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The original was posted on /r/tifu by /u/Jumpy_Ad3453 on 2026-07-28 22:26:33+00:00.

My younger brother had started borrowing my car whenever he saw the spare key sitting in the kitchen drawer, usually without asking first. After arguing about it a few times, I hid the key inside an old pair of running shoes in my closet.

I picked the shoes because I never wore them and knew he wouldn’t look there.

While clearing out some stuff, I donated a bag of clothes and shoes to a charity shop. I felt pretty good about finally getting rid of things I hadn’t used in years.

Later, I couldn’t find my normal car key. After checking every pocket, drawer and random surface in my apartment, I remembered the spare.

Then I remembered the shoes.

I called the charity shop and explained that there might be a car key shoved inside one of the donated shoes. Somehow they found the bag before everything was sorted, and the key was still pushed into the toe.

I got it back, but the woman asked why I was storing car keys inside footwear.

TL;DR I hid my spare car key from my brother inside an old shoe, forgot about it and donated both the shoe and my backup key.