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Skeleton Key Trouble
Ask Chris · April 27, 2000

Q: A few months ago, I rented a Mercury Sable in Houston from Hertz. I went out to dinner, and upon emerging from the restaurant, I wanted to check the trunk of the car to make sure my computer was still there. So I go to the car, open the trunk, and my computer is gone.

Then suddenly, I realize why it's gone. It's not my rental car. But the trunk key from my key chain opens the trunk of a different (albeit identical) Sable. Same color, model, and year as far as I can tell. Eventually, I found the right car, and all was well.

But this got me thinking. Is this sort of thing common? Are there enterprising thieves out there who roam parking lots with a couple of Sable or Caravan or Grand Am or other common rental car trunk keys, hoping for a lucky break? And what are their odds?

-- Ron Lieber

A: You're not alone. Many years ago, I had a very similar experience. I was at the movies with a friend, and after the film ended, she handed me the keys to her car and suggested that I wait for her. "I'll just be a minute," she said as she turned to go to the Ladies room.

So I went out to the parking lot, found her blue Honda, opened to door and waited. And waited. "Gee, I wonder what's taking her so long," I wondered after a while.

Then I looked around and realized that this wasn't her car. It was the same make and model, even the identical color, but this wasn't her blue Honda. Somehow, her car key worked on it though.

Needless to say I was completely embarrassed. She couldn't believe me when I told her I'd been waiting in another car for her.

When I asked Hertz about this issue, it conceded that the skeleton key problem is possible, but "rarely" happens. Manufacturers such as Ford try to limit the possibility of it happening by producing a certain number of key codes, thus producing different keys, according to Hertz spokeswoman Paula Stifter.

"A car such as the Sable quite possibly can have hundreds of key codes, thus greatly diminishing the number of times Mr. Lieber's scenario could happen," she told me.

As an additional security precaution, car manufacturers have also begun using Passive Anti-Theft Systems (PATS). The keys work with a computer chip programmed to operate with that particular vehicle - meaning that even if a customer has a key with the right cut from the key codes it won't be able to start the car.

That makes me feel a little better. Now if I can just get over the embarrassment I still feel from unlocking the wrong car, we'll call it even.

Christopher Elliott is a travel commentator and author of A Bridge to Nowhere: A Year in the Florida Keys. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion. Ask Chris appears weekly on this site.