Twilight Zone Incident! - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

BWatson · #1 08-29-2002, 07:12 PM

Last night I came out of a restaurant and when I was next to my car, I noticed It was very dirty. Strange, I just washed it. I unlocked the door and got in, the LA weekly still on the seat where I left it. Then the ignition key did not work so I tried the other key and it worked. I was just about to start the car when I noticed that there was plastic instead of wood around the shift. This WAS NOT MY CAR!!! It was a white 300D older non turbo model with the same blue interior and coincidentally, an LA weekly on the front seat. Even wierder, The KEY WORKED. My car was two parking spaces over.
I was kind enough to lock up this guys car for him (or her). I'm lucky I didn't drive away in this car. Why does my key work in this other car? That is somewhat disturbing.

#2 08-29-2002, 07:30 PM

The reason why your key worked is that there are only a certain number of "combinations" that can be cut into a key. Your key likely fits other MB's as well. This exists with all automakers that have used, or are still using a non chipped, or non lazer cut key.

Kyle Blackmore · #3 08-30-2002, 12:19 AM

I had a similar experience at a car show a couple of years ago.We were walking around looking at all the cars and came upon a young guy with a '67 Cougar.His friend had locked the keys inside and they were bickering over whose fault it was

.I mentioned I had a '67 Mustang and he said "thats nice",I walked up to the door,stuck my key in,unlocked it

.The guy was flabbergasted

.He came over to where we were parked later,his key wouldn't work in my door.True story...no really...

Jassper · #4 08-30-2002, 01:00 AM

A probable reason for your key to work in other car's lock was that on older cars the the driver's side lock gets used and worn out. Such locks can be opened with a key that is a close match and sometimes with a pen knife or a spoon if they are very deteriorated. If it were a new lock you probably wouldn't have opened it with the same key. You should have tried to insert your key in to the passenger side, you probably wouldn't have opened it as that side gets used rather seldomly. But... who knows

Billybob · #5 08-30-2002, 07:51 AM

Similar scenario, about 14 -15 years ago went to Home Depot to pick up a few odds and ends for a charity job I was doing for a neighbor in her car a cream colored Cougar. Got done inside and headed out to the parking lot, up to the car and pop the trunk, what the heck! Where did all this luggage come from? and how did it get into the truck? Stood there bewildered and confused for 3 - 4 minutes until a woman’s voice, unknown to me, starts hollering to her very large husband as they approach the car "He's going into our car!" They quickly made it to me as I stood there mumbling and looking Rain man-like in front of their open trunk with my arm load of Romex, boxes, receptacles, switches and the like. The too stupid to run posture gave them pause and allowed me to look around and in the row of vehicles behind me sat the other cream Cougar! We ended up talking and eventually checking both keys for each car, only the trunk locks worked with both keys an identical match in a side by side closer comparison, door locks both worked with the trunk key one his lock my key was easy his key my lock took some jiggling and trying but eventually worked, ignition locks and keys where different.

Luckily it wasn’t the guy working in the roofing materials section who worked till 11 PM!!! who would have had his car towed or the steering lock rearranged in short order and a very similar car, that he might be able to get in? but! he would not be able to turn the ignition key!

Imagine with the ignition key working! MB one key for all and all for one!

How strange would it be to be driving away in a strange identical car and start to notice that what was once the familiar individual idiosyncratic “sign” of things repaired, un-repaired and working in your vehicle was friggin different!!!!!! How soon would you pull over??? What if it was better?? Worse!!! What would you think when you opened the glove box and looked at the papers!!! !Would you need to check your wallet!?!?!?!?!?

The paper on the seat thing is quite the twist for sure, truly the odds of such a chance meeting are incalculable

Makes you wonder if maybe the whole cosmos is nothing more than random interaction and anything is possible…probable…

Perhaps a little joke played by God (the big guy, all watching, all knowing; teaching us?, testing us?, loving us?), or the bad guy (somebody’s got to do it!) ?

Nate Stanley · #6 08-30-2002, 09:54 AM

B Watson,
good thing the owner of the non-turbo didn't walk out first and trade up to a Turbo--but at least you still would've had a paper to read---

I also had a '62 Olds whose key would work in a '63 Cadillac hearse. I elected to stick with the Olds.

