This is the post we wish we never had to write — and the call we wish we never had to take. But it happens, and not rarely. Every summer in Philadelphia, South Jersey, Houston, and everywhere we serve, children and pets get locked in vehicles in dangerous heat. We respond to these calls with priority dispatch and we waive our standard service fee.

Here’s the protocol — what to do, in what order, and what we’ll do when we arrive.

Call 911 first. Always.

Before you call us. Before you call anyone else. Call 911 first.

Local police, fire, and EMS have the legal authority to break a window if a child or pet is in immediate distress, and they typically arrive faster than a locksmith because they’re already on the road in patrol cars. They also have medical resources on-scene if you need them.

If we’re closer to your location and we can get there faster than EMS, that’s a win. But you do not skip the 911 call to wait for us. Make the 911 call. Then call us.

When to actually treat this as an emergency

A child or pet in a vehicle is an emergency when any of these are true:

The outside air temperature is 70°F or higher. A car interior reaches dangerous temperatures shockingly fast — even at 70°F outside, a closed car can hit 110°F in under 30 minutes. At 90°F outside, the interior can exceed 120°F in 15 minutes.
Direct sunlight on the vehicle. Cracking a window does almost nothing.
The child or pet is showing signs of distress — heavy panting (pets), sweating, lethargy, red skin, vomiting, unresponsiveness.
The child is too young to extract themselves — generally under 8, but use judgment.
The pet is in any visible distress at all. Pets dehydrate and overheat much faster than humans.

In any of these scenarios, the answer is: break the window if you have to. A glass repair bill is something. A child or pet’s life is everything. No reasonable adult will second-guess you for breaking a window to save them.

What to do while help is on the way

If you’re the parent or owner standing outside the vehicle:

Stay with the car. Don’t run looking for help — call from where you are.
Try every door. Sometimes the rear doors aren’t engaged in the central lock.
Look for an unlocked or cracked window big enough to reach in.
Find shade. If the car is in direct sun and you can’t get in, get someone to help shield it.
If the child or pet is in distress, break the window. Use a heavy object on the bottom corner of a side window (back seat preferred so glass doesn’t injure them). Tempered glass shatters into small pieces — wear gloves or a shirt over your hand if you can.
Talk to the child through the door. Calm them. Older children can sometimes unlock the door themselves with guidance.
For a pet, try to coax them onto the floor of the vehicle (cooler than the seat) until help arrives.

What we do when we arrive

If you’ve called us as part of a non-distress lockout (parent left keys in the ignition, dog in the car, ambient temp comfortable), we dispatch the closest truck on priority routing.

When we arrive, we open the vehicle non-destructively in 1–3 minutes for almost every modern vehicle. We carry automotive locksmith equipment for every common make — domestic, Asian, European, and luxury. The same tools we use for car-key replacement work for emergency lockouts.

We waive our standard fee for documented child- or pet-emergency lockouts. We don’t bill for getting a child or pet out of a hot car. That has been our policy since 2007 and it isn’t changing.

How to prevent this in the first place

A few habits that work:

Always check the back seat before locking — make it a permanent ritual, every single time, even when you “know” the back seat is empty.
Place something you’ll definitely need (phone, work bag, badge) in the back seat — so you’ll physically open the back door before walking away.
Use a car-seat reminder app if you have a young child — there are several free ones that ping you when your phone leaves the car if the seat is occupied.
Never leave a pet in the car while running errands in summer — even “for a couple minutes.” Cars heat up faster than the human brain expects.
Keep one spare key in your wallet, not in the car. This is the cheapest insurance against a lockout in any season.

The bigger picture

Vehicular heatstroke has killed roughly 950 children in the U.S. since 1998 (per kidsandcars.org statistics). It is preventable. Most cases involve a parent or caregiver who got distracted in a routine moment. The “I would never” reflex is the most dangerous one — every parent who has lived through one of these tragedies thought the same thing the day before it happened.

If this post saves one call, it was worth writing.

Where we serve

We respond to emergency vehicle lockouts during service hours (8 AM – 8 PM, every day, with Houston extending to 9 PM) across the Delaware Valley (Philadelphia, South Jersey, Wilmington DE) and Houston, TX. See our service areas for the local dispatch number for your market, or call the main line and we’ll route to the closest truck.

Outside of service hours, the right call is 911. Local police and fire respond 24 hours a day; we don’t promise round-the-clock service and we won’t lie about it. For child or pet emergencies in any weather, 911 is always the first call.

Family-owned, multi-state licensed, BBB A+ accredited since 2007. The fee waiver for child and pet emergencies has been our policy from day one.

Child or Pet Locked in a Hot Car? Call 911 First — Then Us