After writing a post about leaving my rental car running all night during a recent trip, I have come to find out that a lot of people have this problem with various types of car – one of them the Nissan Altima Hybrid.

To entertain yourself, just google “I left my car running all night” and see what you get.

There is one very serious side effect with this. It’s fine if this happens on a street, or in a parking lot. The only danger is that if the car is not locked, somebody could just get in and drive it away, which some stories online talk about. However, if this happens with a car in a closed garage, that is attached to the house, and that door is not completely sealed (which most doors are not), it can easily be fatal.

If you don’t have a carbon monoxide detector in your house yet, get one right now, for this simple reason. Your car can kill you and you’ll never know it.