Why Would Anyone NOT Lock Their Doors?

[magicmouse2]

Its quite usual in most parts of the UK to leave doors unlocked during the day unless you live in a block of flats or something. We leave our patio open and door unlocked as the kids are in and out of the garden during the summer months and there are lots of other houses next to ours. We also have a dog. Attacks and burglaries rarely happen in our area especially during the day.

 

[binny]

Our doors are locked when we aren't at home and at night but not when we are home during the day. Our 3 kids are going in/out all day so it wouldn't be feasible to keep them locked then.

Growing up though I lived on a farm and in a very rural community. We didn't even have keys to lock our house and everyone just left their cars unlocked with the keys in the ignition.

thats why.

Besides, I have neighbours who watch the house. We all know who should be where and who shouldnt. If they saw someone entering the house that looked like they didnt belong here I would know about it immediately. Someone is always out and about here too. From the wee early mornings ( mailman lives across the street and down a couple) to the college student who lives 2 doors down who is up at all hours.

This is one thing I really love about this new neighbourhood.
People care. We all take care of each other here. If someone is sick or in hospital, they bring food. If theyre invited over for whatever reason, they bring food... LOL


Yeah, they can be a little nosey sometimes but I would rather that than to read about one of them in the paper the next day.

This is the first place that i have felt so safe!


Besides, we have a big dog who looks scary when shes mad and sounds even worse~


ETA, one of my neighbours has a "community truck" You need to move something? Cool, just call ahead the keys are in the ash tray.

 

[JVL1018]

My doors are never locked when I'm at home-in the summer, but in the winter they most likely are probably because I don't have the doors open to get air..
My back sliding glass door is always open, screen door closed, but not locked. I have 2 kids going in and out all the time.
Front door is wide open, screen door closed.
I don't think locking the screen door would be much of a deterrent. LOL
But the front one is locked because some salesman was walking up and down the street, so it just made me a little leery.

My FIL(lives upstairs in his 2 family, we live on the first floor) locks the front door constantly, it drives me insane!
I will run out to get the kids from school or from Rec in the summer, literrally a block away. If he leaves in the 5 minutes I'm gone, the door is locked when I get back. We have a big, loud dog. No one is going to come in...and if they try, they will get a very unpleasant surprise.

So now everytime I go out for a couple of minutes, I leave the back door unlocked.

When I go out grocery shopping or something where I'll be gone for a while, I do lock the doors.


At night, everything is locked, doors and windows, alarm on.

But..for those of you who have your house locked all the time, are your windows also locked? I like to get the fresh air in whenever I can!

Growing up the only time our door was locked was at night or if everyone in the house was not at home.

 

[mrsltg]

I can't imagine leaving the door unlocked or driving with the doors unlocked. Crime is all about opportunity. The more difficult of a victim you are, the less likely you will be a victim. To think that because you live in a "safe neighborhood" or have large dogs or simply because "that doesn't happen here" is to live in a fantasy. Bad things happen to good people everyday. Lock your doors.

 

[Chicago526]

I'm not affraid of someone breaking in when I'm not home, I'm affraid they'll break in when I AM home by myself. DH works a lot so that's often. So I keep mine locked when I'm home alone in the evening. I do have a dog, but she won't attack anyone (in fact, she'll hide behind me if she see's a stranger! ). Now on the weekends during daylight hours, I do keep the doors unlocked. But after dinner they get locked. I also keep the windows on the 1st floor closed and locked for the night.

 

[becka]

Our windows are almost always locked as well. It is too hot or cold half the year and the other half of the year seems to be allergy season. We all have pretty bad allergies so we are better off with the A/C on and windows closed although occassionally in the spring/fall I like to open them for just a little while but only while we are home.

 

[caitycaity]

But..for those of you who have your house locked all the time, are your windows also locked? I like to get the fresh air in whenever I can!

yep - they are always locked! in the summer here it is way too hot to have the windows opened anyways.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Let me go look at our doors...

The garage door was closed, the front door locked (that was a surprise) and the back door was unlocked (that was a surprise).

My DH just left out the front door and I expected to see it unlocked. We're careful to lock it when we're leaving kids here alone or when we're all leaving, but not so much when one adult is here. One big reason is because very often one of our older kids is out playing, so they need to get back in the door.

The back door is usually kept locked, though, unless the dogs are in the yard. In that case you'd hear loud barking if anyone approached the backyard.

If the dogs are in the house, one of our dogs will hear someone coming in and will bark loudly. If she is in the front of the house, she will bark before someone ever gets to the door. If they have no business at our house (or often if they do ), they will not come to the door.

 

[Bob Slydell]

Okay - but what benefit do you derive from having your doors unlocked?

When I typically get home at night, I'm usually hauling my moose of a one year old in one arm, a diaper bag, my mail, my computer bag, etc. in the other arm. Add to that my 5 year old running for the back door once we pull into the driveway and if I had to run up to unlock the door first, it would be a PITA.

When we're home and DS is outside playing, as others have said, we keep the back door open (or the sliding glass door if he's playing in the back yard) so he can come in and out of the house without us opening the door for him everytime.

 

[becka]

Just reading about all of these unlocked doors right now is getting my OCD stress level up. Can I come over and lock your doors for you? I would really feel so much better then.

Bob - DS knows how to lock and unlock the door when necessary. He is so used to it that it seems to bother him as well if he finds an unlocked door. Nothing like passing on my OCD to another generation.

 

[dcgrumpy]

The back door is usually unlocked during the day. The kids and I are constantly going in and out.

