Here's my quandary… I drop off my cars at a local independent mechanic for service. He's a family businessman who's willing to fix the car, lock it up and let me pick it up after hours. My problem is, before the era of radio-signalling smart key fobs, I could tell him to lock the keys in the car, then come after he closed with a second key, and pick up both key and car. But the fob system in the Prius, of course, is thoughtfully designed to keep you from locking your keys in your car, so you can't do so – even when you want to. My working hours completely overlap the garage's business hours. How do I get my key back without having the mechanic leave the Prius unlocked and completely vulnerable to theft by the first person who walks past it?
One idea, lock car, remove battery from fob, close door. (if you lock the car with the button inside car door, you can remove battery any time.
I sincerely appreciate the suggestion, Jimbo. But the problem I see with the suggestion is that then the mechanic can't start or drive the car to fix it.* (*In theory, he could reinstall the battery to do so and re-remove it afterward. But as a practical matter, that not only would do violence to the remote's internals, it would also be an awful lot of fussing to ask of the mechanic.)
Wrap the remote in aluminum foil when you want to leave it in the car. Take the foil off when you want to use it again.
