I don’t always lock them.
I’m astounded that people think this is CRAZY. I’m sure that there are prowlers that will try a door, and go in if your house is unlocked, but be dissuaded if it’s locked, but people act like they’re everywhere. Just waiting by your house to try the door every time you step out. I’ve never had a break-in, or even signs of an attempted entry, and I’ve lived in Baltimore for 10 years.
I am amazed on the other hand, that people don’t lock their doors. Yeah, most of the time it’s perfectly safe - until it isn’t of course. I am slightly obsessive about locking my doors, and yeah, it’s locked when I’m in the house, too. I actually don’t like this one facet of the new apartment I’m in - the door doesn’t lock automatically. I’d rather run the risk of being locked out than running the risk of forgetting to lock the door and get stolen from.
I live in the suburbs between Cleveland and Akron. I never lock my doors.
Since I moved out of my parents’ house I have absolutely nothing of value. My work computer has nothing valuable on it that isn’t stored off-site. While I love my hand-built entertainment computer, it wouldn’t kill me if I lost it. The only thing I have of monetary value is my iPod Mini. Seriously. That cost $250, and most of the time it’s in my car with me.
Occasionally if I am leaving and the dog is not coming with me, I lock up. I would never EVER get over the loss of my dog. But most of the time she is not home when I’m not home (her “grandparents” live 2 seconds away and can’t get enough of her).
I live in the same neighborhood where I grew up. There have not been many burglaries around here - except once. My parents’ house. They did have (and lost) things of value, and the house was locked up tight. Thus, I’m not convinced that leaving my doors unlocked is going to save me any trauma if someone really wanted to break in. If they want to steal my washer and dryer, or the furnace (the most expensive-to-use item in the house) well god bless 'em.
I always keep everything locked. There are some pretty bad areas near where I live and I frankly don’t want to tempt fate.
Locked. If someone has to break into the house while I’m home than the noise is an early warning system.
The only time anyone locks their doors around here is during zucchini season.
When we bought our current house we got to the part of the closing where the sellers are supposed to turn over the keys to the house and they just shrugged. They told us that the key to the front door was probably in the lock inside the house. I installed a new door at the back of the house a few months ago and I don’t know what I did with the keys.
We live so far out that no one would hear someone breaking in anyway, so it seems kind of pointless to me. Besides we have a dog and guard turkeys* to protect the place.
*I don’t think the turkeys would actually attack anyone, but they do tend to run up and puff themselves out and strut at strangers. A burglar inexperienced with poultry might be frightened.
As a child I woke up in the in the middle to find someone in my room, because my parents hadn’t locked the door. This was despite living in a nice area.
My apartment is locked even when I’m in it. And you need to have a fob to get into the building, and there’s another set of gates before you get to the door. But they’re usually open. Oh, and my apartment is alarmed. There’s also a security camera in the lobby.
Paronoid? Me?
Here in rural Minnesota, I do the same thing. I don’t know what kind of weird stuff you have going on down there in Iowa, but here the doors must be locked to keep out zombies, not vampires.
I can’t imagine leaving the door unlocked.
If I’m out. Locked doors.
If I’m home. Unlocked doors (those that I unlocked to enter the building anyway).
Car is unlocked at home, locked everywhere else.
I live in a pretty quiet, low crime burb of Chicago.
Doors are pretty much unlocked during the day if someone is home, tho if I think of it and am working (or napping) in the back yard I will try to lock the front doors.
Try to make a circuit and lock up before going to sleep, but have been known to miss one or another door. Often leave the front unlocked if a kid is out late, and sometimes they forget to lock it.
Even if someone gets locked out, we have one of those touchpad things on the garage opener, and never lock the door between the attached garage and house.
often will not lock up if running to a local store and back.
Growing up in rural Indiana, we never locked our doors.
Now, living in rural Indiana again, the same place as I grew up, we DO lock our doors. We would hate to come home and find that someone stole our computers or other stuff like that.
I even lock the doors when we’re home! That is only because of neighbors that just ‘walk in, without even so much as a knock first,’ to chat or whatnot. I adore our neighbors, but I do NOT like them being able to just walk through the door anytime they want to.
So, yeah, now we keep our doors locked all the time, home or not!
I live in East L.A. and I only lock the doors to my house when I’m going out of town. I have never locked the doors in any house I’ve lived in. I actually don’t even carry keys to my current house. Of course, I own almost nothing of any resale value, and I have a very friendly but intimidating dog.
I used to leave my car doors unlocked all the time (until I got a car that somebody might actually want to steal). I never leave anything valueable in my car anyway. The ONE time I locked my car doors (in my old car) somebody smashed the window and stole a backpack full of library books.
