Do you keep your doors locked when in the house?

[Disneycrazy!!]

Yes we keep our doors locked. We also live in the country but strangers still find their way to our house. I won't ever forget , my husband was out in the yard working, he came inside to talk to me and some stupid moron who was selling steaks, knocked on our door and walked right in without waiting for us to invite him. I stood with my mouth open and just froze from fear. We didn't have a clue who this man was....my husband immediatly went towards him and yelled for him to get out....what the man didn't know was he was inches away from being attacked by a blue heeler dog that was sneaking up on him and ready to attack. . When my husband moved towards the man and yelled the dog took it as a clue and then jumped at him. I loved how the roles reversed and the man then had the look of fear in his eyes! My husband chewed his bohunkus out and told him to get down the road. lol

So now we keep doors locked day and night!

 

[pperfectmom]

We do lock up at night but the doors are locked during the day only if we'll be away from home for awhile. Even if the kids and I are running to the grocery or library, I rarely lock up before leaving because then it is a pain to have to unlock everything. We have a very large, loud dog and most people assume if they tried to break into ANY house around here they would be loaded up with some buckshot.

 

[SC Minnie]

We always keep the front and back doors locked. We come in and out the garage door and will keep it unlocked while we are at home but the garage door is usually down.

I have a friend that locks her cars while they are in the garage with the door down, locks all the doors in the house, and sets her alarm as soon as she comes in the door.

 

[Rupert B Puppenstein]

We live in a very safe neighborhood but I think from living in an apartment years ago, we just have formed the habit of leaving the doors locked. Sometimes we forget, but there is never a problem. We have guard dogs and cats.

 

[locolala]

We lock everything up here. We don't live in the best neighborhood, we have some gang and drug issues around the corner. Even without them though, I'd keep the doors locked. It's just second nature to me. The time it would take them to get through a deadbolted door is more than enough time to call 911 and have my shotgun ready.

 

[rlovew]

We keep our front door locked (it is rarely ever used as there is no walkway up to it and it is on the opposite side of the house from the driveway. The backdoor is locked unless DH is out on the porch grilling. We put our garage door up when we take our dogs out in the morning and that door is only locked when we leave the house- otherwise the garage door is up and unlocked into the house. We also live out in the country and back at least 400 feet from the main road. Our dogs notice if a car is in the driveway and we have plenty of warning. We do lock things at night though.

 

[Momvic5]

If all of my kids are inside the house, then yes, my doors are usually locked. I don't feel unsafe. It is just a habit to lock the doors when we are all inside the house and not expecting anyone. However, most of the time my kids are going in and out so the doors are left unlocked.

 

[Pluto 2]

no i dont lock my doors at daytime. yes at night. but in reality a good thief could get in even with the door being locked.

 

[pixiewings71]

Depends, sometimes they are locked sometimes not. We have a security door on the front so sometimes it's locked and sometimes not. It really just depends......

 

[kristilew]

Always locked. I'm home by myself all day and there are still houses under construction in this neighborhood. Some of the day workers creep me out. Plus, if I wasn't always in the habit of relocking, I would be out on errands wondering "did I lock the door?" Not worth it.

And finally, there are a lot of kdis in this neighborhood who knock then try to open (not everyone keeps their doors locked.) If they opened my door, my dogs would take that as their cue to make a run for it, and I'd never see them again

 

[Becky2005]

I mostly do but it also depends on where you live, etc...

The funniest thing is DH always thought I was crazy (and I still think does) but the reason I do it is mostly just to keep people from entering accidently, etc... We tend to live in a subdivision where 90% of the houses all look alike. It's not so much for crime reasons.

One day while I was out & DH was home with the kids, he was in the living room and all of a sudden a stranger walks in, realizes he was in the wrong house for whatever party he was going to and sheepishly walked out. It's THAT precise reason I lock the door when I'm home. I actually have a tendency to lock it more when I'm home than when I'm not. LOL!

 

[shortbun]

No.

We've even fallen asleep at night with the doors unlocked.

This is us too. Not sayin' it's smart.

 

[Piglet843]

no i dont lock my doors at daytime. yes at night. but in reality a good thief could get in even with the door being locked.

yea but why make it easy for them?

 

[jen0610]

Where we live now - the front door is not locked during the day when we are home and in the evening, only about half the time as the kids go in and out and I don't feel like getting up and letting them in, nor do I feel that they need to carry a key around while playing, just one more thing they can lose. The back door is locked 95% of the time. The sliding glass door, clocked about 70% of the time.

