I found out my friend who lives in a really small town doesn’t lock his doors at night. Apparently nobody does there. And I was reading a book that took place in a small town not too long ago and nobody did in that town either. Now, I realize that it’s fiction…but my friend made me wonder.
Me, I’ve always lived in big cities. Buffalo NY, and now Phoenix, AZ…but even when we lived in Mesa, AZ, it was still a semi big city, so we locked our doors every night.
I cannot fathom anyone who would not do it. But then again, like I said, I always grew up where it was needed.
I lock the doors and windows downstairs, but I leave the windows upstairs unlocked and open all night, all year round. If I’m at home during the day I leave the doors unlocked and open, because I like having the fresh air circulate through the house. I don’t normally even lock the doors if I have to pop out for a few minutes to go to the local shops.
I come from the country and we never locked our doors when I was growing up. I’m not such a fan of locking up the house as a fortress even now; however, my husband is militant about it.
Just this evening we were out for dinner when a friend called to ask if she could borrow our mower. I had accidentally left the patio door unlocked so she was able to get the mower without a hitch. It works for me but hubby wasn’t too happy.
While he was in Afghanistan, I had several of the soldier’s wives coming in and out of the house a lot of the time so I would leave a door unlocked but now that he’s home, he makes sure they’re locked.
I know it’s probably not the smartest thing in the world but to me the risk seems relatively low.
I currently live in Chicago, and I always lock my car doors. The apartment door locks automatically, as do the outside doors of the building.
My parents live in a wealthy suburb near a large city, and while they lock the main doors at night, there’s usually at least a basement door left unlocked because nobody thinks to check all of them. During the day the main door is left unlocked regardless of whether anyone’s home. It doesn’t really worry anyone–if someone wanted in, it wouldn’t be that hard to gain entrance, and alarm systems are more likely to be set off by family members entering/leaving/moving around the house late at night than anything else, so we don’t activate them unless we’re going away for a while.
We also don’t lock car doors there–there’s zero chance of theft, and it’s just easier to leave them unlocked in case you need to get into one of them for something and can’t find the key.
The doors at my house are locked at night and the majority of the day too, even though I live in a small, safe area. They used to stay unlocked during the day, until some random guy just walked on in a couple of weeks ago.
I’ve always been pretty good about locking the doors at night or when I’m home alone. After watching It Takes a Thief a few times and seeing just how fast a thief can clean you out (~10 minutes on most of the shows), my husband and I both lock up and set the alarm even if we’re leaving for just a few minutes.
I’m less vigilant about locking my car doors–my truck is a stick and since hardly anybody knows how to drive one nowadays, I figure it’s less of a risk.
I’m militant about locking the door also. Unless it’s a nice day outside and I want fresh air while I’m in the room, the door will remained locked. When I’m in my room, the door will be locked. The way I figure it, I can’t afford leaving it unlocked, the risk is too high.
We religiously lock the doors if we know that we are going to be gone for more than 2 days. If we are going to be back the same day (and the weather is nice), we often just close the screen door.
Locking doors in a house with a tree lined backyard is pointless. A determined thief could easily get in the backyard and break out a window without anyone seeing or hearing.
(But due to wife’s long habit, we lock all doors at night when we are there.)
Car doors always get locked, as cars are a nice target for bored teenagers to rifle through.
I grew up in a farming town in NJ. We never locked our doors. Never. Not at night, not if we left for the weekend. Never.
When I was just 18 or so, I started living in more city-like areas in and around NJ, and I locked my door pretty much all day long and definitely especially at night.
I lived in a small town in PA, and I always made sure my doors were locked, but that seemed to have more to do with the fact that we were living in SUCH a small town, I was sure everyone knew I was a single mom living alone with 2 small kids. It just frightened me.
Now we live in a decent sized city, sort of a suburb of SF, I guess. Our part of town happens to be one of the worst. I am almost phobic about making sure the windows and doors are locked every night. I make sure they are all locked before I leave for work.
Every now and then (yesterday, for instance) the police helicopter will fly over our house in circles for an hour or so, looking for who knows who or what, and no matter what time of day, I make sure the windows and doors are locked.
Growing up in a relatively small town in CT, the doors were never locked unless we were going out of town for more than the day. Mostly because with 4 kids, someone was always coming or going. I used to leave the keys to my car in the ignition, but that was because my car was crap and not worth stealing. There were many nicer cars on my street, but I’m sure the keys were in half of them too. Now the door is locked whenever we go farther than the mailbox. And Inkleberry makes sure the deadbolt is locked at night when its just her and Tinkleberry here until I get home from work after midnight. And I lock it then too.
