[cheese_van]

Happened to me in the '80's. '71 Buick Skylark. When we went to lunch, our receptionist asked us to drive her Buick as it "was making funny noises." We found it in the 5 storey carpark, took it out and it drove fine. However, we got back rather late, and the carpark was full so we had to park it on the highest level. When we returned, I asked our receptionist, "I thought it odd that you had a St Christopher statue on the dash, I thought you were Baptist?" "No, I don't have a St Christopher on the dash," she replied.

Apparently we took the wrong Buick. The owner, we conjectured, was going to report it stolen since it was sitting 4 floors up on the exposed level.

Not knowing what kind of liability to which we were exposed, we kept it to ourselves.

[miriam_catira]

My mom once opened the wrong '89 Dodge Caravan when grocery shopping in the early nineties, and it wasn't until she got in to drive that she realized it wasn't hers. She said the seat was too far back and then she actually stopped to look around. She said she had simply assumed it was hers since the key worked.

[lttlrck]

I broke into the wrong car...

Not as bad as it initially sounds as I thought it was mine - which was 20 ft away.

My idiot much younger self.

[tough]

wait so the same key will open any car of the same model???

lol

[nimos]

Depends on the manufacturer how many unique bittings would be made. I believe ~1000 was common. So pretty low chance but high enough a few people have stories here or there.

[UncleEntity]

The birthday paradox probably comes into play here, somehow. Not a mathologist so...