Locked Out

I recently learned an interesting lesson about the proper protocol for securing locks and shutting garage doors. On arriving home I drove into my garage and walked back out to grab a UPS note on the front door. Not wanting to have to go inside only to come back out the front door, I just reached into the garage to hit the close switch and walked off to get my package.

When I got back with the package, I unlocked the front door with my key and discovered that the "U" latch was locked from the inside (see picture below). I couldn't open the garage door again since my remote was inside the car in the garage, so I spent a good ten minutes trying to reach in the 2-inch gap in the doorway and somehow undo the U latch. Not surprisingly, they are apparently designed to stop you from doing just that, so I was unable to get it open.

I noticed that the latch was held on by two screws, so I got my swiss army knife screwdriver through the door and started to unscrew one of them. It was actually working, although very slowly, and I had one screw about halfway out when some neighbors walked by. Not wanting to look like I was trying to break into an apartment, I took my hand out of the door and pretended to be looking at my UPS package. As I did that I accidentally dropped the screwdriver inside the door and it bounced inside and out of reach.

Now I was really stuck, so I went to get the apartment maintenance guy. A bizarre conversation followed:

Me: "Hi, I locked myself out of my apartment"

Him: "OK, what's the number? I'll get the spare key"

Me: "1072, but the spare key won't help, see I have my key here"

Him: "Then how are you locked out?"

Me: "The U lock is shut from the inside, so I can unlock the door but can't get it open"

Him: "How did you shut the U lock from the outside?"

Me: "Well I went out the garage"

Him: "So why don't you go back in the garage?"

Me: "It's shut, and the opener is in my car, which is inside the garage"

Him: "How did you shut the garage door?"

Me: "I hit the switch and ran out before it closed"

Him: "Mmm... this doesn't make any sense. Let's go look at it"

We walked over to the apartment and I showed him that I was indeed completely locked out, even though I had the key.

Me: "Can you program another remote to open this garage door?"

Him: "Yes, we can do that. But we need the serial number of the opener, and it's inside the garage."

Me: "Don't you have them all written down somewhere?"

Him: "Hmm... no I don't think so"

Me: "What do you normally do in this situation?"

Him: "Nobody has ever done this before"

Me: "Uhh..."

Him: "How about I just kick your door in and then patch it up?"

Me: "OK, but won't that mess up the door frame?"

Him: "Nah, these U lock things aren't really secure anyway"

Me: "Ah well that's nice.."

The trusty U latch and the crack where the door frame was kicked in