Thursday, January 04, 2007

Warning: Never leave your keys with us...

I think Pete's friends learnt one thing over the News Years period, and that is to never entrust their house keys with him. You might recall this former post about our short term memory (see. Forgetful We)

Heres what happened...

Before going on holidays Pete's friend - Mr BG entrusted his spare keys to Pete so that he can go over and make sure the contents of his house still exist, air out the place a bit and make sure that his fish are fed. All goes well for the first week.

On Christmas day, Pete went out to do his usual trip to Mr BG's apartment, which is only in the next block. A while later, I hear my phone ring and the apartment intercom buzz at the same time. I wonder who it might be and press the unlock key on the intercom and pick up my phone at the same time. It was Pete.

"You forgot your house keys again ?"

"Errm... No... Long story.."

Actually, there is two parts to this story... Here is Part 1:

Not only did he leave his own house keys inside Mr BG's apartment, he left Mr BG's keys inside the apartment as well. Along with the electronic key pass which will allow access into that block.

My gosh.. and I thought I was bad. I told him not to worry about it and to call Mr BG up and get him to cut a new set of keys and express mail it over to us. And when we do get the keys, we'll just have to stalk outside the block until someone goes in or out to be able to get inside.

Too easy right ? Well... I told you there was Part 2...

The keys arrived in the post a couple of days later, but Pete didn't go immediately, he blamed it on too many parties, people coming over to our place and even on my Birthday celebrations. In short, he forgot. And thats not the only thing he forgot, he also forgot where he placed the new set of keys.

We turned the whole apartment upside down. Nothing. Finally Pete picked up my set of keys and asked me if I knew what a particular key was for. I had no idea. 1/2 of my keys were from work and I had only been at this new company for a little over a month. Then he told me that he might have put the key on my key chain - but couldn't be sure.

Unable to find anything else, we go over to Mr BG's apartment and wait until we could go inside, then we tried every one of the keys on my key chain. No joy. We even tried opening the door with an old credit card. Impossible. And why do they make it seem so easy in movies ?!?

I told Pete to call Mr BG up and ask him to send over another set of keys. There really wasn't much we could do. We could always call a locksmith, but then this wasn't our apartment. I wasn't sure of the procedure involved. So Pete calls up Mr BG to inform him that he has lost the newly cut keys and needs him to send over another set.

Did I say there was only two parts to the story? Well... there is a Part 3.

Mr BG said that there was no key cutting place open during the Christmas period, so he just put his own set of keys into an envelope and mailed them. Duh !

You're probably thinking about the poor little Neon-Tetra fishies right now. I was too. But I was assured that they should be ok, as they are in a pretty self-sufficient ecosystem. Surrounded by plants, new filter system and apparently there was a feeding stone placed in the tank that would slowly erode away.

Somehow Pete left the balcony sliding door open. Atleast the place will be aired out. Lets just hope it doesn't rain. And incase your wondering, we will need to wait for his friend to come back to be able to either 1) hire a locksmith and break in... or 2) contact the real estate agent and hope that they've retain a set of keys

Moral of the story?

Dear friends and family, if you are going away for a holiday and you want to leave your spare keys with us...You've been warned :)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So... has the original set of keys arrived as yet??? hahahahah......

Moral of the story... leave your keys with 2 friends who are staying in Sydney...

Keys are left with you 'coz you are close to the premises and can feed to fish. I think they should have left another set of keys with another friend who stays in sydney.

BTW, surrounded by plants, does that mean it's now as green as the tank in "Finding Nemo" when they try to escape??? wow... maybe the fishes ARE trying to escape!!! muwahahahah....

takumi said...

Errm.. there are no 'original' set of keys left.. Mr BG mailed them to us already the first time when pete left both his set and the spare keys inside the apartment.. :(

Anonymous said...

this is the worst thing i've ever heard of. anyway, i was given this tip before - if possible to break and enter easily via a glass panel, etc just do so then claim insurance. troublesome though.

calling a locksmith costs about $100. from what i remember, they didn't check ID or anything. why not just tell them the real story and prove that the keys are where you say they are.

takumi said...

quest.... calling a locksmith on xmas day would cost... ?