Leaving the Keys in the Car

LEAVING THE KEYS IN THE CAR

It is a tense scene in the movie. The hero and his maiden (God, the word “maiden” really ages me) are trying to escape whatever-the-hell they’re trying to escape from and they jump in a stranger’s car. The hero pulls down the sun-visor and bingo! keys fall out. He starts the car and they drive off, safe from the zombies, criminals, or in-laws.

Now I ask you this: Do you leave your keys in the sun-visor? Does anyone do such a thing? I haven’t leaped into too many strangers’ cars to escape anything so for all I know most Americans “hide” their keys in sun-visors.

One other thing. In my little village there is almost no crime. Still on occasion something untoward will happen – maybe a burglary or a car theft. But when I go out early in the morning to pick up my newspapers, there are people who leave their cars running as they rush to get the latest news about the scoundrels in our government.

Aside from wasting gas; aren’t you asking to have your car stolen? Am I missing something here?

Remote starter? A running car will shut off if someone tries to steal it.

Quote: 1BB

Remote starter? A running car will shut off if someone tries to steal it.

Correct. You still need the keys to drive the car and must lock it before using remote start. I find it almost worthless because often you get distracted longer than needed to warm the interior and waste gas.

Some people do leave keys inside their car and I'm guessing more then than now.

You can program the length of time the car will run unattended before it shuts off automatically.

I leave my car running unattended all of the time. As a matter of fact it is running right now with the keys in it. Although its in my driveway but that doesn't mean someone couldn't steal it. BTW, it is 23 degrees and half inch of snow on it.

I have a relative that has never locked their front door to their house.

Quote: GWAE

I have a relative that has never locked their front door to their house.

I had a friend once stumble in to what he thought was his house (front door was unlocked) and pass out on the couch... Woke up the next morning to screams of the home owner. Lock your doors.

I don't get you, Frank. You're a well known
gambling expert yet you never start any
threads on gambling, and you rarely chime
in on any of the current gambling threads.
You started a couple when you first came
here last spring, but that was it. Now all
we get is threads about dogs, and catholics,
and Sarah Palin and gout and car keys.

Start a thread on Speed Count, Frank. Aceofspades will be a captive audience.

I don't really have anything new to say about gambling that isn't already in my books and articles (those already written and those coming out in a few months and years). The discussions about dice control tend to get sarcastic and nasty and ultimately they tend to become a grudge match between two or three individuals. Not something I want to partake in.

Anyway, I've had my say on the issue of dice control and my latest craps books ("Casino Craps: Shoot to Win!" and "Cutting Edge Craps: Advanced Strategies for Serious Players!") sum everything up from my point of view. If posters want to learn about Speed Count, they can read my book "Beat Blackjack Now!"

I enjoy writing the other stuff. Most of my writing at the moment in my writing career is outside the gambling arena, although a new gambling book of mine will be out in May --- a book that I think will be something of a shocker to some players.

Anyway, my new book "Confessions of a Wayward Catholic" is selling well (although it has dived on Amazon after some great initial sales) but the bookstores / other websites are doing a decent business.

Quote: FrankScoblete

II enjoy writing the other stuff. Most of my writing at the moment in my writing career is outside the gambling arena, although a new gambling book of mine will be out in May --- a book that I think will be something of a shocker to some players.

Anyway, my new book "Confessions of a Wayward Catholic" is selling well (although it has dived on Amazon after some great initial sales) but the bookstores / other websites are doing a decent business.

Frank, I'll read it.
I have been reading my ass in non-gambling areas, and spending less time at casinos. Sitting at home reading a book: A marriage-builder.

I guess it's isn't as cold here and some of you have seen in the US recently; so luckily we don't have to leave the engines running before setting out (except sometimes to demist/deice the windscreen a bit). There have been stories of people leaving the keys in the car, perhaps while picking up the kids, dropping something off, buying a paper etc., and the insurance companies here won't pay up if your car is nicked.

So the advice over here is nice and simple, don't leave your car unattended with the keys in it.

Quote: Paigowdan

Frank, I'll read it.
I have been reading my ass in non-gambling areas, and spending less time at casinos. Sitting at home reading a book: A marriage-builder.

