Car Jacking 101...

'Me' and 'careless' are synonyms..
that much is evident.
but taking it to new heights .. is a personal goal i set myself.. every single day!!!

2 days back, after another futile house hunting trip, getting back home, i find myself locked out of my car, with the keys lying happily inside.

The fact that ive never seen a set of spare keys for my car and that I never bothered making a spare set, only made things worse.

Anyways, jo hua.. so hua.
Called up the Mitsubishi service centre and explained my predicament.

Techie:"Sir, i can send my techie over. He will try short circuiting the central locking system. And then we can maybe try and open the doors"
me:"good news. the car's central locking system itself is spoiled and ive been meaning to get it to the centre for a service for quite sometime"
techie: ( after 10 mins of discussing with someone else) "no problem sir, we will break open the rear quarter glass and open the door. my inventory guy just confirmed we have spares available to replace it"
me:"dont you think thats pretty dramatic? i mean, breaking open the glass etc etc"
techie:"all in a day's work. shall i schedule an appointment for monday?"
me:"ok"

Today morning, (since i had officially reported sick), decided to try and follow Rahul's advice and get some local mechanic to try and open the car.

The guy comes along with just a plastic scale.
Attempt 1:
Slides the scale in between the glass and door, through the rubber lining..right where the lock is supposed to be.gives me a sheepish grin and says most cars can be opened like that.But obviously Mitsubishi doesnt endorse this particular design.
(conversely, since he works in a TATA garage, i assume TATA cars can be opened like that!!!)

Attempt 2: He tries sliding a small coat hanger type of wire through the window's upper rubber lining. But that too fails as the gap is too narrow and non linear to pass the wire through.

Final attmept:
Asks me for a screwdriver. Calmly removes the rubber lining surrounding the quarter glass.removes the quarter glass and opens the door.
(offcourse, to put it back in involved opening the whole door chassis and re-alligning the main window partition.but no breaking and no tampering!)

bottomline: in under 30 mins i was sitting with the keys in my hand. And considerably wiser with regards to how to get into a car without a key and without breaking the glass!

:))