Panic Attack

One time, I had to take my car in for service which required renting a car for a week.  I got stuck with a Dodge Stratus. Not that I'm trying to be snobbish and mock the car or those who own it, but seriously, what exactly is the inciting factor to drop $25k on a Stratus? 

Have you ever even seen an advertisment for a Stratus? 

In any case, I digress.

So I had to run an errand in downtown Burbank, and parked in one of the municipal garages on the fifth level.  When I returned with my purchases, I fished the key fob out of my pocket to open the door.

You can see they managed to place the panic button in a location where you'd find the unlock button on many other vehicles.

So now my Stratus is honking and flashing its lights alerting everyone within a 2-mile radius.

I try to disable the alarm by holding the panic button for a few seconds. Nothing. I click unlock.  Nothing.  I manually turn the key in the door. Nothing.  I ignite the engine.  Nothing.

Now people are staring to stare.

So I pop open the glove box and thumb through the manual for the answer.  Of course it says to do everything I just did.

It also says that the alarm will disable once the vehicle speed reaches 15 mph.

Ok fine.  Except I'm on the FIFTH FREAKING FLOOR OF A PARKING GARAGE.

Now everyone is looking at me as I navigate this Stratus down five levels of the parking garage while the headlights flash and the horn wails.

Long story short, I finally exited the garage, and floored the accelerator to get the Stratus up to 15 miles per hour so I could power the flux capacitor and shut off the blaring alarm.

So from that day onward I've had an innate fear of parking garages. And keyless entry remotes.