The cautionary tale of real Remoteness

I met a really nice couple in Ocracoke, and wanted to make sure I captured what they learned the hard way. The day before they were planning to leave their beach bag was stolen on the beach, and it had their car keys in it. Their Prius has a keyless fob.  The remoteness of the outer banks left them in a real lurch. Locksmiths can't/won't create a new fob, if a new fob isn't accepted by the keyless system, it locks all fobs out, adding $2k to the cost of fixing the car. They didn't have a spare one at home in a drawer that could be fedexed to them. Dealers can't make a new fob without the car being physically present.

The "solution" (a pretty ugly one on a remote island) is to get the car towed to a dealership, and to have the dealer program a new keyless fob. From Ocracoke, they had to find a tow truck that will take the hour ferry to come get their car, and then tow them 4 hours to the nearest dealership. When they arrived at the dealer, it took the dealer a while to figure out that they in fact didn't have the fob in stock, apparently a bunch of types of fobs exist for the particular Prius they have. So they weren't able to get a fob until the next day. 

So what I learned is:

1. Locksmiths can't help you, they can't program a new fob. 
2. Make sure you have a spare fob at home, and can easily direct your friend that has a key to your house on where to fetch it.  
3. This lost key fob goop gets expensive fast. Their delightful ride with "Fat Daddy" the tow truck driver was $1600, I think their fob was in the neighborhood of $400. Ouch.
4. Some insurance covers stolen key fobs under comprehensive, file a police report in case you need to make an insurance claim.
5. Folks that are on a remote island are generally pretty helpful in trying to assist people who get smacked down by the karma goddess. 
6. I guess a corollary rule is to keep a spare fob battery in the glove box, because you aren't going to find weird obscure battery types on a remote island, and your fob battery is guaranteed to die at the least convenient moment.

Even though our 10 year old Honda doesn't have a fancy keyless fob, you can bet I went and checked on where our spare key is when I got home. The couple did make it home, and I hope they return to Ocracoke for their yearly visit next year.