Gastro Gnome - Eat Better Wherever

Fear of Lost Keys

I always have a hide a key on my truck. I usually leave my key fob at the truck though.
 
A few years ago, I had my then 12 year old son out pronghorn hunting in middle-of-nowhere northeastern Wyoming. We'd made a long, roundabout stalk on some pronghorn, almost all of it belly crawling, and ended up taking two does. When we got back to the truck, the light was fading, it was getting cold and I realized the key for the rental truck was not in my pocket anymore.
We pretty much ran back over our stalking route, as best we could figure, and got lucky. We found the key in the dark. A sage bush had grabbed it out of my pocket, as I crawled along, and then dropped it on the ground. Thankfully the last few hundred yards of our stalk had been along a fence, so I knew we were in the right spot, for sure. My son still talks about that and I can tell that it was a little scary for him. Wake up call, for sure and I now put the key in a zippered pocket. Reading this, I'm pretty tempted to get a little box for it that attaches to the car...
 
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If you happen to find my truck. Just reach lightly under the back right bumper and you will find the keys and can steal it. I cannot imagine carrying my car keys over hill and dale. Has worked for a long time, no grand theft auto yet.
 
If you happen to find my truck. Just reach lightly under the back right bumper and you will find the keys and can steal it. I cannot imagine carrying my car keys over hill and dale. Has worked for a long time, no grand theft auto yet.
Made me think back to the time we paddled the Snake. The shuttle service we used parked our rig and left the fob inside edge of the back bumper. There were quite a few vehicles the left at the shuttle drop, probably all with the fob in exactly the same place. Never heard of one being kiped.
 
Thinking through the list of potential disasters, my concern over losing a fob is pretty high. There are lots of ways this can happen. If it happened to you, how?
Few years ago I was worried about losing my keys on a backpack hunt, because I had a new to me truck with no spare. I put the key in a pouch that I keep a few misc items in, and put that in the main pouch of my pack (eberlestock mainframe with duffel bag). I shot my buck in his bed at noon on opening day and quartered him up. I removed the duffel from the pack frame and hid it in the brush and began the 4.5 mile hike out with the entire deer. The sun was setting when I reached the trail head and I had just enough battery life on my phone to call my wife and inform her that she married an idiot. The parking lot was full of hooligans from the local high school who gave me weird looks as I laid my rifle on my tailgate, spread out deer parts, then just sat there. My wife had the flu and did not find any humor in the situation when she picked me up. She did admit that he was a pretty wide buck though.
 
The pants I use has a ton of pockets, a handful are zipper pockets. One gets my wallet, the other gets the keys.
 
I know of more than one person, including my son, that leaves keys in their F150s. The key fob in his truck only has to be within a certain distance of his truck. There is a way to lift the door handle and with channel lock pliers, break the locking mechanism. Then, all you have to do his press the start button and you can drive off in the truck. This happened in San Antonio at a retail mall (on video, less than 30 seconds) and the police did not even come to fill out a report: it happens so often. I heard a report that more than 10 vehicles were stolen out of a shopping area in one day.
 
Keypad on my SUV is mandatory. Keys get put inside a Faraday bag and hidden inside the truck.

That way if necessary I can have someone else retrieve my truck.
 
I know of more than one person, including my son, that leaves keys in their F150s. The key fob in his truck only has to be within a certain distance of his truck. There is a way to lift the door handle and with channel lock pliers, break the locking mechanism. Then, all you have to do his press the start button and you can drive off in the truck. This happened in San Antonio at a retail mall (on video, less than 30 seconds) and the police did not even come to fill out a report: it happens so often. I heard a report that more than 10 vehicles were stolen out of a shopping area in one day.
Lots of stolen trucks in that area wind up in MX
 
The pants I use has a ton of pockets, a handful are zipper pockets. One gets my wallet, the other gets the keys.
Ok, but, what is the point of the other pockets after key, wallet, phone and maybe pocket knife?
 
Thinking through the list of potential disasters, my concern over losing a fob is pretty high. There are lots of ways this can happen. If it happened to you, how?
I sewed a small pouch that has a buckle and is secured to the inside of my backpack. It's small, just large enough to fit my keys. There is no possible way to lose it.
 
Flipped kayak, rapids opened tackle box.

Tape a plain key to the back of your license plate. Put another in your pack. Lock your keys in the truck.

If you have a key pad on the door it's even easier. Then the backup plain keys never get used.
 
Thinking through the list of potential disasters, my concern over losing a fob is pretty high. There are lots of ways this can happen. If it happened to you, how?
I often hide my truck keys behind the front bumper of my truck. There's areas there where they are pretty secure and won't fall to the ground. I do it mostly when I'm in a fun run and don't want to have keys in a small pocket of running shorts.
 
Had a rental car one time that wouldn’t lock unless the fob was so many feet away. I secure my keys in my backpack with a carabiner to inside pouch that’s zipped with emergency supplies. Not to be opened until return to truck hopefully.
 
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