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Story Time: In an older, much less technical world, the VW Golf 1 and Golf 2 had only N different keys for all models. So instead of having a unique key for eac
by terhechte 4y ago
Story Time: In an older, much less technical world, the VW Golf 1 and Golf 2 had only N different keys for all models. So instead of having a unique key for each Golf, VW had (I forgot the number) 1000 or 10000 different keys that were assigned randomly. I thought this was a myth until back in 99, my friends white, old Golf 2 was parked next to another white, old Golf 2. When we wanted to enter, there was sleeping guy in there. His Golf was parked next to ours. It was evening, he was tired, instead of driving home (the Golfs were parked outside a club) he had opened the Golf gotten in and fallen asleep. Just that he had entered the wrong Golf, because (even though very unlikely) there were to similar-looking golfs with the same keys next to each other (and it was dark).
- 2020aj 4y agoFunny story: house locks work the same way (I think usually ~1024 possible key configurations, depending on the lock). When my wife and I were dating we discovered that our apartment keys worked in each other's locks!
- colechristensen 4y agoMuch worse, Ford had a small set of fleet keys where every fleet vehicle of a set of types would have the exact same key for several model years. I bought an old cargo van which had been a Comcast installation vehicle and they had sabotaged the lock on the rear door because of this.
- cptcobalt 4y agoI seem to recall that there's a Defcon talk to this extent—one of the many that talk about locks and keys—that shares that (some) police cruisers across the US use the exact same keys, proven by showing the showing a monroney label on a still new police car which listed a barrel type had an already publicly-known key pattern.
- bombcar 4y agoThis is the case - New York cop cars and New York cabs had the same key because the latter were often old copies of the former. And all elevators in the USA have the same key, and you can buy a key set with almost all tractor keys.
- Volundr 4y agoI had an 86 Honda Civic and have a similar story. I was just getting out of class and heading to work, walked out to my car, started it, looked behind me to back out and realized the stuff in the back seat wasn't mine. Turns out someone had a very similar civic that was even missing the same black plastic strip on the side panel mine was. And my keys worked in their cars.
- olyjohn 4y agoNow if you still had an 86 Civic, it's highly likely that just about key from any Honda from that same era will open it now. The keys all wear down and so do the tumblers in the locks.