Person trapped inside locked car.

[charly]

Hello.
My car is a 2012 Citroen Dispatch. Second hand, bought 2016.
Something happened yesterday which spooked me.

My wife was driving (no, not that) and parked in the supermarket car park. She got out but didn't realise I was searching for something in the glove box. She thought I was out, locked the car and went away to get a trolley.
I found I could not open any door from inside the car. I pressed all the buttons I could find but no joy. I remembered the spare key (just a key, no remote) in my pocket, switched on the ignition and could open a door.
We then recreated the scenario with the same result.
Surely this can't be right.
I see that door locking is a well documented problem on here, but I could not find this particukar occurrence.
Any info would be gratefully recieved.

[GiveMeABreak]

No what you have to understand is that there are 2 types of locking. Normal locking and deadlocking.
On Citroen / Peugeot passenger cars so equipped, normal locking is activated by pressing the lock button on the fob once. A second press activates deadlocking, which effectively disengages the locking mechanism from the internal door handles.

This is to make it harder for anyone who breaks into a vehicle via a window pane to unlock the car from the inside. This is especially so on a commercial vehicle that may contain stock / tools / packages etc.

So what you experienced is exactly correct behaviour on the dispatch too:

From your owner's manual:

Central Locking
Press this button to lock your vehicle, cab and rear doors. The direction indicators flash once.
If one of the front doors is open or is not closed correctly, the central locking will not work.

Deadlocking
If your vehicle is fitted with deadlocking, a second press on the closed padlock on the remote control within five seconds after locking changes the locking to deadlocking.

This is confirmed by fixed lighting of the direction indicators for approximately two seconds.

Deadlocking renders the exterior and interior door opening handles inoperative: do not leave anyone inside the vehicle when it is deadlocked.
If deadlocking is activated from inside the vehicle, it will change to normal locking when the vehicle is started.

Unlocking the cab
Press the unlock button on the fob once to unlock your vehicle's cab. The direction indicators flash twice.
Press this button a second time to unlock the side door(s) and the rear doors.

This selective door locking function is active when the vehicle is delivered. At your request, the dealer network can deactivate this selectivity of opening between the cab and the load space; contact a CITROËN dealer.

Unlocking the load space
Press the middle button on the fob to unlock all of the rear doors.
This separation of the locking of the cab and load space is an operating security feature. It enables you to prevent access to the part of the vehicle from which you are absent.