Do you lock your door when you are at home ?

[starrynight19]

Never thought about this but we never lock the door other than when we go to bed.
Talking to friends it seems that this is quite unusual , is it ?

Both always locked unless going in and out. Front going into cul de sac- were at end. Back onto open field. Would still lock as such wherever we lived

My friend had a burglary when there were two people in the house. They walked along the street trying doors and whether found my friend's unlocked they walked straight in.
We were victims of an attempted distraction burglary. We changed the locks (which we hadn't done when we moved) and keep the doors locked.
Suppose it depends where you live.

Yes! Front door opens straight on to the street and the one time we forgot a drunk lady was half way up the stairs to bed before we knew what was happening!

Yes, we’d spot opportunists before they spotted us. We know most cars that pass through the village and questions unknown cars.
Most of us have security lights (not so much for security but to stop us falling down mole holes as we have very little light pollution). Darkness puts lots of people off - we have proper darkness; no streetlights, no communal buildings lit, little traffic, houses very spread out so no light from neighbours houses. Most villagers have CCTV and alarms too.
We get people passing the end of the drives but they’re usually ramblers or lost.

Anyone intent on ill deeds near here would have to have planned it. We’re probably the least vulnerable house in the village as we’re younger than most, less predictable habits than most, have several cars in the drive and more people coming and going. I don’t think a lock is necessarily going to stop someone who had driven ten miles to break in. The dog might though.
The dog has very good guarding behaviour and is very big and very loud. Impossible to get within 100 yards without him looking out the window just in case he might need to show off his aggressive look.

I live in a safe neighborhood, but I always lock my doors when I am at home. As a single woman, living alone, (no noisy dogs, either) I don't want to take the chance. Also, I watch the Investigation Discovery (true crime channel) way, way too much, which probably affects my outlook. One of the most horrific cases that I have ever watched was in a very well to do neighborhood where the family had left their front door unlocked during the day....

Front always locked.
Back unlocked if I'm back and fore the garden, of an evening when I stop going to the shed its locked.

It's safe here, but I'm not taking chances.

My big fear is someone taking the dog so if by locking my doors possible theives move onto somewhere easier then I'm locking up and keeping my boy safe.

We don't lock up until we go to bed, but if only one of us is in, we lock up if we go upstairs.

I wish people would stop saying it invalidates the insurance on these threads. It doesn’t

Back doors always locked unless being used to access the garden.
Front door has a lock that automatically locks on closing; then at night I lock it with a key so it couldn’t be turned should

[ach, headbutted by cat, hence premature post!]

Anyway, yes, I’ve glass panels in front door (not of my choosing) & should someone try entering by removing glass & turning lock they’d find it immovable - & that’s without factoring in the mortice lock. Mortice lock also goes on when nobody home.

When I went up to university I was amazed people needed telling to lock their rooms when they left them not simply because the idea of leaving your home unlocked was such an alien concept but also because it seemed obvious we’d be targeted by opportunist thieves. Fact repeated reminders needed issuing was even more baffling, mind you...

I always lock my door even if someone's visiting us I lock it, if we're going out it's locked, my worst fear is someone breaking in and hiding to do us harm. It only takes a few minutes for someone to slip in through an open door fuck that shit

Yes because otherwise autistic daughter age 11, will run out sometimes in a state of undress and shout inappropriate things out , run off or go in other peoples houses.

I do when home alone, especially if I'm not getting up early. Now that sounds weird, as if I get up to lock myself in and then go to sleep.
What I do is lock before going to bed and ask husband, if he's going out for the day to work, to lock me in. He goes off very early and sometimes I wake up with him, when he's gone I do lock myself & go back to bed.

Yes.
We live in a rather deprived, rural area in France and people from one community use it as a training ground to teach their children to burgle, before they send them to more affluent areas. They open the door and snatch whatever they can in about 30 seconds (usually handbags, car keys, phones / tablets...).

I was playing the DCs in the front room one day when a 10 year old opened the door. When he saw us he snarled and ran away.
The police told us it happens all the time.

Have never locked mine - I live in one of the lowest crime area in the UK though in the country.

My parents have never locked theirs either and had no problems (they live near Stoke so not as low crime as me but also semi rural).

In the summer we leave our doors (front included) wide open quite often if we're downstairs as it gets a nice breeze flowing through the house and the cats love it.

Never had any issues (and have no plans to change)....but, again, we live in a village in one of the lowest crime areas and off the beaten path so no-one ever walks or drives past our house unless you're already planning to see us or one of our neighbours.

...and yes, I realise 'low crime' doesn't = 'no crime'.

I'm not very risk averse, I can't get onboard with living life worrying and taking actions to avoid reasonably unlikely events. I like taking a more laid back approach and think people worry too much about lots of things that, yes, do happen but the probability is relatively low.

Back door always locked. Front door usually open in summer as the dog likes to sit on the step and look out onto his garden (garden/door can't be seen from the road). It gets closed and locked if the dog gets bored or I go upstairs.

Every evening, the doors are locked and I also lock my garden gates (huge 6ft wooden things). Probably unnecessary but it makes me feel safe.

My mum has hers locked all the time to because years ago a random man walked in and sat on our sofa and started talking to us as kids. We didn't even tell our mum that he had walked in we just started talking to him

If you lock the door, do you leave your keys in? Or have them somewhere close at least in case of fire?

Yes. Burgled twice, once when in and once when out (middle of day).

Yes. We live in a very low crime area but even so.

Front door is self locking.

Back door isn’t but is only unlocked if someone is walking through it.

Keys are within easy reach of occupants but not accessible by letterbox ‘fishing’ or smashing windows etc and aren’t visible from outside.

@QuestionableMouse our door doesn't need keys to open from the inside, so no concerns re. fire risk.

Never used to until a policeman walked into the house one afternoon and scared the crap out of me! They'd had a spate of opportunistic daytime burglaries in the area, mostly things like handbags from bannisters, car keys from hall tables etc., so they were going round the streets testing people's front doors and warning anyone with an unlocked door to start locking up. I only have mine unlocked now for a few minutes at around 3.30 when DS is due home from school.