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It occurred to me the other day that if I lost my keys I'd be stuffed. I was thinking of solutions, what does everyone else do? Obviously, it's not a good idea to put your name and address on a keyring... but maybe an email address, a friend's phone number. Some kind of tech?
Leave a spare set with a friend/family member. How many keys do you normally carry around with you?
Leave a spare set with a trusted friend/neighbour, and do the same for them. My parents live in the village so we have each other for this.
Also, have duplicates already cut and stored at home somewhere so losing keys doesn't need to mean new locks. Top tip- make sure this includes garage/shed/bike lock keys.
Those key boxes you can fix to a wall are quite good as long as you can fix them somewhere out of the way. I always liked the way some cars in USA have key pads to get in so you can leave your keys in when you go to the beach etc
Isn't there a key ring return thing where you pay for a fob that has a PO Box freepost address on it? If anyone finds your keys they can chuck them in a post box and they will make their way back to you.
Some trusted neighbours have ours, and we theirs
If it's really important, you could shell out for a GPS cat collar tracker and use as a keyring.
this
Some trusted neighbours have ours, and we theirs
We've got a set of Tile fobs on all the main sets of keys after getting too close to having to spend £100s on nearly lost car keys. Got a few nice features like giving the location of the keys last time your phone was in range and being able to share with others if needed. And vice-versa - you can use the keys to locate the phone if in range.
Handy when out on a night ride having forgotten them and the other half needs to hide them in the garden somewhere for you!
We have a lock box on a wall hidden with the back door key in. That way I never have to take a key out, to lose.
Although I do have Tiles on all of them, as I have a habit of putting them down and forgetting where I left them. Bought the cheap ones to try & they have been great, but you can't replace the battery on them. When they die, i'll probably swap them for the new Apple ones as they appear to have a better eco system around them (and replaceable batteries).
My neighbours have a key box with my keys, and I have one with their keys (principle being that if someone smashes the box and gets the keys out, they don't open the house they're fastened to.
We each know the codes to both boxes. Seems to work OK.
When they die, i’ll probably swap them for the new Apple ones as they appear to have a better eco system around them (and replaceable batteries).
One thing I don't understand with the new Apple ones is the privacy features. To stop people hiding one in your bag/car it says if you find one, you can disable it? I'll stick with my Tiles I think. Pro has replaceable batteries. Used it last night to find the bike keys I'd put down in the dark in the garden 🙄
'If a user detects an unknown AirTag, they can tap it with their iPhone or NFC-capable device and instructions will guide them to disable the unknown AirTag.'
I have a set in the garage.
My logic being that the garage is relatively easy to break into and know where they are. A thief breaking in wouldn't have a clue.
At the beach or on rides I leave all the keys in the car and just take the (dumb, not remote) car key. Bike rides it goes in the zipped jersey pocket, sailing/surfing it goes on a lanyard under the wetsuit.
Those key boxes you can fix to a wall are quite good as long as you can fix them somewhere out of the way.
If by out the way you mean a private, secure room only you have access to then yeah they're great. You'd be cheaper putting them in a drawer though.
Otherwise, not so much...
Isn't there an insurance issue with key safes too? You can't claim if they use those keys, treated the same as leaving a key under a flowerpot? TBH prob easier to shoulder-barge my door or break a window anyway.
We have a key safe with a set in and our neighbours have a set.
The key safe is one of the more secure types - push button style, which aren't easy to crack.
The key safe is because we have a Yale style front door latch, so quite easy to get locked out without keys, although I only think I've managed it once or twice in 22 years.
Have climbed through a lot of windows for neighbours over the years though....
https://keysafe.co.uk/c500-keysafe.html
Bought the cheap ones to try & they have been great, but you can’t replace the battery on them.
Umm... yes you can.
The Tile Pro uses a Cr2032 battery and the Tile Mate uses a standard CR1632 battery.
You can buy the latter for £15 and it has a hole in it allowing you to put it straight onto a key ring so you don't have to then pay (at least £12 ATM) more for something to attach it to the key ring!!
Those key boxes you can fix to a wall are quite good as long as you can fix them somewhere out of the way.
Yeah, where the lock picker dude, who has studied the video some arse has put on youtube, can hide out of view, fiddling with his lock pick to his heart's content.
I have a lockbox outside.
It only has the yale key in it, not the mortice.
My thinking is that if I've gone out without my keys and the yale has locked behind me, I won't have put the mortice on.
If I put the mortice on, I have my keys with me.
Other than that, my girlfriend has a full set of keys for the flat.
I also have spare keys for everything else in the house (bike locks, van keys etc).
