One click and Ashley's trapped

Shalee Speight kept son Ashley entertained while a locked car door was worked on. Photo / Christine Cornege

A 2-year-old boy sparked a police callout after locking himself in his mother's car with the keys for nearly two hours.

Ashley Speight was trapped in his car-seat in a hot 1997 Audi sedan without water as he'd dropped his drink bottle on the floor.

His mother, Shalee Speight, sang, played "peek-a-boo" and held their cat up to the window to keep him entertained.

The 23-year-old had just strapped her son in his car-seat in the driveway of their Rotorua home and was about to head to a tyre shop.

Ashley grabbed her set of keys - which have a remote attached used to lock the car - thinking they were a toy.

Miss Speight shut the door and went to go back inside her house to grab her handbag when she heard the car lock. She rushed back to the car and tried to tell the toddler to push the button on the remote to unlock the car.

She pushed buttons on a cellphone to demonstrate how to do so but Ashley became frustrated and chucked the keys on the floor, along with his drink bottle.

"He was looking at me and saying 'Mummy I want to get out'. He couldn't understand what was wrong."

Miss Speight dialled 111, where the operator gave her a phone number for a locksmith. But when she called, the line was engaged.

She phoned the emergency services operator back and a policeman was dispatched, arriving within minutes.

He attempted to use a length of wire to unlock the car, but was unsuccessful, Miss Speight said.

"He said, 'This car's not going to get the better of me'. I was saying, 'If this doesn't work, just smash the window, I need to get him out'."

As he fiddled with the door Miss Speight tried to keep her son from crying.

"The neighbours were all wondering what the heck was going on," she said. "I was running around the car like an idiot, popping my head up playing peek-a-boo, anything to keep him entertained.

"He was okay as long as I was moving around but if I stopped, he'd start getting distressed and begin crying."

The policeman phoned another locksmith who initially said he was unable to make it for an hour. But the officer convinced him it was an emergency.

The locksmith used a pump wedge to open the door with the help of the policeman.

Miss Speight said Ashley was hot and dehydrated but otherwise okay.

"He was all sweaty and just really, really quiet."