What would you do if you leave your car key in your car and the car is still running? The experienced would say "Call triple A(*1)!"
The inexperienced?
More than ten year ago, a friend from Taiwan went to a graduate school in Connecticut. I offered to show him around Boston so I drove down there and picked him up. Before we headed back to Massachusetts, we stopped at a supermarket near his place to grab something to drink. When we came out of the store, I realized I didn't have my car key with me—what was worse was that when we walked back to my car, I found the engine was still running!
Then a Eureka! moment came to me—I remembered my father once told me he had the same mishap. He said he called the police, and then a police officer came and picked the lock. My father said he also got a fifty-dollar bill from the officer.
Well, back then I honestly thought that was a standard "service" provided by the police, so I found a pay phone, dialed 411, explained my situation to the operator and requested the phone number of a nearby police station. After I got the number, I called the station and a lady answered the phone. I told her what had happened and asked her if she could help me.
"No, sir. We don't provide that kind of service."
"Oh," I was crestfallen, "thank you anyway."
Just before I hung up my phone, she added "Well, if you want, I can connect you to the tow station."
"Yes, please!" Of course I want it.
The rest was standard; the tow truck came, the guy unlocked my car door, and I paid him thirty dollars. (Or sixty? I forgot.) It just so happened I had that much cash on me. Honestly, I wouldn't have known what to do if I couldn't pay him. I didn't have a credit card back then.
I thought I'd learned my lesson, but apparently not. In the following years the same thing happened twice, once in San Jose and the other time in Houston. Both times I called AAA.
(*1) AAA (or "triple A" as people call it) is an American automobile organization. It provides many services to its members. Roadside assistance is one of them.