#7 08-30-2002, 11:40 AM

True story...

My wife bought a 82 S10 blazer new and had parked it while visiting a friend down town. When she left to come home she got into a red blazer, started the thing up and drove it home. When she came in she said something is wrong with my car keys, they take lots of tries to get the door open and the car started. When I went out to check it I asked her when she got the running boards installed and the different color seats. Only then did she say holy &^%$!, this is not MY CAR

We took it back, picked up her car about three spaces away and came home. The owner of the other Blazer may have wondered why his/her car was moved but we never met them. We bought a lottery ticket on the way home but lady luck had changed her tune.

#8 08-30-2002, 04:35 PM

I have never had anything like this happen to me, but when I had some tires put on my 300CD, the tire salesman at Costco told me a story about this happening to him. He wanted my the license plate number to sure he had the right car. He said that a customer with a grey Nissan Sentra wanted some tires put on his car. It turns out that there was another grey Sentra in the parking lot, and the keys happened to work. So he put the tires on the wrong car. He didn't want to make that mistake again. I told him that I had the only Mercedes diesel coupe in the area.

Bill DeWitt · #9 08-30-2002, 08:25 PM

Several years ago in a west Texas town we had stopped
to eat at this restaurant. After finishing my wife went on
out to our car and I paid a short visit to the mens' room and
was following several feet behind another man who was leaving
the restaurant and by this time it was getting dusty-dark.
He open our car door and had started to get in and noticed the
woman didn't look like his wife and his wife saw what was
happening and ask me if I would like to get in with her...the
four of us had a good laugh, oh well don't think I would have
traded wifes but would have up-graded my car...he had an
Olds and mine was a Chevrolet....same color same year.

#10 10-01-2002, 11:32 AM

Quote:

when I had some tires put on my 300CD, the tire salesman at Costco told me a story about this happening to him. He wanted my the license plate number to sure he had the right car. He said that a customer with a grey Nissan Sentra wanted some tires put on his car. It turns out that there was another grey Sentra in the parking lot, and the keys happened to work. So he put the tires on the wrong car. He didn't want to make that mistake again. I told him that I had the only Mercedes diesel coupe in the area.

I assume that's the East Wenatchee Costco that you're talking about?

If so, you might want to avoid them like hell. Two years ago, my dad took the 380SE to the same place to have studded tires mounted on the rims. Well, Costco somehow managed to strip the threads off one of the lug bolts on the car. They rented us a new 4-cylinder Camry while they fixed the thing...that thing had no driving pleasure at all.

We now go to Dick's Tires on S. Wenatchee Avenue, and they've never screwed up one of our cars.

-Sam

Robert W. Roe · #11 10-01-2002, 10:08 PM

Not to cast aspersions on some of these "longshot" odds of keys working in other vehicles, but I have to wonder if perhaps both cars didn't have the so-called "shop keys" instead of the OEM tumbler. I guess the idea was to have a generic lock that could be installed until MB parts got the proper lock. My 84 SD has two keys, one for the driver's door, and one for all the other locks.

#12 10-01-2002, 10:52 PM

Sam,
I have had good luck with buying tires at the East Wenatchee Costco. The only place that I will avoid is the Les Schwab down the street, where all those people had there wheels fall off because the lug bolts were not tightened.

#13 10-01-2002, 11:44 PM

I had forgotten this story until reading this thread:

When I was a kid, my brother, sister, and I were waiting for our mom in the Church parking lot after Mass where she was the organist. Next to us was a car filled with kids also waiting for their mother. Unlike us, though, these kids were busy wrestiling, jumping over seats, having a grand ol' time. Eventually we hear one exclaim, "Hey, this isn't our car!!" Quickest exit I ever saw!

CHAPP · #14 10-02-2002, 07:51 AM

When I was 15 I had a '56 Buick, (no driving permit) and that key fit my dad's '62Chevy...grandfather's '63 chevy and uncles '58 chevy....and I never got caught driving...but had to give the Buick back.