Recently we were at a trade show promoting our books. It was early Saturday morning while everyone was opening up for the day. Brett from the Farmer’s Daughter LLC – http://www.preparesurvivethrive.us/farmers-daughter/ – had gone looking for change I believe is what he said, when he came to this one vender who had forgotten the keys to their money box. Well Brett being Brett he started going around to all the other venders to see if anyone had a key that would fit. No, we didn’t have a key that would fit.
The options discussed were that they could drive home and get the keys.. a 3 hour round trip which would been less fun than Gilligan’s Island. Destroy the box. Drive into town and hit an ATM $300 daily limit -20 miles- or just pack up and go home. None of those options were appealing to any of us.
It took about 10 minutes to get the moneybox open for them AND that included making the tools to do the job. So there was a happy ending. Oh, did I mention that we did have a locksmith at our table ;].
***Here is the take away from this. ***
They had BOTH keys to the lock box on the same keyring which is how it came from the store and had left them on the desk at home. This is normal, common behavior BTW. If you are married each of you should have a key on your key ring. If you are by yourself then you should have the backup set of keys somewhere safe that you can get to on your expedition. I carry 2 sets of car keys on me and my wife does too. Spare keys are cheaper and easier than being locked out.
When going on a trip especially out of town, fill out a load list – an example of this is in http://www.preparesurvivethrive.us/ready-or-not-fun-things-will-happen/ or you can write out a list and check it twice when you travel.
Skills – some skills are easy and quick to learn, others take a long time to learn, develop and maintain with constant practice. Examples of the more difficult skills include locksmithing and healthcare. This story was a good example of the locksmith being able to build the needed tools on need.