FYI and OH NO!!!!!!

This is for information on a situation I never expected to happen. Traveling to Vegas with my hubby, brother and SIL. Been there many times and the question asked before we get in the car to go to the airport, "got your ID?". We live approx. 90 minutes from DTW and my brother lives approx. the same distance. I like to get to the airport early and relax before our flight with a drink and get something to eat to take on the plane. About 15 minutes before we were to leave, my brother calls and says "we're not going" What!!!!! this has been planned for months. It seems his wife could not find her drivers license which she had the night before. He said that for the last three hours they had torn up the house looking for this drivers license. He went thru the garbage, piece by piece and the moved furniture, unpacked their luggage, etc, etc. He wondered if her birth certificate would be sufficient and he called Delta and their answer was that it was up to security, So a trip to the airport might not get them on the plane. I asked if she had an old expired drivers license which has a picture id and with luck, she did. So they decided to try it. They raced to the airport getting there just in time as they spent so much time looking, they had the usual house closing up to do. Security did go thru her luggage and gave her a very thorough pat down but they did get through with no time to spare. We were the last ones on the plane. Getting back from Vegas, he found at the airlines parking, he had run out of gas! New Car with push button start. Locked the car and left it running. They said that it was common. they had three cars running and the people had already left the lot that day.. Lost 3/4 of a tank of gas.

What !

I get the first part of the story, the part about the sister-in-law losing her license. Yes, TSA has some flexibility with how it determines if travelers are safe to fly, it's true.

But the part about the car, not so much. Like this sentence: "Getting back from Vegas, he found at the airlines parking, he had run out of gas! " To me, that sentence doesn't make sense. And I'm guessing that sentence is important to the story about the car.

What is "the airlines parking"?
Was the car locked on purpose?
What does the car's push button start have to do with anything?
What is "it", and who said "it" was common?
What "people" had left what lot?
How does one lose gasoline?

Take another crack, there may be an interesting story here.

Today's push button ignitions allow us to lock our cars and take our keys while mistakenly leaving the car running. When you mistakenly leave your car running at the airport, it eventually runs out of gas. Apparently it is quite common as the Airport Parking personnel claimed it had happened to three other cars that day.

Keyless push button ignitions also allow us to mistakenly leave our keys with the Valet, drive for miles, stop and not be able to restart our cars. But that's another story.

Back in the olden days, you had to turn the car off in order to take your keys.

Leaving the car running is easy to do with pushbutton start and stop. When you first get a car with pushbutton start/stop it is indeed a new learning experience.

I left my car running at a local resturant a few weeks after getting it. I come outside to the parking lot and see my headlights on and say to myself "what the hell is going on"..Then I realize I never shut the car off.

Never forgot again after that first time.

There have been numerous instances where persons have forgotten to turn the car off after parking in the home attached garage. There have been a number carbon monoxide deaths from this happening, usually elderly.

If you ever get a new car (or used one) with this feature, be really careful until you get the complete hang of it.

I've seen someone rent a car without having their drivers license with them at the rental car counter. It was a weekday afternoon and the rental car company called the driver's state DMV. The DMV was able to fax a photocopy of his drivers license to the rental car counter and they accepted the fax as proof of a drivers license. That might also work at an airline check-in counter.

As to airport security, I always have my passport in my computer bag when I travel, just in case I somehow manage to lose my drivers license while traveling.

We always carry two ID's (DL & Mil ID). Keep them inseperate places.

I once left a rental with a push button start running at ST. Got a page the next morning. Seems security had seen it, called the police to find out who it belonged to. They called the rental company and than called my shop. The shop called me. Lost 1/2 tank of gas. Shop couldn't believe they got a call from the LV cops...thought something was really wrong.
The damn car was so quiet I never noticed it. It won't happen again.

Never a good idea to panic. Probably had the drivers license every day without thinking about it but when you're thinking "don't lose it", you put it someplace safe and misplace it.

Thanks guys for explaining my hurriedly written story on the running out of gas at the airlines parking lot. Since then, when I tell someone this story, almost everyone knows of someone this has happened to. We still have the "old fashioned" car so I had no idea this could occur. After a red-eye flight back to reality, this was not how my brother wanted to end his vacation.

I was under the impression that if you tried to walk away from your car without turning it off and still had the keys in your pocket it would alert you in some manner. I have a new Hyundai and it makes a high pitched whine if you step more than a foot away from the car with the key and it is still running. You would have to be deaf to miss it!

Hyundai builds cars for people who are a little forgetful. It locks the doors for you, turns on and off the lights, the wipers, etc. Handy.