Inside the house I use this near the door:
Come in, put the keys in the jack plug. Grab them again on the way out.
When I get dressed in the morning I put my keys in my pocket and I feel naked without them! I have tried to ensure I have as few keys as possible, now only have 3 (3 doors in house) and I keep my car key separate.
I think the key safe at a neighbours house is a great idea, you’d always assume the keys are for the house they are hidden at - would be very confusing if you pinched them and they didn’t work.
I wonder if it's just easier to hide the keys somewhere in the garden (which is accessible from the front) than to hide them in a key box. We had a key box with the house but I took it down as it was in a really obvious and visible place
That idea from apple about being able to disable a found Airtag is a dealbreaker for me, that just seems nuts. I’ll stick with my Tiles thanks.
have you tried to crack it? It’s just a cheap mechanical mechanism, put tension on it & you can feel when you press the right keys, same as the combination locks. You don’t even have to press the numbers in the right order 😀The key safe is one of the more secure types – push button style, which aren’t easy to crack.
Yeah, where the lock picker dude, who has studied the video some arse has put on youtube, can hide out of view, fiddling with his lock pick to his heart’s content.
Like that actually happens.
Most buglars are opportunist and just try and get in via an open windor or borrow a spade from an unlocked shed and just take the back door off its hinges...
Well, it's a damn sight more likely than them standing by the front door trying to pick the conbination lock! (ie. my sarcastic point obviously being lost on you - it's better to have to combo box in plain view, rather than hidden out of sight, if that is what you choose to use to store your keys (which I don't))
have you tried to crack it? It’s just a cheap mechanical mechanism, put tension on it & you can feel when you press the right keys,
Just tried it now, tension is equal across all buttons. Whilst I'm sure someone could pick it, the C500 is supposedly more robust than the rotatry switch ones. Having said that my neighbour has one of those rotary ones and I have tried to pick it on the wall and failed...
I think its a complete non issue, you see 100s of them on houses in Cambridge and there's no buglary epidemic relating to picking key safes.
Unlocked sheds is the biggest risk factor, once you have borrowed a decent spade / fork you can take any window / door off its hinges in seconds and relatively quietly (compared to say breaking window / door glass).
A colleague at work recently has this happen, spade was borrowed from a neighbours shed, probably took less than 3 seconds to deform the lock.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/2907/14580124678_efb3b61558.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/2907/14580124678_efb3b61558.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/odoX6Y ]Spade + back door = burgled (not me, a colleague)[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
i hide 2 keys to my house in a waterproof bag in 2 gardens of local houses that dont belong to me, but not in the same street.
A neighbour had a set and there is a set buried in the garden in case they are out
Yeah, where the lock picker dude, who has studied the video some arse has put on youtube
This isn't exactly obscure specialist information. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone vaguely into locksport who couldn't decode that Masterlock box in about five seconds, they're notorious. I worked out how to crack them just by practicing on one we had at work, long before I'd even heard of LPL.
In any case, as footflaps alludes, your average potential housebreaker is far more likely to try and pick it with a lump hammer.
as above, not sure you've thought this through 🤣 What stops someone who finds your Tile from physically disabling it, or just taking it off the keyring & leaving it where they've found it? 🤔That idea from apple about being able to disable a found Airtag is a dealbreaker for me, that just seems nuts. I’ll stick with my Tiles thanks.
At least with Apple's system they say you get a notification & location when someone connects to it. With Tile, you won't even know, unless someone else with a Tile is in range, which let's face it, is not very likely 😂
there's a knack, and you have to use quite a lot of force (you won't be able to do it just with your fingers!) but yeah, I expect the skilled thief is not all that common vs someone who'd just smash a window!!Just tried it now, tension is equal across all buttons. Whilst I’m sure someone could pick it, the C500 is supposedly more robust than the rotatry switch ones.
There's thee separate questions here isn't there.
1) How do I not lose my keys?
2) How do I retrieve them if I do lose them?
3) What do I do if the above fails?
On the first, ensure you always put them down in the same places or in the same pocket. What are you doing to actually run the risk of losing them (as opposed to merely forgetting or mislaying them)? My keys are in a bowl in the house, in the car's ignition, in use in my hand, or in my right front jeans pocket; there's literally nowhere else they should ever be. If I did ever lose them I'd notice pretty quickly, it's like wearing a watch or a ring for years and then suddenly not doing. Going out when I don't need them I'll spend the first half an hour going "oh shi... ah, right, they're back at the house" every five minutes.
