Why Would Anyone NOT Lock Their Doors?

[Magickndm]

Our doors are locked at night and if no one's home. During the day maybe, maybe not. My husband leaves early for work, so he does lock it on his way out. I work from home, if I don't go out during the day (very rare), it stays locked, if I go out for the mail or run an errand, I might lock it when I come back in, but if I'm distracted by something, phone, dog, whatever, it stays unlocked.

 

[va32h]

The only way to be safe in your home is to lock up your family in a panic room every night.

If people were saying that anybody who doesn't install a panic room in their house obviously didn't care about safety, how would you feel about that?

So the solution is to not bother to take any precautions at all? I am not getting your point. When did I say anyone "obviously didn't care about safety"?

Of course there is no way to guarantee safety. I never suggested that locking a door guarantees safety. In fact, somewhere in this thread I have a very long post about various things that are merely deterrents, and I noted that a locked door is among those things - just a deterrent.

But just because something is not foolproof, do we throw up our hands and say "oh well" and not do anything?

Let's pretend for a minute that wearing seatbelts was not a law. Seatbelts make the car safer, but won't guarantee your safety in a car crash. Would you wear it anyway, or figure that because it isn't foolproof, why bother?

All methods of birth control, except abstinence of course, are not foolproof. So should couples figure "oh why bother, it's no guarantee" and just take their chances?

Living a healthy lifestyle - maintaining an average weight, not smoking, eating a varied diet, exercise etc. is not a guarantee of good health. You can do all those things and drop dead of a heart attack at age 40. You can do none of those things and live to be 100. So does that mean there is no point to living a healthy lifestyle, since it isn't a guarantee?

If we only do those things with a guaranteed outcome, all we would do is sit around and wait to die.

And let me just spell it out, since subtlety isn't getting me anywhere. I am NOT equating unlocked doors with sitting around waiting to die. I am trying to point out the illogic in arguing against doing something (not necessarily locking doors, but anything ) on the grounds that it is not guaranteed.

 

[MouseJunkie]

My doors are always locked. I even lock my car door when I go out to my parent's house in the middle of nowhere. They make fun of me, but hey you never know. Besides, it's in the middle of nowhere with a woods. You never know who's really lurking around out there. I even lock my doors going down the road. My purse goes on the floor rather than the seat. I tend to give that don't even think of messing with me look when I'm alone in a parking lot alone too. Just instinct in me I guess. I can't say I don't have a plan if someone tries something either. Not paranoid...just prepared.

 

[Missy1961]

didn't you see that jodie foster movie??? even panic rooms are not safe!!!

speaking only for myself - locking up does not mean i live in fear. i would never describe myself as worried about my safety or fearful of what could happen to me in my own home. it is just an automatic thing for me. it's not like everytime i lock up i am thinking: "oh now i am keeping out all those rapists that hang out on the corner." i would describe the neighborhood i live in as "safe". there are frequent police patrols and the crime stats are relatively low (especially violent crime). on the other hand, i have had my car broken into a few times (not in our neighborhood), my wallet stolen (at work and in college). dealing with those things - even when they are bnot violent makes you feel victimized and it is a pain to go through insurance and canceling credit cards, getting a new license, etc., etc. having felt that way a few times, it is worth the minor extra effort to me to lock my doors. a few weeks ago someone was shot in the head in my work parking garage...which happens to be in a super safe area and RIGHT NEXT TO A POLICE STATION. if you had told me that would have happened the week before, i would have told you you were crazy.

i do not live in fear, but i do try to practice what i believe to be common sense. i liken locking doors at night to wearing a seatbelt, making sure the air pressure in my tires is correct, putting my neice in a car seat, etc., etc. doing those things does not mean i live in fear of what might happen if i didn't. it just means that it is worth the extra time to me. i understand that it is not worth it to some people. i don't think that means i am need of therapy or that i live in a prison. hardly.

Exactly! I do not live in fear, but our home was broken into once, and I never want that to happen again. Also, one evening the police rang our doorbell about midnight. The cops were there with a young man who claimed "my grandparents live there" when the cops caught him trying to pick the lock. There were a bunch of push in robberies recently in the area (suburbs). Yes, I lock the front door, but we do open windows. During the day, when we (my dad & I) are home, the front door is unlocked. In the spring, I open windows. But in the winter, when my dad is in Florida & I am home alone? The door is locked. The alarm is armed. It may not be 100% foolproof, but it doesn't take too much time to do it, and I feel better after I do it.

