Tom: I've got the answer. His friend forgot to leave the key because he was afraid someone would steal the car because it was a bad neighborhood.

Ray: No, his friend left the key and that is, in fact, the answer. When he went to jail, cars didn't have electric starters -- cars had cranks. He gets there, he finds the car, he's not looking for a key...

Tom: He's looking for the crank.

Ray: The crank. And he's trying to figure out "where do I crank up the car?" Because in the intervening thirty years they had made this wonderful advancement in automotive technology that allowed people to get in and turn a key and step on a starter switch and he didn't know about this and while he's fidgeting around, and futzing around trying to figure out how to get the get-away going...they slap the cuffs on him.

Tom: The guards come.

Ray: Back he goes, man!

[ Car Talk Puzzler ]