For a while I took to carrying a huge bunch of keys, figuring that the more I had the harder it'd be to lose. Then I attached a full-sized climbing carabiner to them as they were too uncomfortable to pocket. Then I realised that this was silly and broke it down into smaller bunches, I didn't need (for example) my car keys if I were going out on the motorbike.
On the second, you could have a tag on with a phone number or email address (obviously not your physical one!). Years ago work gave a fob which had a phone number on it for some sort of key return company; someone finds your keys, call the number, get a PO Box address, the company then sends them back to the keyholder. But really anyone can do that, you just need an address whose key isn't on that ring, or arrange to meet somewhere public to collect them.
On the third, give a spare to a friend. My mum has mine. Bear in mind, you only need a single key to get all all your other spares hidden in the house somewhere. Though you need to be mindful of where you lost them, if you went off to work with them hanging out of the front door and someone's intentionally pinched them you're into lock-changing territory and that could get expensive fast. Front and back doors keyed alike? German executive saloon on the driveway? Review your insurance policies.
We don't lock the house and leave the key fobs in the cars.
Job done.
there’s a knack, and you have to use quite a lot of force (you won’t be able to do it just with your fingers!) but yeah, I expect the skilled thief is not all that common vs someone who’d just smash a window!!
A quick Youtube search only shows videos cracking their Mark I, which was then redesigned, can't find any videos cracking the mark II C500...
Eg this attack method no longer works
These were a high tech gimic 20+ years ago. Whistle and it lights up and sings to let you know where your keys are. Useful in a messy house?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203254085204?hash=item2f52e33654:g:b4sAAOSwUNZgKVmP
You could put the keys on a string round your neck to always have them on your person. I knew someone who always did that as a student and ended up with matching holes in the front of all his t shirts.
With Tile, you won’t even know, unless someone else with a Tile is in range, which let’s face it, is not very likely 😂
A possible improvement to Tile might come from the Google acquisition of FitBit? They integrate Tile into some of their trackers. Not sure if this means the Fitbit app is also a network extender?
An acquisition of Tile by Google wouldn't surprise me.
Squirrel-like I buried a spare set in the grounds of our flats. Sadly, due to having a squirrel mind, I have no idea where...
I've one of these: https://www.getkeysmart.com/products/keysmart-pro-with-tile-smart-location-tracking
@drac and @zilog6128, you can both get in the sea.
Pointing out the obvious massive hole in my well put together argument is just not on.
I think the OP is asking how best to get his keys returned once he/she's lost them... a simple tag with my mobile number on is what I use. Have them on all our house keys and car keys.
I usually have my phone on me so I'm easily contactable. If I've lost my phone as well as my keys I'm probably very drunk or missing my trousers. Possibly both.
Oh, and the RAC have a key return thing - free if you're a member.
I think the OP is asking how best to get his keys returned once he/she’s lost them… a simple tag with my mobile number on is what I use. Have them on all our house keys and car keys.
I usually have my phone on me so I’m easily contactable. If I’ve lost my phone as well as my keys I’m probably very drunk or missing my trousers. Possibly both.
Oh, and the RAC have a key return thing – free if you’re a member
OP here. I was indeed. Thanks though everyone. Yes, friends have spares for my flat, but my I have so many other keys for random things that it would indeed be a ballache to lose them. Which I did after going sledging a couple of years ago, but subsequently found again after crashing at a mates and waiting for the snow to melt.
My mobile number on a fob would be risky as my number could be found and linked to my address or business or car etc. Will look at the RAC thing.
On the first, ensure you always put them down in the same places or in the same pocket.
Same, but it nearly caught me out the other day. Pocketed the carkey (front left jeans pocket) having retrieved some kid shoes from the car, then took all the kids on the school run. Half an hour of walking later, thrust hand into pocket to recall that front left jeans pocket on this pair has a massive hole in* and carkey is by some miracle hanging onto the remaining pocket shreds.
Anyway, as to OP -- we have spares with local relatives for actual loss, and at home keys live in the same place.
* because of keys always being in there
I don’t so much lose keys, specifically my car keys, as mislay them! Normally when I get home, after I’ve taken my tea flask and lunch box out of my rucksack I go upstairs to my bedroom and put my keys on the dressing table. However, occasionally something will disrupt that routine and I’ll put the keys down without thinking about it, go on dealing with whatever it was, get changed, whatever, and forget about the keys until next morning when I’m ready to go to work. And can’t find my bloody keys! I’m then struggling to remember what I was doing the evening before to try to locate the missing keys.
I will be buying an AirTag as soon as I can, to avoid this happening in future.
My mobile number on a fob would be risky as my number could be found and linked to my address or business or car etc.
a) Can it? Really?
