Honey I Lost the Keys While On Vacation

Every now and then we get ourselves into a stupid situation that should be really easy to get ourselves out of, but things just happen to compound the situation so it ends up way bigger than it should have been when it started out. That's pretty much how it went one time when I managed to lose our keys while on vacation with the family. I'll tell you about it.

Last year we decided that we'd go down to Cancun in Mexico for a nice relaxing week-long vacation by the sea. Just relaxing on the beach, relaxing in our apartment and relaxing by the pool were the three main rules of the week. Sounds idyllic, doesn't it?

The Vacation

Well, everything was going fine until three days into the vacation when I decided to take the rental car for a drive around the place to, you know take in some sights that did not include a beach, some sea and not much else! Yeah, you guessed it, I already broke my own rules, cause sitting around relaxing all day can get awful boring!

Well we all got in the car and we set off in search of some adventure. Things were fine and we drove around for an hour or so, but soon the kids wanted to get back to the beach. So we started to head back but on the way found a cute little restaurant by the side of the road and could not pass up the chance to check it out and practice our Spanish in a real Mexican place away from the resort where everyone just spoke English to us.

The kids agreed with this decision, by the way. That was mainly because they needed the bathroom and were feeling hungry anyway. So in we went and had a great lunch and really enjoyed ourselves. Well it came time to pick up the check and leave, but when we got outside I realized I didn't have the keys to the car!

The Car Keys Had Disappeared!

Oh no! Like my serious key losing problem had followed me all the way to my vacation. I thought it was just an at-home-stress thing with me. Seems not!

No problem I thought. After all where could they have gone between the car and the table I sat at in the restaurant?

I went back inside and asked the waiter to check our table to see if I'd left the keys on there. He went and took a look, then came back and said there were no keys on there. The table had not been cleared even, so it wasn't as if someone had picked them up by mistake!

By this time my wife and kids had followed me inside, knowing only too well it seemed that retrieving keys was not ever going to be a simple affair for me. Me and the kids looked under the table and chairs, but no keys there!

Wife to the Rescue

My wife just stood there with a half smile on her face that said she knew something I didn't know. I stood up wondering what she was secretly hiding when she pulled the electronic key finder transmitter out of her handbag and pressed one of the buttons.

The reassuringly familiar audible beep sounded from the back of the small restaurant, coming from the bathroom. I went into the bathroom and to my surprise; there were the car keys on top of the wash basin exactly where I had put them down when I came in here to wash my hands!

You just know I had forgotten doing that!

It seems my wife had already anticipated the very real chance that I mislaid the car keys, so she had slipped a spare key finder receiver onto the key ring before we set out. That's just like her to think of something important that I certainly would not have!

We were able to enjoy the rest of our vacation without further incident, by the way!

The Lost Keys Burial by Dog Incident

Not all dog owners lose their keys and not all lost keys are swiped by the family pet. In this eerie crime episode, the dastardly thief was the dog!

First of all, let's get one thing straight. I lose my keys pretty frequently for one reason or another. Most of the time, they're not really lost, just misplaced. But once in a while, there is a great mystery that shrouds the missing items such as this, when all the evidence pointed to the furry, four legged canine mastermind himself!

Where Are My Keys?

It's a mantra that my family are doubtlessly tired of hearing emanating from my vocal chords, "Where are my keys now?" It happens every time (and I do mean every time) I go to pick them up off the side where I know for a fact I left them the evening before and they are just not there!

This is usually followed by the frustrating treasure hunt around the room, looking beneath the sofa, chairs, coffee table and other furniture. If that initial search comes up empty, it's time to dive down the back of the sofa, chairs, under rugs and then into drawers, the bookshelf, top of the TV, top of the DVD player and on it goes.

You get the picture.

There is a Thief Among You

So one Saturday morning, I was due to go meet the guys for an early round of golf when the dastardly deed was done and a thorough investigation was soon underway. The usual searches came up empty.

Grilling the kids resulted in "I hate you" and "I'm running away from home" type comments, so I didn't push my luck. My wife was wearing a dead pan face and I knew I shouldn't press that avenue very far.

So, no keys in the room, unlikely they are anyplace else in the house and time was getting short before I had to meet the guys. I looked down at the dog for sympathy but I could have sworn he was grinning back at me.

Canine Caper

"Wait a minute. Did you just grin at me, you sneaky hound?" Shaking his head as if in denial of the fact, the dog got up from his spot on the floor and started toward the backdoor.

I dumbly followed, expecting some kind of enlightenment. Out into the back yard he padded, headed for the old tree at the end, cocked his leg and irrigated it as he liked to do. Then he headed for a bare patch of earth that looked suspiciously like it had recently been dug over. I got a little closer so I could get a better look.

Indeed. That patch of ground had been roughly dug at by clumsy paws and not a garden spade or fork. I got closer and then grabbed the small gardening trowel from the edge of the flowerbed along the way.

Elementary My Dear Watson

Whether it was the dog's guilty face or my own intuition working in overdrive, I just knew what I'd find in that patch. I dug down lightly with the trowel and there they were! Laying in a shallow grave, the evidence had been concealed by my devious mutt.

The mystery was solved and the stolen property was retrieved. Somewhat worse for wear thanks to its unceremonious impromptu burial, but my keys were found and I was glad to have them back.

Why had he done that? Not to drive me nuts, it seemed, but to hide from me the fact that he had chewed the leather key fob into a mushy mess and he didn't want me to see it!

Crazy, but true!