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.

My 20 something left the front door wide open overnight one night last week. Similar sort of location. Fortunately we got away with it.

But not 1000%? Or 10000%?

Where exactly do you live? Inner city Bronx? Afghanistan?

FFS get a grip

How about you go and stay in moss side for a week and leave the back door of the property wide open every night and see if you feel so smug then?

OP I’m usually really easily riled by any nastiness on here but this poster seems to be genuinely trying to help here and you seem to be really triggered by it. Please know I’m not trying to gaslight you or shame you or anythng … but they genuinley don’t seem to be coming from a bad place.

Ridiculously dangerous in a fire.

I doubt anything would happen. Total overreaction. Anybody would think moss side was awash with marauding Vikings raping and pillaging.

Get some door alarms. They'll energy leave a door open again.

She said Moss side, I'd probably feel safer in the Bronx.
Once she said Moss side, I thought the next post was going to be her saying the car was gone and so were the TV and laptops.
It's not an area I would even willingly be in at night and I've spent time in Gorton at some of my families house.

But it is for a lot of teenagers - because everyone isn’t you.

They’re old enough to have more sense. I’d have been infuriated too.

Where do you live that makes you think people don’t get robbed in the UK?

Over the years we’ve had various cars broken into/thieves attempt to steal them from outside our house. Our bike shed has been broken into so many times we no longer bother to lock it (it’s only kids bikes that they’ve never bothered to pinch).

inane no doubt if they’d seen an open door they would have been in to ransack the place.

Thank you! I’m amazed at so many people giving the OP a hard time and suggesting it’s not a big deal - yes it is! At that age it’s ridiculous that they would be so irresponsible. Who doesn’t shut an external door for crying out loud? The lounge door/dog I could see happening, but light on, outer door open? That’s absurd.

No just the highest crime rates in Manchester, an area that is already high in crime.

And also I'm wondering how people are saying I'm over reacting to my kids, nobody here saw how I spoke to them or what I said. We had a calm conversation about it and that they need to make sure it wouldn't happen again. A normal and rational conversation 🙄 but when I discovered it I was angry and livid but that doesn't mean I didn't calm down before confronting my kids about it
I'm absolutely not one to shout at my kids.

It's annoying and could be potentially worse but thankfully it wasn't. Just point out the potential ramifications, remind them to double check in future then give them a bollocking and move on.

It's easy to forget unfortunately. I went out and accidentally left the front door wide open 😬 thankfully nothing happened.

“Ooh that door’s open, I was just thinking I fancy a murder!”

It happens OP. If their faces looked shocked when you told them, that’s enough.

Oh my sympathies OP. I too worry about the 'what ifs' that might have happened.

One day we all returned from a day out, to find all 4 of our indoor cats, outside on the grass at the front. We'd been gone all day, so thought one of us must have left the door wide open, but no, DH had recently put new weather stripping on the door, and the door didn't close properly, it closed, but either popped open or the cats clawed it open smelling fresh air. Another case around the same time ( cheap weather stripping?) our DS slammed the door shut on his way out, to make sure it had closed, but it bounced right open.

I'm glad no opportunist was around your home to take advantage of the door being open OP, and I'm glad that your dog stayed put.
I understand your worries completely.

Maybe put a small sign on the door around the knob, just as a reminder, no guarantee it'll work though with sleepy teen lads, likely won't happen again.

Someone said its safer because we are terrace 🤣

People sneak around the back alleys looking over the walls for bikes and open sheds. There are always videos on the local FB pages of it happening. Most houses round here have alleys behind them for bins and they're all connected so it's easy to escape and easy to scope a lot of houses quickly.

The backdoor is visible from the wall.

It's a thief's paradise really

If a 17 year old and 19 year old can't be trusted to lock a door, then something has gone very, very wrong.

I’m not sure if you’re just jaw droppingly ignorant and naive or just on the wind up.

It's got the highest crime rates in Manchester and is well known for gang issues, drugs and fights. I wouldn't be leaving my doors wide open all night, that's for sure.

Gosh yes, how hilarious. Nothing ever bad happened to anyone, ever did it.

If DC can't be trusted to lock up I'd suggest DH brings the back door key up with him after he brings the dog back in

Cutting off a fire escape?

OP would your dog not bark if he/she could hear/sense strangers in your back garden? I'm pretty sure that realising there was a dog in the house, any prospective burglars would move on to easier pickings. I would also think that seeing the light on would suggest that there was someone awake in the house. If someone is intent on breaking in and they have access to the back of your house, they will break a window and will do it while the house is in darkness . I would think anyway.

Im not advocating that you regularly leave the door open btw - just suggesting that it wouldn't necessarily lead to someone walking in and causing harm. As was shown last night.

I don't blame you for being furious OP, especially as you live in Moss Side. The people who think you are overreacting are clueless.

If you don’t want people to focus on the OCD part of your post don’t mention it. People assumed you mentioned it because it was relevant but if it doesn’t affect the way you deal with things, it’s not relevant.

For what it’s worth, what happened would annoy me. It would negate insurance claims and is not minor. We live in a rural area and solid electric gates you can’t get through without codes and once the garage was left open behind said gates and it pissed me right off. And I don’t have OCD. I just don’t want to be at risk.