Same key, not my truck!

[Derek Meyer]

I had it happen to me a few years ago. I had just finished bowling league and was walking out the door to get in my car, and I saw the lights flash as if it was being unlocked, then someone opened the door and got in. She sat there for a second, then got out with a bewildered look on her face. Turns out she had the same white colored Ford Edge as me, parked 4 spaces down, and her key fob opened my doors. She didn't say if she tried to start it with her key or not. She was pretty embarassed.

I had a 1969 Ford XL (Galaxie 500) where the ignition was so worn, the key would sometimes fall out while driving. The key I had was an original and was so worn that the edges were rounded over, yet it still started. I never did try starting it with a screwdriver, but was told that I could do that in an emergency.

[Jerome Stanek]

I remember one time I had my sisters 69 Camaro at the parking lot I worked part time for and the bosses son came in with his Corvette. I joked about how the keys looked like one another and went over and started his Corvette with the Camaro keys.

[Brian Elfert]

Toro for many years used the same generic key in all of their equipment even commercial equipment costing tens of thousands of dollars. Maybe they still use the same key today.

[Jerome Stanek]

Toro for many years used the same generic key in all of their equipment even commercial equipment costing tens of thousands of dollars. Maybe they still use the same key today.

When I worked construction all our equipment used the same Indak key but most had a cover plate that could be locked. We used the same pad lock on all the plates. so only had 2 keys.

[Curt Harms]

Not sure about the current status of this but a few years ago one major maker of heavy construction equipment caught a little heat for using the same key set in every piece of equipment they made.

jtk

There were a couple makes/models of airplanes where if you had 5 different keys for that make/model you could open any door in that make/model's fleet.

[Rick Potter]

1950's GM cars had an ignition switch that allowed you to turn the car off and remove the key in two positions. If you didn't turn it all the way off, the car could be started without a key. I think they used that setup until the early 60's. Everybody knew about it.

I remember walking to work one morning, and seeing a large backhoe in a field with the back up alarm beeping. Walking home the next morning, it was still there beeping, so I checked it out. No key that I could see, so I just bumped the shifter lever out of reverse and left it. A woman came out of a nearby house and thanked me....it had been beeping all weekend.

[Ronald Blue]

Choose either Cat, or International. They both did the same

I have a Cat key that will fit every Cat machine we have (hundreds) and also had a John Deere key that was the same. There are other better ways to secure them then a unique key. Just had a Cat tracked skidsteer last week that we changed the battery in. We couldn't start it without a default security pin code that had to be entered. If we chose to it could be set with a code of our choosing to prevent unauthorized use. 3 tries and it locks you out for 15 minutes.

[Terry Therneau]

When I was in college I had friend who was a bit of a packrat -- his key chain had all the keys he'd ever used. One day he noticed that the key slot for one of the elevators looked much like a car, and low and behold one of his old car keys fit it perfectly. We actually made use of that one day to commandeer the elevator for a practical joke (swapped the contents of two dorm rooms on different floors). This was a GE elevator (1974). I assume that GE ordered the tumblers from the same supplier GM used.

Terry T