Key is stuck in ignition

My parents gave me this car as a house warming gift but it's only brought me trouble.

it's an automatic 1997 Dodge Status, 118171 miles. Yeah, who ever had this before used it quite a bit.

Well, a couple weeks ago I had lost the key that belonged to this car, luckily my mother had AAA make a spare a couple weeks prior when I locked the keys in the car. I went to the dodge dealership for them to make me a new key, but the person who was making the key wrote the wrong serial number down. Luckily I never paid for it, so I have been using the spare key ever since.

The tumblers inside the ignition were pretty worn due to ware and tare, which is expected on a 9 year old car. I haven't had the money to replace them because, well, on a college students budget its hard to save up that kind of money. So I have been trying to fit my key in a certain way, pressing on the outside of the ignition switch to move it around and position it a certain way.

it had been working fine till tonight, when I noticed that some of the electrical things in the car weren't working like my signal lights, and my radio.

when I stopped to figure out the problem and turn my car off, the key wouldn't come back out of the ignition. I think I pushed it into a place that I shouldn't have, and now it is stuck in there with the car on.

please help! This is my only way of getting to and from class, and to work :(


Maria.