I keep my apartment door locked all the time even, no, especially when we are at home.
Not only do we keep the car doors locked, we use a club AND we have to remove our car tag any time we leave the car. We’ve had them stolen three times in the past year, once during the day.
I don’t even lock my doors when I leave the house to go to work. No, there is no need where I live.
All locked. All the time. Cars, garage, rv, house, gates, everything. All house doors are deadbolts, and you need a key for either side. (So they can’t smash a window and reach thru to open the door). I’m really anal about this.
Exceptions when there’s active traffic thru them. (Cooking on the patio, unloading the car, neighbor kids running in and out with mine thru the front, etc.) But anytime we’re not actively using doors, they’re locked. I enforce this vigorously.
(Lost keys? Not a problem. Keypad on garage door, and a realtor-box on a back door… Either gets you into the garage, where a key to the house is hidden. Kids know the code, and this two-step process should derail the normal problem of thieves using the homeowner’s “backup” system to gain entry.)
You sound like my roommate. He hadn’t locked the door, which is why the crackhead was able to walk in. That’s how we met our neighbours, they followed him in and were only mildly less creepy than he was, they weren’t high. That finally convinced the roomie to lock the door.
About 12 years ago, I had a friend murdered in a home-invasion robbery. Garden home, close neighborhood, broad daylight, car in driveway and people everywhere. Guy comes in, beats Friend, loads electronics in back of car and drives away.
My home is a fortress. Every door locked all the time. I even have a deadbolt on the door from the garage into the house.
We keep the door locked at night, only because there was a guy in town who would come into random people’s homes and sleep on their couches. He never stole anything or caused any damage, but would walk into unlocked homes and take a nap.
Just after reading this story in the paper, we had a very drunk, very large man pound on our door for 10 minutes, screaming for his girlfriend to let him in, that he was going to beat her if she didn’t unlock the door, etc. These two things combined (along with a dog that is rapidly getting on in years and doesn’t always come to the door when needed) led to us locking the door at night.
As a general rule, yes. But sometimes I’ll go out in the morning to get the paper and realize that we left the garage open all night! (oops) Just the other day I noticed that our back door (out of the kitchen) had been unlocked all night. I mentioned it to my wife, but forgot to actually lock the door, so it remained unlocked all day while we were at work too!
In college I had a studio apartment where the door was directly off of the parking lot. To get to all the other apartments in the building, you had to go inside through another door around the corner and then up or down the stairs. I finally had to start locking the door after I had several people came barging into my apartment thinking it was the entry to the apartment building. (Even though there was an apartment number on the door!)
I live in Washington D.C. so I always lock the door. If I’m in the living room about 8 feet away, I still make sure that the door is locked.
And if the house is on fire and you and your wife are already dead, are those same kids–who are in a dead panic–gonna be able to figure out where those keys are?
I’m sorry to be blunt, but double-cylinder locks scare the crap out of me. Dying trapped in a burning house is my worst nightmare.
And if the house is on fire and you and your wife are already dead, are those same kids–who are in a dead panic–gonna be able to figure out where those keys are?
I’m sorry to be blunt, but double-cylinder locks scare the crap out of me. Dying trapped in a burning house is my worst nightmare.
Glass paned doors scare the hell out of me. We have double-cylinder locks - if we are home, keys are in the lock. Not home - no key. You climb in a window, you are leaving through a window.
I lock the doors whether I’m home or not. This is probably the result of growing up as the daughter of a cop. My mom always expected the worse simply because she’d seen it so often. So I’m well-trained.
Your location doesn’t say where you are but since you used “flatmate”, I’ll assume you’re not in the US.
I’ve been an insurance adjuster for over 25 years here and there hasn’t been a requirement for forced entry in quite some time. I can’t say that every insurance company out there is the same, but the majority use the same (or very similar) auto and homeowners insurance forms.
My apartment: always. Hell, I’ve been known to lock it if I’m not in the living room.
My truck: Depends on where I am. If I’m at the parents’ house, then probably not, since it would be hard for anyone to show up without us knowing about it. Besides, a column-shift manual confuses the hell out of mechanics, so no one’s going to be able to drive it. My CD changer can’t be removed from the truck without removing the seat and the floormat, so they aren’t taking it, and the mounting kit for my SkyFi won’t do anyone any good without a receiver, and I take it with me.
I always lock the doors to my house, and only leave them unlocked if someone is in the yard. I think it’s just common sense: the house is secure enough that most robbers wouldn’t go through all the trouble it would take to get in, but if we left windows or doors open I’m sure that sooner or later someone would figure it out, waltz in, and take whatever they wanted.
It kind of freaks me out to be in a house where the door’s aren’t locked. My dad moved to a smaller, quieter town, and while he usually locks the door once everyone’s asleep, the doors are completely unlocked the rest of the time. It really bothers me that anyone could walk in and do whatever they wanted.
I only lock the doors when the wind is likely to blow them open. So, once in a while.
Also, all the keys to all 8 cars are left in the ignition, hoping someone will come along and steal them. No such luck, so far.
Actually, like with my Fiat (which is a convertable and anything inside is gonna be cheaper to replace than the top that will be cut open to get inside), the house is in such a outlying place that anyone who wants in that bad will simply walk around back and bust out a very expensive window. That way, when I’m robbed, I get to have it replaced too. :rolleyes:
Anybody want my address?
Sure, anyone could, but no-one really does. I know that lots of people lock their doors when they are home and awake, but the idea just seems bizarre to me. Man, if the area is that full of crazy people walking around testing everyone’s doors, why don’t you move?
Yes yes, I know. There are lots of other benefits to where you live. But still. Crazy people walking into your house?
Nope. I’m a light sleeper, have a 50 pound wolf-looking husky who sleeps by the door and have two guns within reach of my bed. No worries here.
Actually, some convicts escaped in my neighborhood last fall and were free for several hours. In talking about the next day at work, most people said they rarely lock their doors, even during when they are out of the house during the day.
I lock my truck when it’s away from the house, mainly because I have a couple of hundred dollars of gear under the back seat.
I never lock my convertible because the door locks don’t work anyway.
Not a lot of crime here.
whistlepig
I’m staying in a pretty run-down section of Oklahoma City (SE 25th & Shields for anyone familiar with OKC). I always lock my truck and keep nothing valuable in it. My house is always locked when I leave but almost never when I’m home.
If I’m home, I’m either laying or sitting on my futon and a loaded .357 Magnum S&W Model 65, 2.75", round butt, Uncle Mike’s Combat Grips, Hornady XTP 125gr JHP custom handloads is under one of the pillows at all times. If I hear noise outside, I’ll grab the pistol and check it out and if I see people in the area, I’ll lock up.
We have a security screen door and a main wooden door at both the front and back. The main door at the front has a deadbolt (ie. you need the key to get out). My wife likes to lock this, but I’m too paranoid about fire. When I go to bed at night, I just lock the outer door. I’m 17 stone and quite strong, so I reckon with the assistance of adrenaline, I could simply shoulder charge that outward opening door if there were a fire, and I’d probably tear it off its hinges. the main door, on the other hand, opens inwards, and has a very solid steel bolt. If there were a fire and that one was locked, there’s no way I’d be strong enough to do anything other than use the key. Hunting for keys is not something I want to do when there’s a fire.
Shorter answer is that I live in a big city and I make sure I have some form of lock between me and the outside world at night.