This happened a few years ago. When I started dating my boyfriend, I started staying with him a lot more than being at my own home. It was crowded, it was loud, I didn’t really like it there but it was where my mom was. I still needed to go home on occasion because that’s where everything I own was. At my place of residence (which was an apartment) was my mom, my aunt, her daughter (my cousin), and three kids (my cousin’s children). At some point, someone screwed up the deadbolt so you had to jiggle the key inside to open it.

During this time, I worked in a hardware store and my boyfriend worked in the lock section of that store, so he could tell there was a problem with the core of the deadbolt. It was a Schlage smart lock. If you want to change the lock, you can keep the same key and rekey the new lock to match with a simple tool, just stick it in a tiny hole (yes, I said it) and turn the key in two directions — boom, new lock. I told my aunt this but she said she didn’t have a problem with the lock, just needs a little wiggle and you’re in. So I leave it alone despite my annoyance. Until I break my damn key in the lock because no matter what I do, it will not open. Not only that, but I officially don’t have a key because it’s now in two pieces. So I make a new key. And that one breaks a few weeks later. Then I go through two more keys and I’m tired of having coworkers make me keys. My aunt still says it needs a little wiggle but I’m getting annoyed annoyed and so is anyone who has to wake up to let me in at 6 in the morning (yeah, that was a little rude of me but was subtle and well-deserved revenge, just trust me).

Now, I know the simple thing is to just fully move in with my boyfriend but we’re saving and he’s in school. So I just do the petty thing.

I never threw out my first key. I still have the top attached to a key chain, but I had to hunt the ground for the second half I never actually threw away. I found that and just shoved it into the lock before my aunt got home from work one morning. It was changed within the hour. And she didn’t even have to get a new key. But she never knew how a random key was lodged inside her lock.