The apartment we lived in, both doors were locked at all times. Mainly because of how close the doors were to each other.

My parents house is locked up like Ft Knox. Mother is paranoid beyond paranoid. Both set of doors (screen and steel) are locked at both the front and garage entrances. The garage door is locked, so that when you get home, you have to get out of the car, unlock the garage door, lift it, drive in and park, then reclose and clock the door. The door from the garage into the house has both a lock on the door knob and a dead bolt. The screen door on that also has a hook and eye lock, at the top, and a slide lock, at the bottom. When she and dad are both home, every lock on every door is engaged. The only time the screen isn't locked, is when dad isn't home and she doesn't feel like staying out in the family room to let him in. The french doors off of the family room, has a lock on the knob and a dead bolt as well.

My in-laws all live out in the country. M/FIL's house, the front door nobody uses, so it is always locked. The door to the garage is always unlocked when they are home, even at night. The sliding glass door is locked at night and when they aren't there. The door into the sunroom is only locked when they aren't home and the door from the sunroom to the garage as well. But they have only been doing this since they hit their 80's. My S/BIL's house, the front door, which nobody uses is always locked. But the back door, I can only think of 2 times when the door was locked and that was when they were out of town.

 

[cteddiesgirl]

no i dont lock my doors at daytime. yes at night. but in reality a good thief could get in even with the door being locked.

Most thieves are deterred by a locked door. Unless they know what's inside, most will give up when finding something is locked and move on. It's usually only when an intruder is intent on getting into that particular house that the lock won't stop them.

Most home invasions also happen when the door is opened to the person and not because they broke the lock.

Once during a really nice day while I was home alone, I opened up the front door and locked the screen door. Then I went on about cleaning the house. A couple a young guys came to the door and was trying to sell me something. I stood behind the locked screen door (glass top, wire screen on bottom) and they said they had a pmaplet to give me and I could open the door to them. I said no. I was not unlocking that door for two complete strangers. They then went on their way.
I don't know what their intensions were, but there was no way they were getting an easy entrance.

 

[minkydog]

well, yes and no. Whenever *I* am in the house, the front & back doors are locked. However, my husband & kids like to leave the front door unlocked so they can come and go. We live in a suburb of Atlanta. It's pretty safe; we very rarely have crime in the neighborhood. Still, we'd be a soft target if it became common knowledge that our doors were unlocked all the time.

I do have a big loud dog. Minky is all black, about 80-lbs, so he can be very intimidating but if someone was intent on getting in a bullet to the head would take care of the dog.

 

[minniecarousel]

If they're unlocked, it's by mistake! I live in the 'burbs, but I still lock them. I grew up in Oakland, where you need to keep vigilant about your personal safety.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Yes, and more often than not the alarm is on. We do live in a wonderful neighborhood in the suburbs but I've been conditioned this way. Once, years ago when I was still near NYC, I left my door open for my DH coming home from work and a male strung out junkie over 6 ft tall ran into my apartment. It was Aug in an old house and everyone's AC was on, no-one would have heard me scream. To make a long story short thankfully, I outsmarted him and he walked out in search of his delusion. I was very lucky and have rarely left a door unlocked since then... uggh, even thinking about it now gives me the chills.... I was so lucky. So many people are not. That sort of thing changes a person permanently.

To each their own but bad things don't only happen to city folk. Things might happen more often in a city because there are simply more people, but bad things happen everywhere.

 

[cteddiesgirl]

I do have a big loud dog. Minky is all black, about 80-lbs, so he can be very intimidating but if someone was intent on getting in a bullet to the head would take care of the dog.

Or poisoned or drugged food.


When I was a little girl, we had an Irish Setter. She was extremely protective of the house and of my mom, sister and I. Even if she knew the person well. We once were gone for a day, leaving the dog at home. When we came back, she was gone and the house had been broken into. It was obviously a person who knew us because all of my dad's guns were gone from where he kept them hidden and the person picked all of the silver coins out of my sisters piggy bank when there was more money in pennies. The only thing that could be figured out was that the dog had been drugged somehow and the person took her with him.

But a dog doesn't necessarily mean you won't be broken into.

 

[sunlver]

Always locked now..At one point I very rarely locked them. Nothing has ever happened..I just got parnaoid with old age. I have 4 large dogs here, and they get very loud and barky in the window, so u would have to be brave to try to just walk in here if u didnt know them..