Uni Student locked in Blacktown – Twice

The Western suburbs of Sydney have always been ethnically diverse – historically a great many migrants first moved to Western Sydney whilst they gain a foothold in the country… But there is also a fairly sizeable international community in western Sydney living in that area because they are attending the University of Western Sydney.  Especially for those coming from Asian countries doing a masters or even just an add on subjects to their university degree at a university where the subjects are taught in English can be a great benefit to their employment opportunities.  Apart from the cultural differences these students experience when they arrived in Australia there are also some technological differences they can get them into trouble.

Last week we got to know a new hapless customer who had just recently arrived from South Korea to do a year at the Western Sydney University. It was a Friday night, he’d gone out to get some food and had forgotten to take his keys and was now locked out of his apartment. We were there within 15 minutes this call and though we weren’t able to communicate with him very well because his accent was very thick we soon confirmed he was a resident of the property, had a right of entry so with the paperwork done we left him to it.

The following evening around about the same time we got a call from the same guy. We arrived at his home even faster this time and here he was again holding a bag of take out that with no key. We let him back inside again and ask how he could have forgotten his keys again so quickly. As it turns out back in Korea he has no keys.  He has a pin access to his apartment, his car has a voice activated lock, even his locker at university is accessed via a swipe card.  He literally lived a keyless life and us was just not in the habit of taking keys with him.

Now as lucrative as it would be for us to simply keep attending the poor fellows home every time he locked himself out we wanted to make sure he was sorted for the future.  We didn’t wanting to do something dangerous like placing a spare key in his wallet so we gave and neck chain to put his key on and suggested he where that till he became more used to taking his keys with him.  He smiled and thanked us and we were on our way.

I didn’t think anything more of it for some months. He had not called us back so I assume being locked out twice had now cemented into his mind that leading his apartment meant taking his keys so I was a bit confused when I was attending another property in the area which are already sorted and I was just about to leave my van when I see this young guy come running over to my van waving and grinning. His English was much better by this stage and he wanted me to come to his apartment and show me something so I obliged.

As the front door opened a recorded message played  a message “don’t forget you keys Kim”.  So this young lad from a land of high-technology had installed an infrared monitoring device on his door so that every time it opened it played this message reminding him to take his keys. It’s a pretty good idea actually.

Are you a serial key forgeter? Maybe go down to your local electronic store and see what they can do to help you out with motion detecting playback device.

Are you a young person looking to change the world?  Then this young people scholarship may be for you!