I Keep My Door Locked. Do You?

Actually worked with someone who had her laundry stollen out of the car when it wasn't locked. She didn't live in a good area and she had just got back from the laundromat and was unloading the car.

There have been thefts from cars in my complex but no windows broken that I'm aware of. One car next to me at work got theirs broken but I didn't. This was at a former job.
 

Never had a problem, but one time, the person decided to jump out the window ,than deal with me, busted the glass, had to repair it.
 
Yes, I lock all doors and set the alarm, day or night. Even the back door to the courtyard where we have a locked fence. Many years ago we had people kicking in front doors in our neighborhood to rob houses. When this happened, we installed a storm door over our front door because we figured burglars would go for the easiest targets first.
 
My doors are always locked & my tall iron gate is always closed unless I'm expecting company.
Of course, intruders can climb over the gate, but if they do, they'll have to stay here for the rest of their lives - which would be around 5 seconds.
 
Yes, always. Our doors lock automatically when we close them, unless we set them to do otherwise.

The only down side to this is that it's very easy to lock yourself out. But everyone has an emergency plan if that happens (leaving an extra key with a neighbor, hiding a key in a secret place, etc.) And if all else fails, our security people have keys to all the condos and can let us in.
 
Nope. My door is unlocked. I live in the sticks, so I'm not on a main road. But the reason is that if I were in trouble, I want EMS to be able to come in without a problem of locks. Unfortunately, I've had to call EMS. My door was unlocked, but EMS was outside looking around for a lock box. I, on the phone, kept telling the dispatcher to tell EMS that the door was open. I could hear the radio on the EMS truck, "he says the door is open", but EMS kept looking for a lockbox. This went on for twenty minutes. In later call to EMS, I made sure they understood that my door was unlocked. The way I look at it is odds are I'm going to need EMS, and I don't want a lock to keep me from getting help. And odds are I'm not going to be attacked in my home by murdering psychopath. At first the open door bothered me, but then, it was just fear. It's what you fear may happen. Think of it this way, where you rather be in WWII at home or at the front? More people died in the US from accidents in the home, and on the roads, than died in combat during WWII.
 
I live in a city. There was never a time I didn't keep my doors locked, except a couple of times when I forgot to lock my apartment door and went to sleep with it unlocked. It wouldn't have been obvious that the door was unlocked, however. Our building requires a special key to enter though and luckily no one tried to get in here.
 
I've always kept the doors locked .. aside from doors, it is windows that you have to ensure are secured!
When my house was broken into, a basement window was accessed through a below-ground window well. It was also a small window. I had a locksmith put a lock on it.
 
I moved into an apartment in Queens, NYC. There is never just one lock on a NYC door. NEVER. I got a locksmith to put on a brand new lock. It has a round key, which he claimed was pick proof. It cost $200. ($1,200 today). On the way out of the building, I saw the locksmith at my friend's front door. He was showing him how easy it was to open the lock . It was the SAME DAMN LOCK HE JUST INSTALLED ON MY DOOR.
 
Years ago, I was dating a woman who lived with her daughters who were 17 year old twins. One evening, we were leaving her house & I started to lock the front door. She said, "Oh, don't bother; we don't lock doors."
I said, "OK, but your daughters are alone in the house."
She said, "That's OK; nothing happens around here."
A couple of months later, a woman on her block was raped & murdered in her home. I said, "I hope you're locking doors, now."
She said, "Nah, if they want me, they can have me."
I was tempted to say, "Can they have your daughters, too?" but I figured, "Why bother......"
 
My doors are unlocked if I'm outside doing work because I'm usually going in and out. Sometimes I have to leave my garage door up because I'm dragging yard tools in and out. Otherwise they're always locked day and night.

Years ago there was a knock at my door. The woman said she was lost and asked me for directions. (This was before cell phones.) I opened the inside door but had neglected to lock my storm door. Before I could even reply she had opened my storm door and was trying to come in. I stopped her and locked the door. Then told her where to go, lol. She was an older woman but what if it had been someone I couldn't stop?

If I'm in the kitchen I can usually see someone pulling into my driveway. So I'm not surprised. Once in a while someone will knock at my door offering services like repaving my driveway. Then once in a very blue moon I get a couple of Jehovah Witnesses. I never answer the door. Although years ago I once made the mistake of opening the door without thinking. There they stood, smiling 😇, brochures in hand asking to come in "for a minute". I just told them to save their breath because I was way past being saved. 😈 No hope for me, lol! When in doubt I ask through the door or through an upstairs screened in window or just don't respond. Thank God it doesn't happen often. If someone should be too persistent or aggressive I have no qualms about threatening to call the police or shoot them.

The truth is breaking in isn't that difficult. I've broken into my own house! A hundred years ago, one morning, when I was leaving for work I forgot my car keys and, of course, my house key is on the same ring as my car key. So I was locked out of my house. Not one of my finer moments, lol. 🥴 My husband was already at work which was over an hour away from home and no one else had a key to our house. (There still isn't anyone I'd give a key!) So I broke a garage door window in a lower corner and was able to reach in and raise the door so I could get into my house. After that my husband hid a key outside just in case one of us should need it. Since then I've used that hidden key twice, lol.

