starts saying (very slowly and nonchalantly) "That's probably not a good idea because..." LOCK. She pushed down the lock and ALL of the doors locked at once. And Peter finishes "...the keys are in there." He said it so casually that I really didn't believe him at first, I thought it was a joke or something. But then I saw them, in the back window where that stupid back seat lock was. And my baby was locked inside the car!



Well, we all stayed calm (Peter was REALLY calm, seriously I don't think he was worried at all) and thankfully Alayna was just playing and having fun playing in the front seat. We tried to get her to pull up on the manual lock, and she actually did, but she couldn't pull it hard enough. Then we tried to get her to push the automatic lock button because if she just touched that the doors would open right up. But she was having too much fun playing.



She found a pen and started marking on the steering wheel. I guess this finally made Peter somewhat concerned, because he exclaimed "Oh no, this is Christine's car! We've gotta get that kid outta there!" So he went and got a wire hanger and tried sticking it through the window to unlock the door.


Meanwhile, I kept talking to Alayna to keep her calm and to try and get her to push that lock button. After several minutes it became clear that Peter wasn't getting anywhere with the hanger so I asked my mom to call a locksmith. Then, just as my mom was about to call, Alayna thankfully reached toward the front of the car and touched the lock button.



All the doors unlocked! She had saved herself, and boy was I relieved! I think Peter was just thankful she didn't mark up the car too much and we didn't end up having to break any windows. :)

**All pictures above are reenactments taken immediately after the actual event.