Do you always lock your home/apartment/etc doors?

[china mom]

I would answer but don't want to encourage anyone here to "visit me"

 

[tvguy]

Locked. And an alarm turned on while we are away or asleep.
My wife and I are both 67 and it was the same way with parent's housing growing up. We were "latchkey" kids growing up, a term we were not familiar with at the time. We had a house key on a chain around our neck and let our selves into our houses after school because both our parents were at work. I did know some kids whose parents did leave the house unlocked so they could get in after school.
We are one of the few houses on our street without cameras, but we are considering getting them. No really for security reasons, but to monitor the wildlife coming through our yard. Our daughter had cameras on her house and that basically was all they were used for. The watch all the feral cats, possums, racoons, and wild turkeys coming through. Although it was also helpful to see when the trash got picked up or the mail delivered.

 

[clappyclaps]

Not on the map as I'm in the UK but I always have all of my doors and windows locked, whether I'm in or out. I live on my own so the thought of someone getting into my house, whether through an unlocked door or breaking in terrifies me, so I've also got the full Ring security system, doorbell cameras etc. None of my keys are kept in an easily accessible or obvious place and my car keys are kept in Faraday pouches. I've heard that a lot of the property break ins over here are actually from people trying to steal car keys rather than items within the house, as it's easier and cars are much higher value.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

I always keep all of our doors locked and it drives my family nuts. They think I’m crazy because we live in a pretty safe area, but better safe than sorry. If they had it their way the doors would only be locked when we leave the house and overnight. I’m super paranoid about someone breaking in. We even have this home alarm system that announces when any window or door in the house is opened. “Front door open”. “Bedroom window open”. That drives them nuts too lol.

 

[_19disnA]

Always lock our doors/windows, always have regardless of where we lived. Regardless of how 'safe' you consider your neighborhood, you have no idea who might drive by, be some delivery/repair person, etc. with bad intentions. No reason to make it easier for them.

I laugh at those types of surveys since without knowing how they chose the people to ask and how many people were part of the survey (and how many declined to answer), you have no idea of the survey's validity. Survey results are useless if people weren't chosen randomly and/or didn't use a large enough sample size. I don't decide to lock/not lock doors/windows based on what my neighbors choose to do or the results of some survey.......................LOL.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Are your homes doors always locked?

Yes, except when we're actively going in and out (like loading/unloading the car).

 

[NannyBeBe]

All doors are always locked. We have deadbolt locks, an alarm system, and bars on the windows. I've been robbed three times so I am extra cautious.

 

[lovin'fl]

Always! Even though we are now in a gated community. I lock ALL the doors all the time. I watch too many murder shows plus we are in an area that has a lot of squatters.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Always! And the last thing DH does every evening is to double-check that the cars are locked-we had issues with "theft" of items left in cars, turns out the cars were unlocked. However, in the state we came from, people regularly left their houses unlocked, garages and cars open. And no one had any security or monitoring system. First thing we did when we moved here was join the many people who had security systems.

 

[Kitty 34]

yup

 

[TippyThomas]

Mine are always locked. No sense in risking potential problems unnecessarily in my opinion.

 

[BrianL]

Do you mean when I am home or away? I ALWAYS lock when I am away. I probably do most of the time when home, especially after dark. I do often leave the door open so the cat can look out, but there is a secondary glass door that does lock.

Funny story - one time I stepped outside and found a hornet zipping around me. I ran inside and closed the door then locked it. My friend was there and asked me, "Did you just lock the door so the hornet wouldn't get in?" Yes, I did - you just never know, right?

 

[Mle8308]

Locked and loaded (legally). Family is law enforcement. Not messing around!

 

[Dan Murphy]

Always locked, home or away.

 

[barkley]

Always locked, home or away.

same here.

I can't imagine leaving cars unlocked. a locked home is of no use if there's an attached garage with an unlocked interior access door when your unlocked car likely has a garage door opener.

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

Yes, doors are always locked and windows are too. Except the door from garage into house as I figure the exterior garage service door and main garage doors are locked. But then I will get in a mood every so often and start locking that door too.

What really gets me is folks that leave their garage doors wide open for hours on end and not even being near the front of the house. Or if I come home at night and it's dark I'll see a garage door open, completely dark inside.

I get funny about the garage door being open. Working in the yard, yes it's open, assuming we're going to the front of the house every so often and it's daylight. But in the daylight if we are just working in the backyard, we use the back service door and keep the main doors closed.

 

[gncntry]

Our doors are always locked. We are in a condo type community with many people. We have had recent issues with people breaking into unlocked cars so I always lock the house.

 

[amcnj]

Well up until three or four years ago, the front door lock didn’t even function! Now the doors are locked at night, but not during the day, whether anyone is home or not.

Growing up we had several neighbors who never locked their doors.

 

[mommasita]

During the day, never. At night we lock the door. I don’t believe we’ve ever locked the windows.
We have alarms and cameras, and sir barks a lot. There have been a lot of occasions where we have simply forgotten to lock either the front and/or back door.

 

[ronandannette]

No. We generally only lock up when we are going away and nobody will be home overnight. I actually don't even have a key to our current front door, or the last one either, but that one at least had a digital-coded lock. Until recent years I didn't used to lock my car when it was parked at home either but I do it more regularly now. Granted, I live in a VERY safe place compared to some, and I've rarely ever had an issue (twice in 38 years of city life, my car has been prowled; nothing in there to steal). I was also raised in a remote rural area where our house didn't even have a real lock on the door - just a slide-bolt on the outside that we'd throw when we were going away for an extended period and wanted to ensure wildlife couldn't enter.