 

[jodifla]

So the solution is to not bother to take any precautions at all? I am not getting your point. When did I say anyone "obviously didn't care about safety"?

Of course there is no way to guarantee safety. I never suggested that locking a door guarantees safety. In fact, somewhere in this thread I have a very long post about various things that are merely deterrents, and I noted that a locked door is among those things - just a deterrent.

But just because something is not foolproof, do we throw up our hands and say "oh well" and not do anything?

Let's pretend for a minute that wearing seatbelts was not a law. Seatbelts make the car safer, but won't guarantee your safety in a car crash. Would you wear it anyway, or figure that because it isn't foolproof, why bother?

All methods of birth control, except abstinence of course, are not foolproof. So should couples figure "oh why bother, it's no guarantee" and just take their chances?

Living a healthy lifestyle - maintaining an average weight, not smoking, eating a varied diet, exercise etc. is not a guarantee of good health. You can do all those things and drop dead of a heart attack at age 40. You can do none of those things and live to be 100. So does that mean there is no point to living a healthy lifestyle, since it isn't a guarantee?

If we only do those things with a guaranteed outcome, all we would do is sit around and wait to die.

And let me just spell it out, since subtlety isn't getting me anywhere. I am NOT equating unlocked doors with sitting around waiting to die. I am trying to point out the illogic in arguing against doing something (not necessarily locking doors, but anything ) on the grounds that it is not guaranteed.

It all is a matter of which risks you're willing to take in life. Many of us feel that having an unlocked door during the daytime is a pretty much zero risk, so why not take it? Why not open the windows, the sliding doors and the front door and let some fresh air in the house?

In Florida, during the winter, we open up the breezeway and the back sliding doors during the daytime. Up in Michigan in the summer, we often have all the windows open for the fresh air, early in the day and at night.

I hate seatbelts, and only wear them at the request of my husband. If it were just me, I wouldn't wear them.

 

[MrsNick]

My home door is always locked, whether I am in it or not. My car doors are always locked, when I'm in it and when I'm not. I live in a really nice, safe neighborhood and we have a big dog. We have great neighbors and we look out for one another. I don't know of anyone's home being robbed where we live.

I don't "need therapy," and I don't live in constant fear of being robbed, murdered or raped. I do, however, believe that many crimes that happen are "crimes of opportunity." While there is a low chance of anything happening, I'd also like to keep the chances as low as possible. If a criminal can choose between walking into a locked home/car vs. an unlocked home/car, which one do you think he would choose?

A lock won't stop someone who is absolutely determined to get in, but if the motive is robbery, for example, a criminal wants to get in and out as quickly as possible. A good lock will slow them down sufficiently that their chances of getting caught go up significantly. Criminals do not want to get caught. They will go for the unlocked door over the locked door. This is not paranoid, this is logic.

Whether someone else locks their door or not makes no difference to me. Whether a criminal chooses my home or someone else's home to prey on does.

I do not feel like a prisoner in my home, and as a matter of fact, I come and go as I please. I hang out all the time in my yard and pool. When I do, I lock my door (takes all of 5 seconds). It's just habit, like putting a seat belt on before I go anywhere in my car.

In my opinion, being in prison means you can't come and go. I would only feel like a prisoner in my home if someone managed to get in and hold me there against my will.

I also don't understand why people think they only need to lock their door if they aren't home. To me, the real danger is having someone walk into my home when I am home. If the intent was only robbery, and I surprise that criminal, they are more likely to behave irrationally. If the intent was to physically harm me, then obviously I don't want them to just be able to walk in the door.

Are the chances of anything happening low? You bet. That's the reason we chose to live in a safe neighborhood: to minimize the possiblity of crime in our home. We lock our door to further minimize the possibility of crime in our home. For us, it goes hand-in-hand with the whole point of living in a good neighborhood. But we are not fearful people. We come and go, we work in a big city and gasp! we even go out at night. We just recognize that there are people out there who are not good people, and that those people can travel from bad neighborhoods to good ones, from cities to rural areas and back again.

I'm willing to defend myself if I have to (and have - in an upscale shopping mall with lots and lots of people around...who did nothing, by the way), but why even put myself in that position?

These are my reasons for locking my home. I don't expect anyone else to think that my opinion should be their opinion. The OP wanted reasons why some lock their doors and some don't, so I'm just adding one more post.