Keys to your car ?

I take my wallet, registration ,

– Last Updated: Dec-19-08 11:48 AM EST –

proof of insurance and ANYTHING with my home address on it with me, even the garage door opener. Everything's already in a small envelope in the glove box, so I put the keys in there too, stuff it in a dry bag and off I go.

To put it bluntly, you are an idiot if you leave your wallet inside your vehicle, whether it's in the trunk, under the seat or the car is locked and the alarm is turned on. There are bad people everywhere, even in your little slice of heaven, and eventually it will happen to you. Why take the chance?

I've touched on this before in one of the Natnl Park threads a few months back. ID theft is rampant. I've known several people who've gotten their homes burglarized because of theft of personal info out of their vehicles. It's not hard to keep everything in an envelope in the glove box, reach in and stuff into a dry bag before you put it. Put the keys in it, too. That way you won't forget that it's stuffed in a dry bag on Monday, when you head off to work or errands, since you need to the keys to GET home from the trip.

easy
C’mon now. We all live in different circumstances. Sure, even up here where I leave my car keys in the truck about 90% of the time, regardless of where I am, there is still a chance someone will break into my locked car at a put-in and rustle around inside on the off chance my wallet is in there. But there’s also a chance that your drybag containing all your life’s most important documents will get lost, flooded, whatever. So it’s a tradeoff. For me, I’m 100% positive that my registration, insurance, wallet, and birth certificate are safer in the glove box than they are in my boat. Maybe that’s not the case for you.

A DL, keys, vehicle
reg can be replaced fairly easily. It’s a pain, but they can. Straightening up one’s identity and credit is another story. But to each their own. I have no doubt that everyone here has big boy/girl pants. :wink:

Yes, in a Pelican 1010 box
It’s just big enough to hold all my truck-related and trailer-related keys, plus a small snack. If I need more room, I put that box inside a dry bag with the other gear.

on a carabiner attached to my pants
cell phone in dry box in thwart bag as back-up

Not Any More! NM

Older and newer.
My old VW i keep a key in my ditch bag all the time (rusty) and the other key with house keys is on a ring with a clip like a biner.

The New VW has a load of electronice and a $300.00 price tag. It goes in an inside pocket or in the waterproof first aid kit in my ditch bag. It has a biner too.

The old car also has a key taped to the underside of the license plate so if I am a distance from home I will not be stuck for lack of a key.

It’s a 93 VW diesel with 250,000 KM and not likely to get stolen. If it is knicked OJ could have used it as his get away car. (slow)

All my keys have a clip and a sponge float.

We don’t have a lot of car thefts here.

Pile of leaves
or under some trash in my PU truck bed. Sometimes on top of the tire or under the bumper.



I locked both doors once with the windows down, it worked, nothing was stolen.

My keys, wallet, and even now, after…
…the pirate’s sagely advice, my registration certificate, all go into a small drybag (type w/a clear-panel to assist in all my “grab-bag” fumblin’ about) clipped around my canoe’s thwart closest to my poling/paddling station (Yes, a flip-n-pin might make for some additional worries in valuable extractions - tis a chance I’ll take). In my periodic paranoia, as I let my fingers do the stalkin’ for a lighter or duct tape or tp, I’ll let them fondle additional contents, so as to restore peace-of-mind when they trip over the familiar jingly keychain or tathered-leather wallet.



But, for peace-of-mind per parkin’ my paddle-shuttlin’ van (I here tell those Allegheny Reservoir parkin’ lots are perforated with packs of poachers, pickpockets, and the peculiar), I just position within the viewable confines of my party-wagon a couple cardboard cutout cut-ups in life-size. One of this fella:



http://tinyurl.com/9k66qt



And another of this pseudo-fella:



http://tinyurl.com/6uwmzk



Both holdin’ hands.



Works like a charm (Voodoo, I think), in keepin’ those other peculiars of the stalked paddler’s path at a distance. (Might say they Ru the day they saw Quentin got his Paul’s on her!)



Except for that time I parked my van in Mount Vernon, Baltimore, to come back and find a wine, cheese and ascot party had broken out inside it!



TW

I do a few things
Depending on how safe I feel the area is. My usual deal is to hide the key on the car somewhere. I like the key with the car. If I’m not sure about the place, or just a little paranoid, I’ll find a place nearby to stash the key. Under a prominent rock usually.

If I’m not in a place to do either, like when there are people around, I’ll take it with me. I have it tied, or clipped to a loop in my PFD pocket, or in my drybag tied to something bigger. The one thing I’m paranoid about is not having the key at the take-out. River trips, I try to leave the key on,or around the car.

Keys
I always have a plain key ziptied to my frame under the car. I make sure I put it so I have to lie down to retieve it. This has saved me time and money more than once.






Good solutions

something to keep in mind if you paddle
in salt water:

i used to always carry a bare key clipped in the pfd when surfing…and after about two years of that i noticed that my lock was becoming harder and harder to unlock…i had been putting in drips of salt water into the lock!!!corroded the thing right up!!!



i picked up a spare clicker for my subaru on ebay…it was 2$…and 20$ to program to the car (damn if i could manage to do it on my own)…i am going to make a small plastic pouch permanently sealed just for this fob…



condensation in small dry bags: go to a local clothing store and ask if they could hold onto a bunch of the desiccant packs that are in every box of clothing for you…i just toss one or two in every dry bag and no worries…



if you have a trailer hitch you can get a hitch safe…has a combo and it is a little drawer (only good if you are not using the hitch)

Semi - Related fun recovery story
http://www.kitv.com/video/18004094/index.html

Dead fob battery
I carry a spare battery with my wallet and other valuables. That takes care of situations like yours. On the water, that means I won’t always have the spare battery, BUT I can still unlock the truck with the key and press the valet switch (of the antitheft system).

Hitch Safe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wGSjrqPxuI

Dry Pac waist pac
I have something similar to this that I think NRS used to make. This scuba site sells something like it.

http://www.diversdirect.com/scuba-diving/dry-pak-210-waist-pack/

I put keys, wallet, and cell in it. I know, a cell phone in a kayak?!? You don’t have to answer it if you don’t want. Even if you swim you won’t loose it unless something really odd happens.

keys and Kayaking
I used to carry my keys in a hard plastic waterproof case but that was a bit bulky. Then I carried them in a light, coated, dry bag and was always worried about poking a hole with the keys. But mostly I noticed that no matter how much I checked, there was always another reason to get into the car after I had packed the keys away.



So I made one extra key to open the car door and I put it in an orange O-Ring sealed tube (along with a few dollars) I bought at a sporting goods store. That tube is biner’d to the bungee behind my seat. Now I can pack away all my keys or just leave them hidden in the car. I have the one key to get in and it is just a reach and a twist away. Note that as a guy (women don’t seem to do this) I also have an extra key hidden on the exterior of the car.