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Car lockout · 24/7 lockouts · Flat rate $85
Keys Locked in the Car? We're Close to the 8 and the 67
Call now · (619) 837-7178Damage-free unlocks for doors, trunks and hatches, anywhere along the I-8 and SR-67 corridors and in the lots of El Cajon. Tell us the exit or the lot and we give you a real ETA. Have your ID and registration handy.
Where we pick people up
Lockouts happen where cars stop. These are the ones we drive to most.
Interstate 8 exits, west to east
- Fletcher Parkway (Parkway Plaza side)
- Johnson Avenue
- Main Street
- Second Street
- Mollison Avenue / Magnolia Avenue
- Greenfield Drive
- Los Coches Road
State Route 67
- Bradley Avenue
- Broadway
- Fletcher Parkway / I-8 interchange
Lots and garages
- Parkway Plaza
- El Cajon Transit Center park-and-ride, Marshall Ave
- Sycuan Casino garage, Dehesa Rd
- Grossmont College lots
- Cuyamaca College lots, Rancho San Diego
- Gillespie Field and Fletcher Parkway shops at shift change
Gas stations on Fletcher Parkway and Magnolia, apartment carports off Mollison, the driveway in Granite Hills: all of it counts. Commuters heading to San Diego, Santee, Lakeside or Ramona pass through the interchange by Parkway Plaza, and that's where we stage during the morning and evening rush so the drive to you is short. Full coverage, with drive times to the edges, is on the service area page.
Shift change, late shows and the casino lot
The corridor has a rhythm and we've learned it. Six in the morning is the shops along Fletcher Parkway and the hangars at Gillespie Field: someone tossed their keys on the seat with the coffee and shut the door. Mid-morning is Parkway Plaza and the grocery lots on Magnolia. The evening rush is the Transit Center park-and-ride, where a commuter steps off the trolley and finds the keys locked in the car they left at seven. After midnight it's the Sycuan garage, where the walk back to the car ends at a locked door and a phone at four percent.
We keep tools for all of it in the same van, so the tech who unlocks a work truck at dawn is the one who opens a sedan under the casino lights that night. Tell us the level of the garage or the row of the lot when you call; it saves the lap.
If you're on the shoulder
Your safety comes before your keys.
- Stay out of the travel lane. Stand behind the guardrail or well off the shoulder, not between your car and traffic.
- If the car still runs and you can drive it, get off at the next exit and into a lot. We'll meet you there.
- For a tow, a stalled car in a lane, or anything that feels dangerous, call CHP. They'll get you somewhere safe and we'll come to that spot.
- We come to safe locations: exits, lots, side streets and driveways. We don't work on a live freeway shoulder, for your sake and ours.
How we open it
Modern cars open with air wedges, long-reach tools and a bit of patience, not a slim jim scraping the wiring inside your door. We open the door the way the factory would want it opened, and your paint, weather strip and window regulator are the same after as before.
- Trunks and hatches. Keys in the trunk with the doors locked is common on cars with a trunk release inside. We open the door, then the trunk.
- Running cars. The car started, the door locked, you're outside. Same tools, faster, because we know the engine's running.
- Kids or pets inside. Call 911 first. Summer in The Box hits triple digits and a closed car heats fast. Then call us; if we're closer than the fire department we'll say so and come.
- Work trucks and vans. Slider doors, cargo doors and locking toolboxes are their own problem and we carry the tools for them.
- Older cars. A 90s pickup or a 2000s sedan with a worn lock cylinder sometimes opens faster with a pick than a wedge. Either way, nothing gets forced.
What we'll ask for
Your ID, and the registration or some proof the car is yours or you're allowed to drive it. The registration is usually in the glove box, so we look at it together once the door is open. For a company vehicle, a call to the office or a fleet card works. It's the law, and it's common sense: you'd want the same check if it were your car.
If you can't prove the car is yours, we can't open it, and we'll tell you that on the phone rather than after the drive.
What you'll hear on the phone
Car lockout, flat $85 along I-8 from Fletcher Pkwy to Los Coches and SR-67 to Bradley
The flat rate covers the drive and the unlock inside the corridor. After-hours rate applies 7pm to 7am and all day Sunday, and we say the after-hours number on the phone before we roll. Outside the corridor, the trip charge on the pricing page applies. No extra for trunks. No "starting at" that turns into something else at the car.
Quick answers
Will you damage my car?
No. We use inflatable wedges and long-reach tools that work the way a body shop would open a door, and the paint, weather strip and window track are the same when we leave. The one honest caveat is a car with weather stripping already dry and cracked from years in the East County sun; we point that out before we start so nothing is a surprise.
My kid or my dog is locked inside. What do I do?
Call 911 first, every time. A closed car in El Cajon in summer heats faster than people expect. Then call us; if we are closer than the fire department we will say so and come straight there, and we do not charge to break a window when seconds matter.
Can you unlock a car that isn't mine?
Only with the owner's say-so. That means the owner on the phone or on the way with ID, or a company fleet contact who can vouch for a work vehicle. Without that, we can't open it, and we'll tell you on the phone rather than after the drive.
Lost the key, not locked it in? That's a new key, cut and programmed at the car: car keys and fobs. Anything else, contact us.