This is the lock-picking argument again. I do this crap as part of my job and I seriously doubt that your average chancer is going to be deploying reverse number lookups and assorted OSINT tools when they have a hammer / screwdriver / angle grinder / bolt crops to hand. And criminals who are specifically targeting you will already know where you live.
They could of course but the (already tiny) odds of you randomly losing your keys in the first place followed by someone finding them and opportunistically thinking "fantastic, I'll do them over" followed by them hitting the Internet to try work out where you live and or where you work and or what you drive is vanishingly unlikely. If someone wanted in that badly they could just hoy a brick through your front window and appear in your bedroom with a knife going "give us your £$%^ing keys". And at that point I think I'd really rather they'd just stolen them in the first place.
b) Do you not know anyone else with a mobile phone?
I don’t so much lose keys... as mislay them!
Sure, and I often do this too for the same reasons. But they're not lost, they're in the house somewhere.
Leave a spare set with a trusted friend/neighbour,
This would invalidate your insurance.
No it wouldn't.
I mean, it might do, it sounds monumentally unlikely but I don't know what it says on your insurance policy or indeed which policy you're referring to. Buildings? Contents? Motor? Something else? What if your partner lives with you, are you the only one with keys?
But nonetheless, my unsubstantiated "fact" is as valid as yours is. After five+ futile years in the brexit threads I think this is going to be my new approach. Any time someone pops up with random bollocks whilst providing no further context or explanation I'm just going to say "no it isn't." Dismissing something requires the same weight of argument as the original claim and this is all too often none whatsoever.
You heard it here first.
I pay 45 quid per year for keycare. You get a tag with a number for the finder of your keys to call and they get a tenner reward for being a nice person! It's worked on three occasions over the last few years.
This would invalidate your insurance.
Posted 7 hours ago
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Cougar
Full MemberNo it wouldn’t.
The usual words in the policy are something like 'take the necessary steps to fully secure your home', and giving a key away might give them a reason to reject a claim if that key was then used. Unlikely.
Mentioned here... https://www.confused.com/home-insurance/guides/how-keys-can-invalidate-your-home-insurance-policy
insurance policy
99.99999% times someone on here says it invalidates your policy, they're just making shit up. I actually went and read mine years ago after a thread on here, no mention of fire places, chimney cleaning, key safes, whatever other nonsense people spout on STW etc.
There should really be a version of Godwins law for someone mentioning insurance policy on an STW thread. It basically means they have nothing useful to say, have lost the argument but won't back down.
This is what my grandmother did just in case if she forgot her keys:
she made duplicate keys - for the car and for the house. and she made sure that all of us has one just in case she forgot or dropped hers somewhere.
she made her keyring heavy enough that it'll stay at the bottom of her bag. it also creates noise, so when she shakes her bag, she'll know it's just there somewhere.
she had duplicate keys lying around the house (for the car key).
also, maybe leaving a keychain with a contact number, just in case a good samaritan or whatnot will return it.
No it wouldn’t.
what about if it were the neighbor that stole your stuff? 😉
99.99999% times someone on here says it invalidates your policy, they’re just making shit up. I actually went and read mine years ago after a thread on here, no mention of fire places, chimney cleaning, key safes, whatever other nonsense people spout on STW etc.
My policy has quite a bit of detail on exclusions. And loss assessors do challenge if no forced entry IME. We had this problem in a flat in Bristol, they didn't pay out.
well, I googled it. Seems a lot of insurers won't pay out if there isn't sign of forced entry. So, if the thieves actually use the keys that you gave to your neighbours, then yeah you might well be in trouble. But does the act of giving them the keys invalidate the insurance? No.
Exactly. And that's what it says on the link Jamze posted. It boils down to taking a degree of responsibility for your own security.
Someone gaining access to your property using your own key would generally imply some form of negligence unless they've taken them from you on your doorstep by threat of violence or something. This is unlikely to happen if I leave an unmarked key at a mate's house for safekeeping unless my mate is Housebreaker Harry.
Agreed. Our flat had a shared entrance, we gave keys to lots of mates, and it was often left on the latch as more convenient. So I wasn't really surprised when they wouldn't pay for my nicked bike 🙂
I haven't lost a key since I was 9 years old.
Buildings? Contents? Motor? Something else?
No idea, ask the op what kays he's referring to 😕
For contents there needs to be the positive sign of a break in, and i suppose that will be the same for motor too.
Buildings 😕 do you reckon people break in to steal your windows or bricks 😆
It basically means they have nothing useful to say, have lost the argument but won’t back down.
Argument ?, I didnt realize there was one, but it does appear that you've lost the plot bud 😆