What if your neighbor asks WTF you are doing? You can say you are the laundry repair guy. Tell them you are running a test load and the machine will be available in an hour or two.
This idea is not unique to basement laundry machines. Apparently a lot of heavy duty land construction equipment (such as those made by CAT) use the same key. Now operating one of those machines is a heck of a lot more complicated than starting the washing machine.
