What To Do If You Lost Your Car Keys

First, stop and retrace calmly

Keys are found in the same handful of places over and over: the pocket of a jacket you took off, the shopping cart, the beach bag, the gas pump ledge, the restroom counter, or the door of the car itself. Spend ten focused minutes before you spend money.

Call the last two businesses you walked into. Front desks in Palm Bay and Melbourne collect a surprising number of keys every week and nobody comes back for them.

Check whether you actually lost them or locked them in

Look through every window, including the trunk area and the footwells. If the keys are visible inside the car, this is a lockout — a much smaller and cheaper job than a key replacement. Say that clearly when you call, because the tools and the price are different.

Gather the three things a locksmith needs

Year, make and model of the vehicle. Whether you have any other working key. And whether the car is a turn-key or push-to-start.

With those three answers, a real auto locksmith can quote you accurately over the phone. If someone gives you a price without asking any of that, be careful — that number will change once they arrive.

Do not default to a tow to the dealership

The dealer route usually means a tow, a wait for the parts department, and a car sitting overnight. A mobile auto locksmith cuts the key to your vehicle's code and programs it where the car is parked, which is why most all-keys-lost jobs are finished in a single visit.

Then make a spare — this week

The single cheapest thing you will ever buy for your car is a second key made while the first one still works. Duplication is a scheduled, daylight, non-emergency job. Losing your only key never is.

If you are anywhere in Brevard County, we can come out and handle either one. Call (617) 959-0758.