Desperate for help (Birmingham, Twitter, car keys, NCP)

[LostCarKeys]

AIBU to beg for help from strangers on the internet?

I’m on holiday in Birmingham with three kids. I parked in an NCP car park on Monday night and we’ve been staying in a car park since.

We checked out this morning to leave and head home (Brighton) via Coventry to see my Nan (90 years old).

I can’t find my car keys 🤦🏻‍♀️

Ok , on it.

Hotel safe?

I didn’t pay on arrival @ChessieFL. I got the ticket at the barrier, parked then we unloaded our stuff to walk to the hotel.

I don’t remember actually locking my car but it is definitely locked.

If you know you had them in a supermarket could you go to that supermarket and ask there then retrace your steps back to the hotel visiting every shop and office building etc to see if someone had found them and handed them in to the nearest building.

Or if you are out at any point could you call any restaurant you went to just in case they dropped out of you bag and they were holding on to then because they thought you would realise and be back for them

Try ringing shops you've been in to see if any have been handed in.

I like your thinking @TeeBee but we haven’t used it.

What activities have you done since you've been in Birmingham? Worth calling the places you've been to ask whether they've been handed in there?

Try the Sainsburys it could have got in the shopping basket or dropped if you didn’t put them back properly.

I had this at a Sainsburys car park though the car was open my partner couldn’t find the car key. The Timpsons in store did give us some local locksmith phone nos.

We also rang the insurance company and AA who offered to come out to try programming a key. Though it was eventually found under the car mat !

Have you got return to home in your policy perhaps they could tow you home and you get the train?

If not can you Google local garages that offer key replacement. That is what I did when I was trying everything.

Try and give your brain a rest you are in fight or flight so you can’t think properly.

I’m going to walk to the shop now @Yalta.

I’m working my way through all the other places (tram, library, museum, coffee shops, restaurants etc).

I am not a member anymore as the amount of utter shit emailed everyday was ridiculous, but yes you’re right you do and I forgot that.

I found this on Facebook @LostCarKeys

I have perfected loosing car keys down to an art. I have twice “lost “ my car
key when in fact they were in by bag. Both these bags had black lining, so I didn’t realise that with one bag the lining had a hole so keys went in - didn’t find till I shook the bag! The second because all the pockets etc black inside and so many pockets again shaking the bag! Sometimes when we panic we miss things. Check slowly and carefully. I also lose
bank cards a lot. I tend to find them in places I had already checked but
just didn’t check
carefully enough. I hope this helps

But, you say you remember pulling your keys out of your bag by mistake. So that would make me think that you had them after leaving the car park.

When you got them out by mistake, would you have given them to someone else to hold while you got the correct item out?

Walk is an excellent idea

I've often remembered things once I've started moving.

You’re spot on re fight or flight @SlayB. I’m trying hard to keep it together. Going to take a short walk soon then meditate for 5 mins.

The thing is if the car park aren't answering the phones the chances are they haven't answered the phone to anyone ringing to say they've found some keys etc

Did you have a teacup or glass in the hotel room that you thought might be a good little key-keeping pot when you arrived?!

Go back to this memory if you can. Logical thinking usually saves me after going through the mad panic. I left our passports at a french supermarket till once

This is the Rory Stewart Method. The thing you lost is in the first place you looked - you didn't see it the first time because it was slightly obscured and you panicked. Go back to the first place - in this case your handbag. Sit on the bathroom floor and take literally everything out of it, then shake it up and down and turn all the pockets inside out.

My Nan was 90 in May. There was a big family dinner that we couldn’t make because we’re not local and my eldest was mid GCSEs.

We stopped in Coventry on the way here to see my sister, mum, brother etc. My Nan couldn’t make it as she’d had a fall on Sunday evening and had to go to hospital for obs. Luckily nothing broken.

I really wanted to see her before we left today. If we don’t get to. We might never. This is weighing heavily on my mind.

Does the £250 include the cost of a whole new key because they can be very expensive to replace because of the computer programming in them.

I tipped my bag out @DanceWithTheBigBoysAgain. They’re not there.

Did you put them in a bags zipper pocket out of the way so you wouldn't pull them out again? Top drawer of hotel bedside table?

I found my phone in the fridge once. God knows what I was thinking when I put it in there.

Try the local Facebook page and see if anyone has found them and handed them into a shop or something? My local police station doesn’t do lost and found anymore so everything ends up at one of the local supermarkets at customer services.

Also check the linings of your bags and coats to make sure there are no holes they could have slipped into.

Worse comes to worse have you got someone who can courier your spare keys to you? Good luck!!

Yes, a new key @User1755387908