To think the car shouldn't be able to lock itself with the keys in the ignition and my baby in the back.

[Pinkiemum]

I always walk to pick my daughter up from school, but this afternoon it was hailing, left early to get a parking space and thought I would sit in the car and wait. My DS nearly 6 months starts crying so I Get out and give him something to play with, close the door and then hear a click, the door has locked itself.

Thank god I was able to ask someone to call the emergency services, by the time the police arrived he had been locked in the car nearly half an hour. The police were very nice and sent someone to my house to get the spare key.

It was just so awful watching my ds get so upset and not being able to anything about it, would have broken the window if I had to.

He is fine now, just so upset the car was able to lock itself.

That must be an error in your car's system I reckon? Most cars have a system where they re-lock themselves if you haven't opened the door within a minute, but I think that's the only situation in which it would happen. How old is the car?

You handled it well OP.

I used to work for a big assistance/recovery company and we heard about this all the time. We would get someone there VERY quickly in this case particularly if it was sunny or hot. Obviously call emergency services if you are worried about the child's safety or well-being at all. I never ever leave DD or the keys in the car as a result (too many hysterical parents I've had to listen to).

This happened to me once. DS was about 6 months old. I strapped him in, threw my car keys over to the driver seat, slammed the door, walked around to the driver's side and the car had locked. I know it was a fault with the key because the car won't lock if a door is open, so it must have locked after I shut the passenger door. I don't have a spare, so we rang the fire brigade. They told us to smash a window, as that is all they would do if they came out to us. It was horrible. I totally empathise with you OP. I never let the keys out of my hand now.

Hope you are ok now.

If my car locks like this I can get in the boot- did you try the boot door?

Yes talking I tried the boot, it was locked too, I have learnt my lesson never leave the keys n the ignition if I get out of the car.

Madmouse the car is three years old a Mazda 2

My car does this too. I'm paranoid about accidentally locking dd in and me out. It must happen all the time with modern cars - what a horrible experience for you.

DH has a mazda and it does the self locking thing too.

Same thing happened to me a while back, but luckily I had DS who's 4 in the car, as well as the baby. I had put the keys down while strapping DD into her car seat, closed the door to walk around to help DS with his seatbelt, without realising that I must have pressed the lock button on the key. All the car doors were locked so I had to get DS to reach over his sister to get the keys and tell him which button to press to unlock the car. Of course he thought it was great fun :)

I used to always put the keys down beside DD while I was strapping them both in, but never for a moment considered that the car could lock itself in that way. If DS hadn't been there, I don't know what I would have done because my handbag with phone and house key were locked in the car too. It was gone 9am so our neighbours had all gone to work, so I would have been very stuck indeed.

Glad it all worked out ok in the end OP but I am sure you are still recovering from the whole thing. Have a

What a scary experience, but thanks for the thread as it will make other parents know it can happen.

The next time I stand by the car talking I will remove the keys.