Following my confession last week regarding my hotel key incident, a number of you relayed similar tales such as this one. "Some 25 years ago I was travelling around the USA seeing pig farms. My travels involved a lot of rental cars and I remember once renting a white Ford Taurus. While out and about, I stopped at a shopping mall somewhere to buy something. It was one of those malls with a huge outdoor parking lot making it easy to forget where you parked. I walked out of the mall and spotted my rental car right away. I unlocked the door with the key and climbed into the driver’s seat.
"I immediately noticed that the seat’s not adjusted right and the car smells like smoke. The ashtray was overflowing with cigarette butts and ashes and I don’t smoke. My first reaction was, "Who’s been smoking in my car?" And then it dawned on me, "Yikes! This is not my car! I’m in someone else’s car!" I jumped out, grabbed my package, and got away from there, fast!
"My rental car key had opened someone else’s very similar Ford Taurus! I soon found my rental car parked nearby — same color, same model, no smoke. I got the heck out of Dodge and went to the hotel to take a shower!"