Do you leave your doors unlocked?

noubliezjamais · 23-07-2019 6:14pm #1

Despite being told by statisticians that the world is safer in 2019 than it was 30-40yrs ago, less people leave their doors unlocked today. There are also more burglaries.

So I wonder, what's the truth? Do you leave your doors unlocked when going to Tesco or for work? Even in good areas?

branie2 · 23-07-2019 6:16pm

Only if I'm in the house

Zaph · 23-07-2019 6:17pm

Even if I lived in a gated community in the safest part of the country, there's no way I'd leave my doors unlocked when I'm going out. If some little scrote wants to take advantage of my absence, I'm not going to make it any easier for him than needs be.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 23-07-2019 6:17pm

Not if we're going away. Then again people never did that in the past either. They'll be unlocked all day if we're here but that's about it.
We're very rural but you'd have to be in the absolute back end of nowhere to leave a house unoccupied and unlocked, and to have nothing worth stealing or wrecking.

Edgware · 23-07-2019 6:18pm

I do. And I leave my Rottweiler untied to roam from room to room

freshpopcorn · 23-07-2019 6:20pm

We've a yale lock so the front door is nearly always locked.

biko · 23-07-2019 6:22pm

I live in a fairly nice area but we keep doors locked even when home, it's just routine.
If I lived miles from anyone then yeah I'd leave stuff unlocked - my only worry is opportunistic thieves.

mad muffin · 23-07-2019 6:26pm

always locked. Always.

tuxy · 23-07-2019 6:28pm

I have an older car with no central locking, I don't lock the car, too much effort.
Nothing stolen yet after 5 years of this.

anacc · 23-07-2019 6:30pm

Only during the day if there’s someone there. If we’re out or it’s night time they’re definitely locked.

23-07-2019 6:33pm

I was down with a farming relative recently and she told me how not only is the house left unlocked all day but the car keys are just left in the ignition all day as, well, there's no point in taking them out.

Except that the week before I called into her an elderly farming neighbour dropped in to see her husband and she was thinking he was getting a bit doddery as he barely said hello to her. Anyway, he went home a couple of hours later and before she went to the leaba she remembered she left something in her car so went out to get it.

No sign of her car in her yard at all, but your man left his car sitting there. hehe. Off with her the next day in his car (he, too, left his keys in his ignition) to his farm and she had great difficulty convincing him that she wanted to take her own car back and wasn't trying to steal his car!

Larbre34 · 23-07-2019 6:34pm

Well you'd be pure stupid to, it invalidates insurance if you do get burgled.

smurfjed · 23-07-2019 6:36pm

I usually dont lock my front door or even my car doors at home, no need

SEPT 23 1989 · 23-07-2019 6:38pm

only lock up if there is nobody in the house

Cee-Jay-Cee · 23-07-2019 6:54pm

We lock up when we’re going away but the back door is always open from first thing in morning to last thing at night. We use back door all the time.

Arghus · 23-07-2019 6:55pm

I don't understand people who leave their front door unlocked, it takes next to no effort.

SEPT 23 1989 · 23-07-2019 7:03pm

Arghus wrote: »

I don't understand people who leave their front door unlocked, it takes next to no effort.

unless you were elderly why would you lock your front door if you were in the house?

scamalert · 23-07-2019 7:09pm

neighbors have cars, house doors always unlocked, prob because theres 5 kids, but they had like 10 brake ins into his van and car, so fck no always lockup even if inside, escapes me how some can be reckless to leave cars or doors open and then surprised they got robbed.

blackbox · 23-07-2019 7:14pm

When I was a kid in the '60s we only locked the house when unoccupied and when going to bed. We still do the same.
I always make a point of locking my car if there are kids around (for safety reasons.)

Arghus · 23-07-2019 7:25pm

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

unless you were elderly why would you lock your front door if you were in the house?

I've lived in houses/flats where if you were upstairs or even in another room out the back of the house you wouldn't necessarily hear it if someone was downstairs or even in one of the front rooms, especially if you had the tv/music on. So rather than not being able to hear if someone was in the house I would just lock the door.

Not to get too tinfoil hatty on it but I know of people who've had opportunistic thieves take things from their front rooms while they were in another room in the house, so I'd rather just err on the side of caution. Now, maybe I'd feel a lot more macho if I didn't, but my ego will take the hit.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 23-07-2019 7:26pm

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

unless you were elderly why would you lock your front door if you were in the house?

Even elderly don't always need doors locked. It's handy for ourselves coming and going about the garden/house, or family or neighbours calling in. It depends on where you live but many don't need to keep doors locked all the time

mloc123 · 23-07-2019 7:27pm

Front door always locked. I have little doubt that some of the door to door leaflet droppers are mainly using it as an opportunity to check for unlocked doors.

When I am upstairs or out back anyone could be in and out in 20-30 seconds with a handful of stuff.

Feisar · 23-07-2019 7:30pm

I lock up the house when I leave and when we are there. When I'm not there, because I don't want some scrote having it handy and when I'm there as I don't want to open someone up like Christmas and then have to deal with the courts.

Strumms · 23-07-2019 7:31pm

Doors always locked, pointless inviting trouble. Leave the small windows upstairs open if I’m out to allow air to circulate in the summer.

23-07-2019 7:32pm

The front door of the house has a nightlatch, so it locks automatically when you close the dooor. I never lock the kitchen door, unless I'm out.

Growing up, there was no key to the kitchen door of our house. It literally couldn't be locked, but then we were on a farm, and there was almost always someone around.
Except 11am on a Christmas day several years ago, when we were all out. The house was burgled, but the idiots broke a window to gain entry.

SaltSweatSugar · 23-07-2019 7:36pm

Not a chance. I don’t trust people. I’ve heard too many stories of people being in the house with the doors unlocked only to find some scrote or randomer who decided to wander in.

wakka12 · 23-07-2019 7:40pm

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

unless you were elderly why would you lock your front door if you were in the house?

In case somebody tries to rob something?My mothers handbag was robbed from the entrance hall just beside the door. Somebody quietly opened the door and nicked it in two seconds flat, she was just cooking down in the kitchen and didnt notice until hours late. Obviously went around to all the doors in the area checking them. We live in an extremely safe suburb of dublin

Anyone who calls over will of course ring and not just walk right in so I dont see what the point is at all. It takes absolutely no effort and youre just asking for trouble, no matter how small the chances of it happening may be

BeerWolf · 23-07-2019 7:40pm

Locked when no one's in the house, or when no one's hanging around by the entrance/kitchen.

There's a small buffer hallway between the entrance and kitchen... so someone can't just enter the house unnoticed that way.

fineso.mom · 23-07-2019 8:01pm

Lost my front door key a month ago, keep forgetting to buy a new lock . I live near family and their houses are much nicer than mine so I reckon they would be robbed first. Even when I had the key and locked the door,more often than not theres a window open somewhere.
Its careless I know but my house is not really visible from the road so only my friends,family,neibhbours and postman know where I am..and they know I've nothing worth robbing.

punisher5112 · 23-07-2019 8:02pm

What a great thread to start to find all the open houses....

Boom and your house is gone

23-07-2019 8:04pm

punisher5112 wrote: »

What a great thread to start to find all the open houses....

Boom and your house is gone

Aha! See that's where you're wrong.

I don't really lock my kitchen door when I'm out, I just said that so nobody who knows where I live would try to burgle me.

Suckers!

Do you leave your doors unlocked?

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