Many people in this apartment complex in Southern California do not lock their doors. If I find my upstairs neighbor’s mail in my mailbox, I will walk into his apartment to put the mail on his dinning room table. The door to their apartment is constantly open except when they are gone on vacation.
For the past two years that I’ve lived at this apartment, the doors were constantly unlocked. We left our front door wide open while we were home or nearby. My new roommates insist on locking the doors all the time, even while they are there, and it drives me crazy. At my parents house in the suburb of Cincinnati, the doors are only locked when everyone is out of the house and at night time.
Wow, a lot of people just live in a happy crime-free fantasy world! And get away with it for years…
Back when we left our house and detached garage unlocked for 10 years, the only problem we had was my toolbox got stolen. I think it was a punk kid from up the street.
I grew up in a high-crime area. We locked everything all the time. I remember one occasion when someone tried the front door, when we were at home (it was locked of course) then tried to act all casual as he walked double-time down the street. Two cars were broken into right in front of our house, radios and other stuff stolen. Someone broke a window trying to get into our place once while we were out and must have made enough noise to get freaked out and leave before actually breaking in.
We had dowels in all the windows and locks on all the doors, including a deadbolt on the entry from the house to the garage because side doors entering into a garage are usually concealed from the street and much less robust than a typical front door. Almost everything was locked except for coming in or out, or when we were actually doing things around the outside of the house. There was very little doubt that we needed those precautions.
It takes little effort and responsibility to consistently use locks and the benefits are easy to see. You people living out in the country are actually more at risk than people in the city because of the neighbor factor that deterred one of our would-be thieves. I once read a book on home security written by a former crook. He said that houses just outside the suburbs were some of his favorite targets because people would often leave their doors unlocked due to a false sense of security, and they tend to be a little more affluent than urban dwellers’ homes.
He also pointed out that a lock will stop casual thieves, those like my door-jiggling friend mentioned above, who was just looking for an unlocked door. According to the author having a good lock on the door and using it, and having decently secure windows that are shut when not at home, are worth more than pretty much any electronic security system, and they cost a tiny fraction of what a security system does.
Nothing will keep out a determined or skilled burglar, but simple precautions will keep out the casual ones who are responsible for the majority of this kind of household crime. Let’s face it, a professional is looking for a much richer score than your average house. You’re keeping out people who are more random and therefore more dangerous than someone who’s looking for maximum gain for minimal risk.
I look at locks the same way as I look at seatbelts. I’ve never been in a bad accident. The worst one was at about 15 miles an hour. A seatbelt would have done nothing any of the times I’ve been in accidents. I could easily conclude that seatbelts are useless. On the other hand, I have several friends who have worked as paramedics. They all said they’ve never cut a corpse out of a seatbelt; the victim was always alive when they got there.
I wear my seatbelt. It costs me a second of my time, almost no thought, and might just save my life someday.
We usually lock up. If I’m taking my wife to the train, a 15min roundtrip, I might not lock the back door. The front door is always locked, it locks when it closes. Cars are always locked. For a while our basement door didn’t lock at all, but that was eventually fixed when we replaced it.
When the police around here talk about theft issues, they always point out that the vast majority occur when people don’t lock up. Sure the skilled and determined thief won’t be stopped by a locked door. Most people who are thieves aren’t skilled or determined, they take things when the opportunity presents itself.
And some people live in a fearful fantasy world where crime lurks in every shadow, even after years of experience tells them they don’t have to.
OF COURSE I lock my doors! I’ve lived in some dicey neighborhoods in Houston, but my current pretty-good neighborhood is not totally crime free.
Someone broke into my house a few years ago–there’d been a problem with the back-door lock. Lost a cheap TV & a cheap VCR. They left the Beta(!) & left my jewelry in a pile on the bed; obviously disgusted at the lack of gold & precious stones. (They also took a huge jar of pennies.) Not exactly pros.
One thing I wonder–why are so many doors left unlocked in Sunnydale?
Growing up in rural Colorado, we rarely locked the doors.
In the San Francisco Bay area for college and thereafter, doors were always locked when we were out and sometimes when we were home. The last ten years we were there, doors and cars were locked at night and when we were out, we had a security gate at the end of the driveway, fence all the way around the house, and an alarm system.
When we bought the ranch in Montana we went back to rarely (if ever) locking the doors. The keys were always in the tractor and ATV. The cars were always unlocked in the driveway or garage.
In our new house closer to town…we’ll see.
Never in my life have I locked the doors when I was home, except in California at night when I was asleep.