The 96 I-30 had been running perfectly-no problems at all.  My
girlfriend and I parked to have a cup of coffee at a neighborhood
café, and when I took the key out of the ignition, the alarm sounded.
Key back in, alarm stops.  Back out, alarm starts again.  Tried the
lock-unlock-3-times routine, still the same.  Restarted the car,
turned it off, took the key out, alarm goes off again.  So we left the
key in the ignition and sat in the coffeehouse across the street,
pondering what to do next.

Called my mechanic (brilliant troubleshooter)-he was on vacation.  So
I called the dealership-the service manager said he had never heard of
such a problem, and neither had any of his techs--he added that there
was something like 70 years cumulative experience in the shop that
day.  He said all we could do is bring it in, and they would try to
figure it out.

Anyone care to guess how the problem was resolved?