I don’t routinely lock the front door to my house during the day when my family and I are out and about, but I do always lock my car. I’d like to know if and how much I’m in the minority by doing this.
During my academic years long ago, I lived in large cities and did lock both front doors and cars. Since that time I’ve lived in suburbs with low crime rates* and stopped routinely locking my front door, but continued to lock my car. I don’t have a security system in my house, either (but, I do have a yappy dog and nosy neighbors).
My feeling is that the chance of my house being burgled is quite low, and if the attempt were made, the locked door in most cases would not stop the crime (a latch would be jimmied, or a window pane broken)**
I understand that not locking my door does carry some non-zero risk, but considering the risk/benefit, I’m willing to assume the risk. The benefit is that I don’t have to fumble around with a key every time I want to open the door (a pain if you have a grocery bag in each arm, or happen to be hand-cuffed). It’s even conceivable (though admittedly not likely) that not having to fumble with a key could save my life in the event a crazed maniac, a rabid raccoon, or a crazed rabid maniac chases me up the driveway.
Likewise, I believe the potential risk is quite minimal. The worst that will happen if my unlocked door results in a burglary is that I’ll lose property (I’m confident a burglar won’t wait around in ambush to murder me). I don’t believe I’d even lose much of sentimental value because a burglar probably wouldn’t want to fill up his burglar-bag with photos and my kid’s nappy blanket. Things of monetary value will be covered by insurance.
I don’t know exactly why I do routinely lock my car; mainly out of habit, I suppose. Although I do believe a locked car probably does prevent a higher percentage of carjackings and entry thefts (it’s more difficult for someone to break into a car unnoticed in a parking lot and easier to just go down the row and find a car that isn’t locked). But, my car is not one high on the carjacker’s most wanted list and I don’t usually keep too much of value in my car (except for my Star Trek crew bobbleheads in the rear window).
So, is my logic sound? What do you do and why?
Notes:
*Well, my current town was invaded by bathing suit and German navy hat attired saboteurs who unboarded a submarine sent by Hitler (that doesn’t sound like a tall tale, does it?), but that was a long time ago and things have been pretty calm since then.
** This reminds me of a story from my childhood that I’ll relate because it lets me brag about what a talented and precocious child I was: My parents did routinely lock all the doors to our house when I was growing up. We were burglarized once. They gained entrance by breaking a back window. But, that’s not point. But, it does let me segue into my point: the way we secured the back sliding glass door was to place a stick in the right-side, bottom gutter, preventing the movable door section from opening. One day, when I was a mere 6 years old, my family and I returned home, only to realize no one had a house key. We all split up looking for some way to get in. No breach could be found, but I remained back at the sliding glass door, scratching me head, intently studying the situation, while my father looked around trying to find a rock to smash a front window pane. A moment later, from inside the house, our cat Tibby 3rd (we’ve had a long line of Tibbies) sauntered up to the glass door, looking at me. A light-bulb went off in my head and I yelled, “hey dad, hold on a f*ing minute, I gotta an idea!” The family gathered around as I found a twig and started brushing it against the glass door. Tibby, as I expected, started pawing at the wiggling twig, until one of his swats landed on the stick-lock and it tumbled free of the jam, letting us open the door. Only 6 years old—brilliant!
Ok, now go back to the poll and submit.
