Delivery driver leaving rat poison in my hallway

The part where is says if they don't have to force entry...

Lock your door. Simples.

I completely disagree about people getting in whether the door is locked or not. Standard modus operandi is to walk along the road trying door handles or car doors, looking for houses or cars that are easy to break into without smashing stuff. Any barrier you can put between the pavement and the inside of your house will deter an intruder. There have been documentaries about this from ex cons. Our front gate is horribly squeaky and makes the neighbours dogs bark, but I won’t be oiling it because in my view it’s another barrier. Why make life easy for criminals? Just lock your damn door when you shut it, takes a second.

Exactly.

I remember in this temp job I worked in Liverpool, this young man called in saying he would be late as he had an emergency.

When he finally arrived he told us a random man had been trying doors on his street and had opened his door. Him and his flatmate had been tussling with him to get him out or restrain him until the police came.

I think he was high on drugs and was determined to leave with a tv or whatever. This was in Liverpool but it could happen anywhere.

It’s not about it being your fault if something bad happens to you OP, it’s just good advice for the world we live in.

I mean surely the aim should be to prevent harm to yourself in the first place whether you will get “blamed” or not.

It’s not so hard or onerous to lock your door so why not do this basic safety precaution instead of taking an unnecessary risk?

Unlocked front door house here and when my children were young we used to have the front door open most of the time with no issues at all.

I grew up in a house where the doors were never locked and my siblings do the same still too. Now I think about it my children will probably do the same when they have their own homes as theyd wonder what was wrong if they came home and the door was locked it someone was in the house

Not every child automatically makes an escape bid because they can.

I think it’s just common sense really. I don’t leave my door unlocked although as someone who lives on the top floor of a flat that has security doors in the building, it’s less likely a burglar would target my apartment.

In terms of my windows, well as I’m on the top floor it’s unlikely someone could get in through that but I tend to be in the room where my windows are open.

That said of course he’s out of order to have opened your door to drop the package. Hopefully it’s a wake up call to you though - lock your door.

I used to flat share with a woman who didn’t, she was from a small Swedish town and said she didn’t bother about locking doors. I was like well this is Croydon and we are a ground level flat - lock the fucking door!

Disingenuous title.

So many similar threads, I can't imagine why one wouldn't keep their door locked.

And for those on about house insurance:

https://www.ageco.co.uk/useful-articles/home/10-actions-you-might-not-realise-will-invalidate-your-home-insurance/

https://www.purelyshutters.co.uk/blog/six-ways-can-inadvertently-invalidate-your-home-insurance/

https://www.confused.com/home-insurance/guides/what-can-invalidate-house-insurance

https://www.aviva.com/newsroom/news-releases/2024/05/10-ways-people-could-accidentally-invalidate-home-cover/

All of these say if a burglar doesn't have to force their way in your insurance may be invalid (2 of them do mention when out but they still say if they can just enter as well)

There's no need to be snarky

It absolutely would be your fault if you left the door unlocked and something happened to you

Axe murderers and rapists are extreme but it's a well known tactic of thieves to try door handles and enter unlocked houses

You didn't even check it was your husband so your argument is invalid. It could gave been an opportunistic burglar who had slipped in and stolen from you who'd called out first just to see if it was safe!

You are not understanding. You should not be buying rat poison at all. Other animals eat the rats you are poisoning and die as a result. Not just about your pup and the parcel.

Seriously how is knocking different from trying the handle?

YABU for buying rat poison. You are worried about your pup eating it but do you know how many other animals die from eating rats who have ingested rat poison? Cats, owls etc … ?

Where we live, rat poison has very quickly seen itself on the list of things not to do.

Great so he did what he thought was a favour and now you may have lost him his job. You ordered poison, presumably knew it was being delivered at some point, you heard a male voice in your hallway (you don't say what the voice said) which apparently you didn't recognise from your own husbands and didn't check and now you cap it off with a snarky remark about victim blaming. For the love of god just grow up, lock your door then no one can just walk through it.

You know that telling your insurance company live in a low crime rate area won't make them pay out if an opportunist walked through your unlocked door and helped themselves and someone intent on bludgeoning you to death won't stop if you comment on how rude it was of them not to knock. Mitigating risk is not the same as being to blame for someone else's behaviour.

Wow - so he knew you were in, or at least your house was unlocked and was doing something nice for you (leaving your packages in a secure location) and you reported him.

Why was it such a big deal to you? He didnt let the dog out, he didnt take your child, he dropped off some packages

The delivery person shouldn't have opened your door. But you shouldn't have left your door unlocked. Be glad it was a parcel and not a burglar.

I completely disagree about people getting in whether the door is locked or not. Standard modus operandi is to walk along the road trying door handles or car doors, looking for houses or cars that are easy to break into without smashing stuff. Any barrier you can put between the pavement and the inside of your house will deter an intruder. There have been documentaries about this from ex cons. Our front gate is horribly squeaky and makes the neighbours dogs bark, but I won’t be oiling it because in my view it’s another barrier. Why make life easy for criminals? Just lock your damn door when you shut it, takes a second.

Once again I do not think he should’ve let himself into your house but they’re on a peanuts wage with strict targets for delivery so they’re desperate to tick your parcel off their list. So no, I would not report him.

Agree - I was horrified..... then read OP meant it was in a package!

I do not understand the people on these threads who say it's fine for people to let themselves into your house! Amazon have done it to me twice and it has pissed me off. Not enough to complain about it, but enough to have an internal whinge! Locking your door is irrelevant to the subject.

I don't think it's alright the delivery driver opened your front door without your permission. However please learn from this and lock your door, that could have been someone nasty opening your door who could have seriously harmed you. Its not a safe world sadly. The driver wasn't to know it was rat poison so he didn't leave poison in your hallway deliberately for someone or puppy to be harmed.