Car Lockout Service in Cary, NC

Locked out of your car in Cary? Call (919) 230-4498. WTF Towing opens cars, trucks and SUVs 24/7, wherever you’re parked, and gets you back on your way fast.

Keys on the seat at the Harris Teeter on Kildaire Farm Road. A toddler locked in with the keys at Fenton. Fob in your gym bag inside the car at Life Time. Locked out at work in RTP after everyone else went home. Lockouts are the most common roadside call there is, and the fix is usually a few minutes once the right person is standing at your door.

What our lockout service includes

• Vehicle entry for cars, trucks, SUVs and vans using professional lockout tools — no coat hangers, no broken weather seals.
• Keys locked in the trunk — we open the car, then the trunk from inside.
• Child or pet locked in — tell us when you call; those are priority.
• Key fob dead or not responding — we get you in so you can get to the physical key or a replacement battery.
• A tow if you need one — if the keys are truly gone, we can take the vehicle to a dealer or locksmith.

Lockout vs. locksmith

If the keys are inside the vehicle, you need a lockout — that’s us, and it’s faster and usually cheaper than a locksmith. If the keys are lost or broken and you need a new key cut or a fob programmed, that’s locksmith work; we’ll open the car and, if you like, tow it to the dealer or a locksmith who can make the key.

How it works

1. Call (919) 230-4498 with your location and the make and model of the vehicle.
2. We quote the price upfront and give you a real ETA.
3. The driver verifies the vehicle is yours, opens it, and checks that the keys are where you thought they were.
4. You’re on your way — usually within minutes of our arrival.

Where we handle lockouts

Shopping centers and grocery lots across Cary — Crossroads, Fenton, Park West Village, Waverly Place, Parkside Town Commons — office parks in RTP, Morrisville and Weston, RDU Airport terminals and parking lots, apartment complexes and driveways from Preston to Apex and Holly Springs, and downtown Raleigh and Durham parking decks.

One thing worth doing today

Put a spare key somewhere that isn’t in the car — with a family member, a coworker, or at home in a spot you’ll remember. It won’t help at the grocery store, but it turns a lockout at home into a two-minute walk.

The lockouts we see most in Cary

The classic is the grocery-store lockout: hands full, keys set on the seat, door swung shut, and the car locked itself because the fob was inside and the auto-lock timer ran out. The second is the trunk lockout — bags go in the trunk, keys go in with them, lid closes. Third is the gym or pool lockout, where the fob is in a bag inside the car and the phone is too. Then there’s the one nobody plans for: a child or a dog locked in on a warm afternoon, which we treat as an emergency and move to the front of the line. And every winter we get a handful of frozen-door calls after an ice storm, where the lock and the seals are frozen and forcing the handle would snap it off.

What the driver actually does

First he confirms it’s your car — registration, a matching ID, or the insurance card on your phone. Then he looks at the door and the locking system, because a 2008 pickup with a mechanical lock button and a 2023 SUV with keyless entry are two different jobs. On most vehicles he uses an inflatable wedge to open a small gap at the top of the door frame, protects the paint and the weather seal, and reaches the unlock button or the handle with a long-reach tool. On older cars with post locks, a different tool pulls the post up. He never goes into the window channel with a slim jim on a modern car; that’s how you end up with a dead window regulator or airbag wiring pulled loose. When the door opens he checks that the keys are where you thought, and if they’re in the trunk he pops it from inside. Most lockouts are done in a few minutes; a tricky one is fifteen.

Keyless cars, dead fobs and locked-in keys

Push-button cars are supposed to refuse to lock with the fob inside, but a fob with a weak battery, a fob under a seat, or a fob in a metal water bottle gets missed, and the car locks anyway. If the fob’s battery is dead, every car still has a hidden mechanical key inside the fob and a hidden keyhole on the driver’s door — usually under a small cap on the handle — and the driver can show you how to use it so it never strands you again. If the fob is inside the locked car, it’s a standard lockout. If the only fob is lost, we’ll open the car and get you to a dealer or locksmith who can program a new one; our post on when to call a tow truck covers when the tow makes more sense than waiting.

Lockout mistakes that cost people money

• The coat hanger. It scratches the paint, tears the seal and on most cars built after 2000 it can’t reach anything useful.
• Breaking a window. A rear quarter glass on a modern SUV costs several times what a lockout does, and you drive home with glass in the seat.
• Forcing a frozen door. Handles snap. Pour lukewarm water — never hot — along the seal, or call and let us do it.
• Waiting an hour on a roadside plan with a kid in the car. Call us and tell the dispatcher there’s a child inside; we come now, and you can sort out reimbursement later.

From the WTF Towing blog

• Nighttime Towing: Staying Safe on the Road After Dark — staying safe on the shoulder after dark.
• Christmas & New Year’s in Cary: We’re Open 24/7 — The Holiday Breakdown Guide — holiday lockouts, dead batteries and the December calls we take.
• Fall Road Safety in Cary: Why September–November Is Peak Tow Season, and How to Stay Off the Truck — why September through November is peak tow season in the Triangle.