I recently ALMOST lost my keys, or let's say I thought I had lost them. For luggage there are tracing programs where you have a tag with a number on it that people can call. The service then puts the finder and owner in touch.

I think this is a good idea for luggage but would be even better for keys. The problem with keys is that if people find out who you are and where you live you are vulnerable. It is thus a good thing to have an intermediary that is anonymous.

I looked online but only found the Tumi variant. Their tag does exactly what I want but it seems to be the only one of its kind and it is a bit big and would increase the bulk of the key fob unnecessarily.

Does anybody know of another key tracer program?

My blood bank actually did this for me after I donated several gallons of blood and plasma. But there are services out there

Key Rescue
Back to Ya

Google "Lost Key Return"

You're going to want a big tag so people will notice that there is a lost key return option available

In Canada there is a great organization, the Canadian War Amputees, that provides this service wrapped in a charitable endeavour - by providing employment to Canadian amputees as well as people with disabilities.

War Amps Key Tag Service

I've used the site http://www.stuffbak.com with success for many gadgets. They have stickers and aluminum tags for all types of things like phones and keys. You need to buy their tags, and then only pay when something of yours is found. And they act as the intermediary, so no one knows where you live

Thanks to the google search terms I found many different services. Actually too many to decide. They operate on so many different schemes it's crazy and quite complicated. The basic difference is that there are those where you just throw the keys in the mailbox and they will be automatically mailed to the company and then to you. This seems to be the simplest solution except for two reasons.:

1. If you have an alarm remote or remote car opener on there, these items might get damaged in the mailing process.

2. I have not inquired but if the company who then mails it to you does not use a hard-sided package, it will be very evident that the package contains keys. This means the postman could easily enter your house or drive away with your car. Perhaps far fetched, perhaps not...

The other options sometimes work on a yearly or incident fee base. The incident fee base is mostly not revealed, which I consider a practice that is not trustworthy for a business that is supposed to take care of my valuables.

The next problem is that very few services will work outside of the USA and I am not quite sure the 1-800 number given by the only one that says it works internationally will actually work internationally.

Altogether it all seems quite complicated. Somebody also mentioned that if the finder is smart (that is a big IF) and you have some Blockbuster or Hollywood Video card on your keychain they can bring it to the store and trigger the return process this way.

So I figured the easiest thing would be to just put an engraved dog tag that says: "Please Return - Reward!" and gives them an email address. It is difficult to find out a physical address with only a generic email at hotmail.com or whatever. So this would probably be the safest and cheapest method. Even a cell phone number can be quite easily looked up to find the name and address but not an email address. If you wanted to be absolutely sure the finder doesn't know your name and address, you could have him send the package to a friend's name and address and you pick it up there.

Thanks for all your help,

Till