Teens left the back door wide open all night!

[TheDoorsOpen]

Came down at 8am to find the dog was in the living room with the light on and door not shut, she's always locked in the room.

Thought it was unusually cold downstairs and go to the kitchen to find the back door wide open!

Ran upstairs to check my younger 2 were in bed, they're high-school age but still panicked.

DH had locked up at about 10pm, took dog out, put her to bed.

The teens (17 and 19) are up and down all night and I suspect let the dog out again.

I'm absolutely livid. We live in a densely populated terraced street. We could easily have been robbed or bloody murdered in our beds (a little dramatic, I know)

How the fuck do you just wander off to bed in the middle of the night without shutting the door??

I'm seriously pissed off at them and both are denying it was them.

I have chronic anxiety/OCD and I can just see this is going to be my new thing to lay in bed worrying about now.

The 19 yo is an adult, so they can move out then since people insist you can't tell them what they can't do in your house.

Accidents happen but it wasn't an accident, they aren't little kids and they deliberately unlocked the door in the first place, left lights on and effed off to bed without giving a toss. It wasn't a case of in a rush going out to work or got distracted by the 1000 things that come with running a household. They've lived in the house long enough to know the routine.

Get a camera downstairs @TheDoorsOpen so you have the security of knowing the door remains locked at night.

This thread is weird. Your OCD has nothing to do with this. Leaving the door not just unlocked by wide open is a huge thing especially if you’ve been burgled twice this year!

I'd be fuming too OP. Barely a day goes by where there isn't a post on my local FB group alongside ring video footage of people trying doors and sheds. The fact neither will own up is annoying too. But you just need to drill it into them and move on

I would be so annoyed!

Some people have never lived in an area with high crime rates.

FWIW most break ins happen during the day when people are at work.

I would hope that someone would see the open door and assume someone is wide awake.

It would still really annoy me though!

I’d be really concerned about the dog not being shut away and potentially escaping.

You are not over reacting.
It’s common sense to shut the door before you go to bed.

What’s done is done though and you need to now let it go because they’ll know not to do it again now.

Have you woken them and spoken to them yet? I'd be tempted to hide some expensive possessions of theirs or that they use and pretend you'd been burgled. E.g. PlayStation TV etc.

You can tell the people who live in the countryside and haven't ever been burgled in this thread 🙄

We have a Simplisafe alarm system, it wasn't super expensive and easy to set up yourself. Just stick a door sensor on the back door (and the windows because they probably leave those open too from time to time) and you'll be notified if it's opened or left open if you have it on the right mode. You could even set the alarm so they set it off and you can get up and make sure everything is locked up if you're super paranoid (although obviously that would wake others up too).

I sleep so much better now I can check what's going on on my phone whether it's inside or outside my house. If I hear a random creaky noise in the night I can physically see it's our dog wandering without having to leave my bed.

It happens - I've left keys in the front door multiple times and once overnight (and had them handed to me by the postman/ delivery driver/ neighbour). Left car keys in car with the car door unlocked/open.

Not ideal but it's a mistake that hopefully won't happen again. No harm was done. Tell them off and move on.

If you knew what it was like to wake up and find your house had been burgled while you slept, you'd probably not be so blasé about it.

When I was still living at home, my mum came home from a night out and forgot to lock the front door behind her - my dad and I were fast asleep upstairs.My dad woke up the next morning to find his expensive laptop, her handbag (plus all the contents) stolen and their car gone off the drive. This wasn't a dangerous area this was a safe "chocolate box" type town in a tourist area of the Lakes.

Knowing someone has been snooping in your house while you're asleep upstairs is the most horrendous feeling. You feel utterly violated.

@TheDoorsOpen You're right. Most people think that ocd is just obsessively cleaning and lining up tins. Mumsnet is full of people who won't answer their door, but you're supposed to be fine with yours being left wide open overnight

Mine left the front door open all night once. I feel your pain. !

Did you miss the bit where they've already been burgled this year? No wonder OP is pissed off.

If they 100% would walk in if the door was left open, and the door WAS left open, but no one came in, how did the fox get across the river?

It's happened. You've spoken to them. Hopefully they'll take your concerns seriously and take more care in future.
If I ever found the door left open again, I'd be tempted to 'burgle' (stash in a secure hiding place) some small high-value items that your teens are particularly fond of (eg their phones) and see how long it takes for them to work out that they could have been stolen.

And you don't need to have OCD/anxiety to be pissed off about the people you live with not being security conscious! Have other posters on here not seen other threads in the past which featured men sexually assaulting women in their homes at night? (which would be much worse than being burgled imo)

Yes, I agree there are opportunist burglars, but I really don’t think that leaving the door open leaves you vulnerable to being murdered.

I had to leave the house one morning before the kids (12 and 14). I made them promise to close all windows and doors and lock up when they left. We live in a bungalow. I came back an hour later and found:

bathroom window open
patio doors open
bedroom door out to patio open
study window open
another bedroom's window open
Front door unlocked

6 means of a burglar just letting themselves in.

I feel your pain OP

I agree, lots of people are ignorant unfortunately. I would also be very uncomfortable knowing the door was left open all night, and if they're negligent to do it once they're likely to do it again unless they're told.

I had a flat mate who used to do this on a regular basis after a night out

I think if a break-in has never happened to you, it's easy to just think leaving the doors or windows open is no big deal.

But OP has been burgled twice and has woken up to find the back gate broken twice more - that's a horrible thing to have happen to you.

At 17 and 19, her kids should be able to be trusted to lock up behind them.

Lock the door when you go to bed and don't tell them where you keep the key.

Not all terraces are the same as yours. Some (most, in my experience) have a back alley and a back gate.

I admit, I am typically a half glass full person. This has happened in my house on multiple occasions (about 7 I would guess), both front door and back door. And keys have been left dangling in the front door more than once.

It's (very) annoying but nothing has ever happened as a result of these oversights so I don't get really mad or change the 'house rules' as a result, just remind everyone to please take care to close up properly at night.

Everyone should always know where the door keys are.

I don’t have OCD or anxiety but I’d be really angry about this.

They put your whole family’s safety at serious risk.

I'd be pissed off tell them to be more careful, then I'd get over it.

Fair enough, but I still wouldn't want to put it to the test.