The Bronx ain’t come back THAT far. The main door to the apartment building locks and has an intercom. I don’t lock my windows, though, but if I have them wide open at night I have a gate that comes across to block it. My front door is locked unless I’m downstairs doing the laundry or something–tons of delivery people, etc. traipse through the building all day, after all.
The door is always locked when I am out and almost always when I’m at home.
I learned that after having a crackhead walk into my place thinking it was his buddies. Now we don’t have that problem, we just have a lot of nosy and rude kids who will walk in at the drop of a hat because they think they can.
Even when we lived in a small town we locked the doors, and most of the people around us did too.
Personally, I don’t bother much with locks, but my parents (especially my dad) do. So, at home in our apartment the main door locks automatically, and the second door (right next to the main one) is always locked because we never use it. To get into the building is pretty easy though - there is a code that you need to get in the door, but it hasn’t changed since we moved in about 7years ago. I’m sure many people know the code seeing as we tell our friends what it is becuase we don’t have a landline which is necessary for the intercom to work. Also, the keys to the digits that are used are visibly worn down, which would make guessing the code pretty easy (although I think this was changed a while back by replacing the keypad - why they didn’t change the code instead I have no idea).
Where I live now I don’t lock the front door at night. But, my flatmate does and she seems to get upset when I’m the last one to go to bed and don’t bother locking the door so if I remember I try to just to keep her happy. There is nothing worth stealing in the house. During the day I lock the door as well - same reason - to keep flatmate happy.
As for cars, at home we always lock it or it locks itself eventually. When I had a car for a while over the summer I didn’t bother locking it. I was in the country and it was definately not worth stealing. Unless they really wanted the fuzzy dice maybe.
The only reason I’m semi-compelled to lock things is in case something happens and the insurance company wouldn’t want to cover it if it came out that the house or car wasn’t locked.
I grew up in a city, and I always lock my home and my car no matter where I am.
However, I have lived in numerous small towns, and NO ONE locks their home or their car. Despite popular opinion, crime does occur in small towns, and I can’t believe people would skip a simple step that would keep a criminal out.
But then again, more people in small towns own guns than do people in the city.
And some of us have large, sweet, schmoopy family dogs who won’t let a stranger in the door until he hears “mama” invite 'em!
I do live in a really small town, and only lock the doors if the dog isn’t inside. I don’t worry about property crime, since there’s no through street past my home, and my only near neighbors are my grandmother across the driveway and my aunt’s and uncle’s business next door. Besides, any wannabe thief only has to look to know that I’m much poorer than my relatives ! Actually, all of those neighbors/relatives know that the doors are unlocked when I’m away, since I want someone to be able to let the dog out in case of catastrophe.
I never lock my car, either. For one thing, it’s a pretty crummy car, and approximately the last one in the lot anyone’s gonna take. Also, you can’t unlock it if it’s locked. Besides, the last time someone broke into my car, they got away with about ten dollars worth of stuff, and it cost me several hundred to replace the broken window and stop payment on an entire book of checks. I do put obvious valuables in the car’s trunk, though, if I’m out shopping or such.
We lock our apartment door, but then, we have crazy neighbours.
my parent’s lock their front door, but not the back…but then they’ve got a Lab/Alsation cross who would happily eat an intruder.
I never used to lock them, day or night. Even when I was away at work. Anyone with a rock could break into my house (lots of BIG windows), and no neighbors.
I lock them now (except when I’m home during the day), don’t really know why I changed. I guess that would at least keep curious kids out.
My cats always want to go in and out at night, so I leave my french door in my bedroom ajar so I don’t have to keep getting up (at least in the summer). I try to lock the other doors, but the kids and the husband are working against me in that. They always leave the side door in the garage and the basement door unlocked and I forget to check.
My husband doesn’t lock anything. I leave first in the morning, and when he leaves he doesn’t bother to lock any of the doors. He also leaves the car keys in his ignition in the parking lot of his office. Someday he’ll learn.
Oh yes, I always lock our apartment door. I live in a pretty safe area - one where a girl can go out alone at night if she wants and generally not have to worry - but still, I play it safe. Especially since our building has no controlled entry, and since a very drunk guy tried to get into our place at 3 a.m. a few months ago.
! Actually, all of those neighbors/relatives know that the doors are unlocked when I’m away, since I want someone to be able to let the dog out in case of catastrophe.