I live in the suburbs in an apartment complex, upstairs. I keep the door unlocked during the day because we go in and out all the time. I only lock the door at night when I know no one will be going in and out. If my daughter goes out at night, I leave it open because she doesn’t have a key. Sometimes I go out and spend the night elsewhere, and when I come home the next morning, the door is usually unlocked.
I keep the front door locked because the screen door doesn’t latch right and will blow open if not locked.
When I had roommates, I kept the garage door unlocked all the time. Now that they’re gone, I lock the door behind me when I’m inside … but leave it unlocked when I leave the house. I don’t quite care if someone comes in and steals my shit when I’m not home, but I’m not in to someone breaking in when I’m here.
If I leave overnight, I do lock up. I just basically am too lazy to lock and unlock the garage entry every time I leave and return.
We had an attempted home invasion a dozen years ago. Locking the doors now is second nature.
Additionally, while we live in an upscale, ‘safe’ neighborhood, our house is pretty high profile and that, coupled with the fact we’re always hearing about home invasions on the news, we keep it pretty secure.
Small city of about 100k people. The only time the doors are locked when we’re home is if everyone is asleep.
Also, this isn’t because we have kids playing outside. We have combination locks on our doors so the kids don’t need to carry a key (and even the Kindergartener knows his combination to get in).
Well if anyone manages to get into my building and knows what apt I live in, feel free to waltz in and steal my nothing because I rarely lock my door. Don’t touch any of my cocktail shakers, though. I will fight you for those.
Ive lived in various uni towns for the past 30 years. Drunks abound as well as weirdos who walk around in broad daylight checking if anyone’s home and then trying the doors. I live in a neighborhood of retired ppl and unemployeds who keep an eye out for BS and call the popo at the drop of a hat, but I still lock all doors at all times.
Granted, someone could cut the screens and waltz in thru the windows but the cat would eat someone that foolish.
I live in a rural area and have 5 exterior doors. They usually stay locked unless I’m working on something around the house, then one or more will be unlocked.
I live in a Chicago high rise and lock my front door whiles I’m home about 50% of the time. The building is all studios and one bedroom units, the residents are almost all young professionals and there no kids except for a couple of infants. There is only the one front door, no back door. I will leave windows open at time, I’m not worried about being robbed by Spider Man.
My immediate area is filled with other high rises, there is almost no retail or restaurants/bars within a couple of blocks. I’m sure someone can get into the building itself if they wanted to, but then the odds that they would make it up to my floor and then pick my apartment, at the end of the hall, to break into isn’t something I’m particularly worried about. The only things to steal would be a 3 year old laptop and my iPad.
When I had a car, I also kept it unlocked. I’d far rather someone take what they wanted than break a window because I left a quarter on the seat.
We live in the country, but have moved around a lot and lived in several different types of neighborhoods. We never lock the doors; I don’t even know if we have a key for this house.
We have a house in a close-in suburb of Chicago.
Our front door is locked 99% of the time. The only times we leave it unlocked are:
a) If I go out for a run, and my wife is home, I’ll leave it unlocked while I’m gone, so I don’t need to worry about a key
b) If we know that certain friends are coming over, who we know so well that they just let themselves in
c) If we’re doing yardwork in the front of the house, in case we need to go inside (and, thus, don’t need to walk around)
The back door is usually locked. However, if one of us leaves the house via the back door (i.e., heading to the detached garage), and the other is home, we usually leave it unlocked until we return. It’s always locked at night.
Nope, no kids. The people who lived here before us had kids, and they had one of those keypads to open the garage door. I think a lot of suburban and rural people use that solution. We took the keypad down when we moved in.
This. Random door-pushers and juvenile delinquents come “shopping” in nicer neighborhoods around here on occasion, so why help them?
If my wife and kids are/were home alone, they’re locked and alarmed in, and can view the monitor for all the cameras so they know who’s around without having to go to a door.
Also, many people seem to be very afraid of our Obnoxious Yapping Dachsunds [sup]TM[/sup]
Not everyone outside your door wishes you well, regardless of where you live. In McCarthy, Alaska (Pop: less than 30) for instance, a deranged man killed 6 and wounded two others in 1983. Our doors are locked when we’re inside or off the property. When we’re out, the alarm is set. Too many vagrants and druggies in Portland to do otherwise, but I’d do it if I lived in the middle of Fuckall, Nevada.
My front door is always locked because I almost never use it.
My back door is not locked, except at night when I go to bed, whether I am home or not.
+1
I’ve watched too many shows on ID where the convicted murderer or rapists says that their only choice of victim is because they found a door locked. Even out in the sticks, my doors have always been locked unless I’m doing something that involves a lot of in and out.
Not going to publicly say but if you want to check, come on by. Bring a weapon, you will need it if you actually get inside. Bawahahaha
I live in the heart of Pittsburgh and we have had doors that automatically lock since I was 7 years old, so unless we thumb the lock off intentionally (doing yard work, cooking out on the grill, potty breaks for the dog) our doors lock whenever they’re closed, and our practice is to also engage the deadbolts as well. We also lock the door leading into the basement of the house from the integral garage.
Of course there are two huge windows, one right by the front door, one right by the side door that are both more than large enough for an adult to climb through easily if they manage to open the side without a screen. Once we realized this we put wooden dowels in the tracks of those windows but I’m not sure it’s enough to stop someone who’s determined.
Exact same situation here, except that we don’t have a dog. There’s not even a back alley; our yard is surrounded on all sides by other yards several houses deep.
If we’re in and out of the back garden or if the weather’s nice we leave the back door wide open, but in general it’s closed and locked just because we might forget to lock it if we leave. Plus one time the neighbor’s cat snuck in the back and got locked into the house when we left. When we came back and opened the front door we were startled to see the cat just sitting there looking annoyed. And given that we’ve got lots of urban foxes in our area, we wouldn’t leave the door open at night even if we weren’t worried about human intruders.
The front door is Yale locked, plus there’s another bolt we lock when we go out, and a bolt and chain when we go to bed. A year or so ago someone went around and pushed on a number of doors in our street until they found one that was only on the Yale lock and “popped” it open, then looted the house. I’m pretty sure they tried ours but the extra bolt foiled them. Ah, urban life…
Would locked doors have stopped him?
He had a gun, and his first victim (who survived), invited him inside. He sniped off other victims from a distance. After a cursory reading about the case, it seems like it’s not a very good example of the value of locked doors.
I think dissuading casual thieves is a better reason to lock doors. They exist in relatively large numbers (compared to rogue crazies) and are likely to move on upon encountering a locked door. A crazy person with a gun may or may not give a damn about a locked door, and it isn’t likely to stop them if they decide to enter anyway. (Or they’ll just shoot you through the door.)
I routinely leave my back door open in good weather so they cat can look longingly outside and glare at the birds who taunt her. I usually keep the front door locked, because otherwise if my mom stops over she’ll give me a lecture about it being unlocked and how she could have been a murderer.
Always unlocked. I’ve lost the keys. 6 large dogs.
StG