On my way to my 1st day of work at my new job, the front tire blew.
So I waited for AAA to come to help me put it on but I noticed that I could not release the spare tire in the back of the truck. As it turns out, I need a "key".

I called the dealer and the lame azz said that Ford makes a special key for each vehicle...yeah right....all 400,000 of them each year.....

Anyways, do you guys have any suggestion?
Or do I need to cut the cable or something?

 

go under the truck and turn the rod the key would of turned. lower the tire, and remove the winch assembly. you should then be able to remove the other half of the key. the base models do not use the key. in big citys there are professional spare tire thieves who simply steal spare tires all day/night. they sell them to unscrupulous tire shops, or make sets of tires and sell at flea markets. They dont have a problem. My spare was almost stolen at noon when parked on a very busy street. I saw my brother in laws car by a restaurant. I stopped in for a few minutes, and when I walked outside, a car was nosed to the back of my truck, and a black guy was under my truck trying for the tire. It had a cable on it I put there with a lock. Cable was cut like butter, but i hit the panic button on the remote. they fled with no plates on the car.

 

Ford doesn't make the star keys you have to get them from the manufacturer. It is hard to get to that part of the winch that operates the cable, without the star key. It is covered with a plastic tube that you don't want to tear up. What I did when I lost mine was to tie wire a hack saw onto a broom handle put it between the bumper and tire and cut the winch cable and let the tire drop. Took about 60 seconds to drop the tire so the stock security is a joke anyway. Once I finished my tire business I had to get a new winch, its about 69 bucks from the dealer and bolts on with two small bolts 5 minute install. The new tire winch comes with a female slot opening, you can push in the old star key receiver if you want to but why do that if you lost your key ? You can use your stock three piece winch handle end male tab in the female slot to operate the winch. What I did was get 24" of 3/8" chain and put it around the frame and tire then lock it with a pad lock, more secure than the stock set up by a mile. Plus, as tight as I chain it up if the winch fails, they have been known to, the chain will keep me from losing my tire or it going through someone windshield when it leaves the area. 106