Ruby ✌️
 
We live in a relatively small community with low walls at the entrance. There are no gates. There is a nice house right at the entrance behind one of the walls. It was for sale when we first moved here but we thought it was too "exposed". A month ago the couple came home from shopping and left their car in the driveway. Thieves went into their car and stole everything while they were in their house. :(

Our house is at a 3-way stop sign so everyone is always stopping in front of it. I have to be careful backing out of the driveway but I prefer it to living somewhere with easy access to thieves. These days I've even closed the garage door when I'm unloading groceries. Sad that we have to live this way.
 
Speaking of weirdos who knock on your door, I have had a couple do that prior to my installation of the security system. One was a youngish girl who said her car was out of gas and wanted to use my phone to call her father. I didn't see her car and she said it about half way up the block. I told her there were gas stations within walking distance but she said she was not from here and did not know where to go. I didn't allow her inside but told her I would let her have what gas was in my gas can for the lawn mower. She refused and said she would just walk to a gas station. I watched and she walked to a car up the street, got in and drove away. Hummmmm? But the scariest one was a young man who banged on my door about 10:00 pm. I looked out the window and he kept glancing around and had a frantic look on his face. He said he needed help and wanted to use my phone. I told him I would call 911 for him and he turned and ran off down the street. I didn't unlock the door in either instance as I felt sure their purpose was to get inside the house.
 
Yes we do. We live in a densly populated urban french slum. We are in an apartment building with every type of family and persons including heavy rave partiers, families with young children, students, elderly people and immigrants, like ourselves. Some of the drug types don't work anjust stay home sleeping days and prowl at night coming and going at all hours. There have been stabbings and many fights, protests and all night rave parties in the street here and in the buildings nearby. I would have to be insane to not lock my doors night and day!

Having said that I love this apartment with its ceiling floral plaster reliefs, its large high windows, wooden floors, very high walls old paneled wood doors and the iron balconies. Prolly won't be moving away for a few years.We learned to deal with it somehow or other and can't see anything better for the price we are paying in rent.

To each his/her own. Keep safe if you can! From what I see in the news, no one is safe even the innocent and elderly, from getting murdered these days regardless of your neighborhood and status.

We have a bolt which clanks three times as the key turns it into the door and a second bold that clanks twice. My neighbor has three bolt locks that clank so loudly I always know whenever she is going out or returning. LOL 😆
 
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Our doors stay locked so if someone gets in they know up front that they are uninvited and are taking their lives in their own hands.......ammo nowadays is expensive so I don't fire warning shots.
 
Crime Prevention and Safety Tips - 4 links...

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Crime Prevention and Safety Tips

From the New York City Police Department


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PERSONAL SAFETY TIPS FOR OLDER ADULTS

From the Escondido, CA Police Department

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Personal Safety Tips

Put together by the UCLA police department


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8 Safety Tips for Women, from a Woman Cop​


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I haven't locked the doors to my various homes in 25 years, until I moved to town about a year ago. Now I do. Before I either lived rural or (at the time) in a town that had virtually no crime, so it wasn't an issue.
 
During the day if I am home, I usually do not keep my doors locked. Now if my wife is alone during the day I do recommend that she lock the doors. At night and when we are away the doors are always locked.
 
I live in a secure apt. Bldg. You have to buzz me to be let in. Most of the time my doors are locked unless I am taking the garbage out or doing laundry.
 
ms gamboolgal and I keep our Doors locked. We always have.

Here is a link to a response we made for a similar question awhile back.

There is lots of Home Invasions in "Nice" neighborhoods. All one has to do is spend afew minutes doing a Google Search....

gamboolman said:
I grew up in East Texas and we never locked the doors and left keys in the vehicles.

However, when I left home to go to work in the Oilfields all that changed.

ms gamboolgal and I have always kept our vehicles and the house locked up.
We installed Zombie/Burglar Bars years ago.
Anybody breaking in will need some tools and make a helluva racket - it will give us plenty of time to prepare to hold a Prayer Meeting with the Pilgrims.....

No one wakes up and plans to be a victim of a crime that day..... There is some sick people in the world today.
Click to expand...
 
All locked all the time. I even lock the front door when I walk up to get the mail (the boxes are way up by the front gate). I keep the backdoor open during the day but the screen stays closed and locked.

I've said it before, this apartment complex is in a high-crime area. Plus, there are a few neighbors I don't trust at all. Some are young kids that I've caught looking through my windows at Paxton's toys. (Yeah, his toys are still here - cool, easy-to-spot stuff, like his race-track and drum set - all right where it was when he left 😔)
 
gamboolman said:
ms gamboolgal and I keep our Doors locked. We always have.

Here is a link to a response we made for a similar question awhile back.

There is lots of Home Invasions in "Nice" neighborhoods. All one has to do is spend afew minutes doing a Google Search....
Click to expand...
There sure are. The house next door to me is owned by an NBA star. He was renting it to an elderly couple. Two guys in a new BMW broke in.
They robbed & beat the couple. Both were hospitalized. The house was sold & a security gate was built in front.
 

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