I knew a young lady, who was recently divorced. First conversation she had with him months later at work, she asked him if he was still reading a lot. He said NO. Not at all.

Up until I started doing theatre at the age of 32 I was a ferocious reader and an extremely fast reader. By the time I hit 44 my library had over 5,000 books (almost all of which I had read --- "the map of my mind" I used to call the collection) --- starting from age 11 I saved everything I read. I had collections of Edgar Rice Burroughs ("Tarzan of the Apes" is a great book, nothing like the movies), Mark Twain ("The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is best American novel I ever read), Ernest Hemingway (I wrote my masters thesis on him), books from the Science Fiction book club and all the major Brits with everything by Shakespeare ("Hamlet" is the single best thing I have ever read). In my 20s science, religion and philosophy became my primary thrust. Philosophy was one of my three majors in college. I was so serious in my 20s and thought I could figure "it all" out. I couldn't. I still can't.

Now, it's maybe two books a week; mostly non-fiction. My wife the Beautiful AP has made me weed over 3,500 books --- I have a chapter about that in "Confessions of a Wayward Catholic." It was a painful experience getting rid of so many books, even though most were (sadly) falling apart. Now I read on my Ipad.

I tend not to read much about gambling anymore. Most of what comes out has already been out there in countless other gambling books and the writing styles are not so hot. I also don't read the 20 or so unsolicited, unpublished books that are sent to me every year.

When I walk the treadmill I read; when I (ahum) go to the bathroom I read; when I travel I read a lot. I also don't sleep more than, say, five hours a day so there is time to read. I do enjoy coming to this site; I figure the people who post here (for the most part) enjoy gambling / advantage play but are serious thinkers as well. I enjoy doing some posts on Facebook and on my own web site at frankscoblete.com. Almost all my posts --- except links to my gambling articles --- are non-gambling related ones.

I also do not leave my keys in the car or my car running when I am not in it.

Quote: EvenBob

I don't get you, Frank. You're a well known
gambling expert yet you never start any
threads on gambling, and you rarely chime
in on any of the current gambling threads.
You started a couple when you first came
here last spring, but that was it. Now all
we get is threads about dogs, and catholics,
and Sarah Palin and gout and car keys.

Hmmm, Something he doesn't get........

Frank, if I left my keys in my car, anyone could walk in and drive away without ever finding them. Don't most cars these days have proximity keys?

Quote: FrankScoblete

But when I go out early in the morning to pick up my newspapers, there are people who leave their cars running as they rush to get the latest news about the scoundrels in our government.

Remeber when car keys came without a FOB to open and lock the doors? These days some cars don't even ahve keys, just the FOB. Back then one left the keys locked in the car only by accident. It was all too common and everyone eventually did it, one way or another. There were contingencies to deal with this, short of doing it near a locksmith. Plastic key blanks were sold which fit inside a wallet's creidt card slot. Magneit boxes with spare keys inside were sometimes placed under the car, suually isnide the wheel well. A Renault 12 I owned couldn't be locked from the inside when the door was opened (If you did, the lock popped when the door was closed). One had to lock it with the key from outside. I never left my keys in it (and that was its only saving grace).

In the FOB era it takes a special effort to lock one's self out of the car.

Not that it doesn' happen.

I forget how, but someone I know managed to lock himself out of his car, which he also left running. Thiwas with aFOB, and in particular one that has to be inside the car in order for the car to start. I think it was one of those models which lock the doors when all doors are closed and the engine is running.

The epoint is if people left their keys inside an unlocked car to ward off the possibility of being locked out of their car, I don't see it happening these days. If it ever did.

Besides, very little of what one sees in movies, in particualr in action movies, is true to life. Don't you watch Mythbusters? :)

My favorite thing about newer cars is that they won't allow me to lock my keys in the car. If it senses the FOB in the car, it won't lock.

Leaving your keys in your car is a crime here in the People's Republic ("Unattended Vehicle"), although there is a provision for "leaving your keys about your car for convenience or emergency".

I just locked my key in my running truck last week. Too busy worrying about not falling on the ice with crutches and I habitually and absentmindedly locked the door after turning it on to warm it up. Ah well.