 

[missj1975]

That was my reaction too. I am almost OCD about keeping my doors locked. My DH will go get the mail or something and leave it unlocked and it drives me crazy. I guess I just don't want to take any chances even if the odds are slim that anything bad could happen. Not to mention that it slows down my kids if they are trying to sneak outside.

Of course I also lock the doors in my car when driving and some people think I am crazy for doing that.

I always lock the car door as soon as I get in. I guess maybe some of your friends haven't heard of carjacking. (being sarcastic in a nice way)
I live on a street with only two other houses, a neighborhood that could be considered safe but I still lock by doors when I am home. The neighbors across the street are older. They have lived in the house for over thirty years and last year was the first year they started locking their doors. And that was only because someone syphoned gas out of their gas tank.
If the weather is nice enough for windows to be left open for cool air, I still keep them closed and run my central air. I can't stand the thought of a window open even if I am home. They have to be closed and locked at all times. I live in a small town outside of St Louis that is considered safe but I still worry, especially after watching the news. People get shot in St Louis every day. Hmmm, I think I am going off topic. Sorry.

 

[Bob Slydell]

Just reading about all of these unlocked doors right now is getting my OCD stress level up. Can I come over and lock your doors for you? I would really feel so much better then.

No, I'd be ticked. I don't know where the key to my house is right now.

 

[salmoneous]

There is absolutely no benefit to have an unlocked door, and even a minimal risk is enough for me.

To me, the benefit of not locking the door is that I don't have to find my keys, spend the time locking the door, lug the keys around with me, etc. Then when I get back from the store with the groceries, I've don't have to set the groceries down, dig out the keys, unlock the door, etc.

Sure all that "work" is pretty minor. But avoiding it isn't "absolutely no benefit". Not to mention that I can't lock myself out of the house if the door's not locked

And, what's the risk? Worst case scenario, somebody steals my crappy stuff and I get to by new stuff. (Actually, the real risk is some idiot breaks into the house, gets mauled by my dogs and sues me. But I've got insurance.)

 

[allie&mattsmom]

I'm so paranoid about making sure my doors are locked. Not necessarily during the day like now when the kids are running in and out, but at night especially. I'm a double sometimes tripple checker. And our basement is a walkout, so I always make sure the stick is in the door and that all of the windows are locked. We have big windows all over our basement and the back of our house is all wooded.

I have a question about the people saying no need to worry b/c they have big mean dogs. We have a 110 pound lab, he's not mean but I'm sure would scare some people before he had a chance to lick 'em to death . But if these people are the type to break into a home, chances are they may be carrying a weapon of some sort, what's to stop them from shooting or harming your dog? Then they could walk into your unlocked house. I know some people would say that this wouldn't/couldn't happen in broad daylight but stranger things have happened. Better safe than sorry is the way I think.

 

[monarchsfan16]

My mom is truly OCD, and is paranoid about safety but when we're home the doors are unlocked. There are no little kids in the house that could run out. We always have windows and sliders open in the summer. We live in the middle of nowhere, and if we're all in the house we have a pretty good idea of what's going on. If someone is home alone, or it's night, or whenever we all leave, the house is locked, and when we're all gone the alarm is set too. When I was younger we were always in and out of the house, and locking the doors would have just been a nuisance. Nowadays we're not in and out as much but it's still a nuisance to go get the mail, or to go check on the pool and have to unlock and open stuff up. Heck I only lock my car door in the most dangerous areas, and even then it's not always automatic, only after I've actually thought about where I am. Call it small town naivte, but there's really very little crime here. There are only a few robberies a year, all have been while the houses are unoccupied, and the last murder was years ago and it wasn't a random crime.

My dad lives way back in the woods. He's got a beeper on his driveway so when someone drives up he knows there coming (it detects heat so it also beeps if someone walks by or there are deer around...). He leaves the keys in his car for "safety". If there's ever a fire he wants to get the car out of the way so it doesn't explode and cause a bigger problem. When he's home the windows are open, the door from the garage into the house is unlocked and the garage door is up. If someone arrives it's easier to direct them to the proper door if that door is easily accessible. But again, he just doesn't need to lock the door when he's home

 

[caitycaity]

And, what's the risk? Worst case scenario, somebody steals my crappy stuff and I get to by new stuff.

that's definitely not the worst case scenario. rape and murder are two that come to mind.

i'm not an alarmist, truly. but when i was a teenager i was the victim of an attempted carjacking in a nice quiet suburban town where the police generally never have anything to do. bad things happen every day. why take the chance?

 

[JVL1018]

I can't imagine leaving the door unlocked or driving with the doors unlocked. Crime is all about opportunity. The more difficult of a victim you are, the less likely you will be a victim. To think that because you live in a "safe neighborhood" or have large dogs or simply because "that doesn't happen here" is to live in a fantasy. Bad things happen to good people everyday. Lock your doors.

And get up 10 times an hour to let my kids in and out? I think I'll chance it.

I was watching some show once, a former thief told all his secrets, and a dog was much more of a deterrent than a locked door according to him.

I think if someone was looking to rob a house, he would look at mine with my dog leaping against the screen door barking like a maniac, and then he would look at the house next door, locked up tight, and think, hmm, I bet I could break a window and get in more quietly and easily there than trying to deal with this dog..

...and anyway,I'd be alerted by the dog barking that someone was trying to get in and could run easily out my handy unlocked back door.

 

[thewishfire]

All of our doors are just about always locked. The only time we ever knowingly leave a door unlocked is if we forgot the keys inside when we're running to a store in town and are just too lazy to go back in! But that's VERY rare. And if my car doors didn't automatically lock themselves, I'd be locking them when I drive. I just couldn't deal with having doors unlocked, even if I'm home in the daytime.

 

[ozarkmom]

Same here.

Same here too.