I live in a lower-middle to plain middle-middle class suburb and I don’t notice unlocked cars anymore. When I was a kid I’m pretty sure they were more common. Having said that I don’t be going around checking if cars are unlocked. I know that smash and grab theft from cars used to be a much more common activity and bigger concern that it is now. With regard to the house, I never leave it without the front and back doors locked. Again years ago I know a lot of my friends’ houses were left with at least the backdoor unlocked so kids coming home from school or what not could get in without a key. I don’t think this activity is as common as it was either. Houses around here, including my own, have much stronger, usually padlocked access gates from front to back so it makes no sense leaving the back door unlocked.
Out in the countryside it is more common to leave cars and houses unlocked when unoccupied but still it is much less common than it would have been years ago.
I’ve noticed in the US, in the suburban Midwest at least, locking doors when you’re out seems to be less of a thing than here. So is it common for people to leave cars and houses unlocked by you?
Up until last year we left our house unlocked (didn’t even know where the keys were) and I left my keys in my car.
Unfortunately, drug addicts from the cities have been filtering their way out into the country, where the driveways are long and the houses unlocked, and stealing small articles in order to fund their habits.
Now we lock up and everything and I have a (crude) surveillance system watching the barn and outbuildings (tools are apparently one of the thieves’ favorite targets, easy to pawn and difficult to trace)
I now live on a Caribbean island. When I first moved here my boss, who was also my neighbor, invited me over for dinner. On the way in I noticed one of the several cars in the driveway with keys hanging in the door lock and mentioned it to the group. My boss said it was his car and said, “Where else can I leave my keys where I won’t lose them? After all it is an island. Where would a thief take a car where it cannot be found?”
Still to this day I regularly leave the door not just unlocked but also standing wide open. No point locking up for a run to the grocery or post office. Just be gone an hour or so.
I left my car unlocked at my house for years but then it got “broken” into twice in a year period so now it stays locked and in the garage. I assume it was kids and not Mexican drug cartels but that doesn’t make my stuff any less stolen.
Both times they stole some obsolete Sansa MP3 player that probably has a street value of a nickle and no wires available to connect it to a computer. Hope you guys enjoyed my shitty music until the batteries died, thieves!
At work, I’m out in a rural area and up a long drive so there’s no one out here to take anything.
I’ve been known to leave my house’s back door unlocked when I leave for quick errands. It’s hard to unlock the door when my hands are full of grocery bags.
I guess its a small risk. But the odds of someone testing that door to see if its unlocked is pretty small. I’m usually back in at least 45 minutes.
I never use my house’s front door and its kept locked and dead bolted.
It’s been so long since I’ve locked my house I’ve lost the keys. I leave my car unlocked and the keys in the cup holder. That being said, I have 6 large dogs at home, and not much worth stealing. My first car was a VW convertible Bug, and I’d learned that I’d rather have someone open the door to steal something than slash the rag top.
My neighbor is a paranoid cop. Security system and the whole 9 yards. My lack of security consciousness drives him crazy. So I’d say it varies.
This, more or less. I don’t really leave valuables in the car, and I’d much rather someone steal the maybe $20 worth of crap in my car at any given time than smash a $100+ window.
We quickly got in the habit of leaving everything unlocked when we moved out here to the middle of nowhere. Last year, our neighbor two doors down hired my stepson to feed their animals while they were on a two week vacation. When he asked where the keys would be, the neighbor looked vaguely surprised and said, “Oh, everything’ll be open. I figure if thieves want to get in bad enough, locks won’t do anything.” That’s just how it is out here.
Up in northern New England I rarely have seen locked houses or cars. When my friends were selling their house the realtor had to tell them to finally install the front door locks or the buyers bank might have a problem with it. Car keys are often in the ignition or in the cup holders.
My front door stays locked and bolted, because the dog can open it. I don’t worry with the two back doors, because (a) it would be ridiculously easy to break a pane and unlock either, but (b) few casual intruders are going to hear a German shepherd dog barking and break in. I have taken to locking the truck due to a rash of petty thefts in the area and the patrol car has been gone for the past few weeks.
Most people lock the house and cars. I live near East St. Louis which has a bad crime problem. Heck my car was stolen earlier this year even after I locked it. Some fine individual broke into my locker at the YMCA while I was exercising and took my keys and wallet then the car. The Y just installed stronger locker last month.
We left our house and cars unlocked most of the time for over 20 years. We didn’t know it at the time but some drug addicts lived two doors down when we moved in and we never had a problem. A couple of years ago a large family moved next door. Change started disappearing from our cars and our dog has a strange aversion to a couple of the kids. We lock everything now.
Yep. My kids learned the hard way that you don’t leave any items in your car in the city. Both have had windows smashed for pointless theft.
I’ve had my car stolen twice. I live in the houston area. And my neighbor at one point was a guy called Smiley<drug dealer>. But nice. I got one stolen and one that got the locks popped. I’m in a nicer area, but I DON’T have a nice car. I you steal my car? You need a car.
I don’t lock anything, but some of my neighbors do. One has a relative who can’t be trusted, another is worried about the neighbor with teenagers. I’ve lived here for ten years and there’s been some property damage but no burglaries or break-ins.
Last fall, my husband was sure that a troublesome neighbor kid had come into the garage and stuffed shelled corn into the motorcycle exhaust pipe. He was surprised to learn that squirrels will do this.
In the Bronx, no, we don’t leave the door unlocked. I will occasionally leave the door to the apartment unlocked if I am going somewhere within the building, like down to the lobby to check the mail. This drives my husband crazy.
We have a cabin in a rural area of New York State, and I leave that door unlocked all the time when we are there. Someone might need to come in while we are out running errands. For when we are away, I lock the doors but I wouldn’t be too stressed out if for some reason the door was accidentally left unlocked.
Central London: hell, no. You’re expected to have multiple locks on your doors plus locks on your windows (in a home) or pay extra insurance premiums.
I do have one friend who has a very low-slung kit car with a soft top that they leave unlocked with the door slightly open, the reason being that nobody’s really going to steal such a distinctive and impractical car, but people have previously sliced open the soft top to get at the car stereo.
Locking cars in our neighbourhood is a new thing, which coincided with a change in tenancy in one house. Everyone (cops included) knew who was behind the break-ins, but it took ages for the cops to catch them in the act.
At least they were somewhat polite about it. If you were unlucky enough to have left your wallet in the car, you would find it, minus cash, in the next unlocked car down the street.
I lock my house. Actually we have a front door now that you can’t leave unlocked. Several years ago someone was going into houses near us and assaulting women. I like my locked door and big loud dog. I’m not sure about others, though.
Suburban Chicago. We’re not in a high-crime area, but crime (or, at least, the perceived potential of crime) is present enough that locking up is just prudent.
The doors to our house are always locked when we’re not home. We might leave the back door unlocked during the day, if someone is home (we get to the garage from the back door). We might leave the front door unlocked at certain points (such as when certain friends are due to come over, and we know them well enough that they’re likely to let themselves in), but otherwise, it’s always locked.
I’ll go out for a run at 6 a.m., and, even if my wife is home, but asleep, I’ll lock the front door, and take a key with me.
The cars are always locked up, even when they’re in the garage.
