Six. Myself, Alexa's teacher, two sheriff deputies, one captain and a lock smith. Yeah, I locked my kid in the car. On accident. Obviously. I had picked Alexa up from day care and she was 'helping' by holding onto my keys. As I was putting her into the car seat she started pressing the buttons on the car keys so I made a comment that was something like 'OK, that's enough with the keys' and took them from her and tossed them into the front seat. I finished buckling her in, got everything situated in the back and closed her door. I tried to open my door and realized that she had pressed the lock button. Oh. Crappers. Of course I ran around the whole car trying all the doors and none of them worked (surprise, surprise) then I tried the trunk because I had just gotten diapers out of there. Perhaps it didn't latch all the way...no such luck. At this point I think it sunk in and I started mildly freaking out. So, I went back into the day care and told them what I did. Everyone was super helpful. One of Alexa's teachers got on the phone with the police station and told them the situation and apparently they were going to send someone right over. OK, so ten minutes later, her teacher and I are still standing outside my car waiting for (and now trash talking) the police guy who was supposedly on his way. Did I mention that the sheriff's office is approximately 2 minutes down the road? No exaggeration. Oh! And when Lexi's teacher was on the phone with the dispatch person they were asking her all these ridiculous questions like: Did you try all the doors? and Are the windows open? Really, people. Do you honestly think we would be calling you if the window was open and I was just able to reach in and unlock the door myself? Anyway, finally, after apparently finishing his lunch, a sheriff deputy showed up. He explained how they are no longer allowed to open cars due to liability reasons (what?! fine, then why are you here?) and he came over to make sure that it wasn't an emergency. I'm sorry, I didn't realize that a baby locked in a car was something that we can all take our time on. No worries. She's fine in there buckled in the car seat with nothing to play with, peeing all through her diaper and breathing in all of her exhaled CO2 as the oxygen level in the car is being slowly but surely depleted. I'm sure she's becoming more and more acidotic as we speak. And if that child looks the least bit lethargic I'm breaking the window. OK, so I didn't say any of that...but I was thinking it. What I did say was that if she was in any distress that window would have been broken ten minutes ago. (meanwhile, Alexa is sitting in her car seat clapping her hands and waving at her teacher) So, long story short(ish), dispatch had called a locksmith, the sheriff department captain showed up to make sure everything was OK. The locksmith was about two minutes behind him, and all of a sudden there were five people surrounding the car trying to get the door open. Lexi's teacher was talking to her and clapping hands, the first cop was on the passenger side doing God knows what, the locksmith was doing his thing on the drivers door, the captain was "helping" the locksmith (and by helping, I mean totally screwing him up) and I was at the hood of the car watching what the locksmith was doing (what? I've never seen someone break into a car before, I was interested in the process!). At this point, all I could think of was the reality show/sitcom that should be based on my family and that this whole scenario would totally be a whole episode! Katie thinks that our family would be perfect for a reality tv show and every so often when something like this happens I think of how it would be on an episode. Kind of strange, but very entertaining. So back to the car...I'm thinking of all this while they are trying to pry my door open and trying my hardest not to laugh. It would be inappropriate. I think I did pretty good although I did have to put my head down and chuckle a few times. They finally got the door open just as the third cop got there (you know, just to make sure everything was alright. It takes them awhile to respond, but eventually, a baby locked in a car is big news to the Wakulla County Sheriff's department.) Alexa was fine, she only cried a little bit when she saw me and couldn't get to me (one of the reasons why I was at the hood and her teacher was talking to her). She had peed through her diaper and onto her car seat but no signs of respiratory acidosis. (One of) the best parts of this story was me telling Nick later on. I didn't call him when it happened because, really, what's the point? He didn't have a spare key, there was nothing that he could have done. (Small back story: the day before when he got home from work I asked him to choose good news or bad news. The bad news was that I dropped a stocking holder on the floor which made a gash in the wood and the good news was that I had a list of things for him to do (what? It was good news to me.)) So the conversation went something like this:
Me: Good news or bad news first?
Nick: Is there actually good news today because a list of things to do is not good news.
Me: Oh no, there's good news. The good news is that she's ok.
Nick: What's the bad news?
Me: I locked Alexa in the car today. (at this point, he silently turned around, walked into our bedroom and closed the door)
Hehehe. No worries, he came out a few minutes later, and after hearing my (obviously, drawn out) explanation, reassured me that it was an accident and could have happened to anyone. He's so nice. Then he proceeded to tell me that I should have called him because he would have come right over and broken the window to get her out. And that is reason #1 why I didn't call him. So, there are 2 morals to this story. #1: have a spare key. #2: hold onto your keys when putting your baby in the car because she just might press the lock button and then you just might throw the keys into the front seat and then you just might close the door without realizing that she had actually pressed the lock button locking her and your keys in the car. It just might happen.
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