MACON, Ga. — It can happen to anyone.
You're out running errands, and you get a little distracted during the holiday weekend. You turn around and see your car key sitting in your car seat, locked in.
“Well, it's one of life's most panicked moments,” Jack Stenger said. He’s locked himself out of his car four times in his life– twice when the car was still running.
Calling a locksmith can be complicated - like for Jill Amos, who was stressed during the one time it happened to her.
“To me it was pricey,” said Amos. “It seems like it was $75, maybe a little bit more. There’s just a lot of moves that you have to go through to make it happen.”
However, if you’re in Macon, you don’t have to call AAA to unlock your car.
Call the coroner instead.
“I can unlock anything and I won’t scratch it up, and I won’t tear it up,” said Bibb Coroner Leon Jones.
During the day Jones investigates causes of deaths for the county, but in his spare time, he's a locksmith.
“I average about five a day,” he explained.
Jones says he only started unlocking cars last year and now he’s up to his 306th car.
He just needs to know what kind of car you have and where you are.
“I get my kit. I use a pad that looks like a blood pressure cuff that you split the door, and I use plastic wedges. I go in with my tool, hit the switch, and end of story,” he said.
Jones says life gets hectic. He's helped folks who just forgot their keys.
“I have unlocked two out-of-county sheriff's cars. I ain't getting a ticket in that county,” he laughed.
Or he helps them when they’re having emergencies too.
“I went to a daycare center and a lady locked the keys in her car with her kids in it. She was right there in front of her car, she was running late for work. To see the smile on that lady’s face when I opened that car,” Jones explained.
He won’t accept your money if you offer it, either. He says the service is all for free.
“I don’t do this to make money, I do this to help the community,” Jones said.
All he asks in return is that you give back too.
“You buy a homeless person a meal. I love Macon and I want to be a part of the positive things that go on in this community,” Jones said.
Folks think it's a fair price.
“That would be something that the community could use,” Amos said.
“Makes me love Macon even more because that's cool. I didn’t know that was something that could happen,” Stenger said.
Jones says anyone is free to call him at his cell number 478- 256-6716. He says he mainly opens doors for folks in the Macon-Bibb area but he has gone to Houston County and Monroe County a few times when needed.
Something else coroner Jones does each year is keep people who party a little too hard on new years from getting behind the wheel on the way home.
He's once again offering free van rides on New Years Eve, and he's expanded the program.
Jones says he started the service in 2014 after seeing too many people get DUI's. He says he's seen a whole family get killed because of a drunk driver, and doesn't want anyone else to get hurt.
Since then, Jones says says the operation grew. Now businesses sponsors and pay for the vehicles and gas.
They'll pick you up and take you where you need to go for free.
Jones says they will be driving two vans courtesy of the FairHaven funeral home this year.
He says you can call him at 478-256-6716 and even call before hand to make a reservation to be dropped off or picked up from a party.