Do you lock your door when you’re in the house?

[patienceandprudence]

Inspired by another thread (no prizes for guessing which).

I was surprised that people lock their doors sheen inside the house. Granted, we live in a small house, but it’s in a ‘bad’ area. We never lock our door when someone’s in, except at night if someone remembers. I’d say we leave it unlocked while out a good 30% of the time so if the kids come back or someone drops by to visit they don’t have to wait outside.

In my area this is the norm, and most of the time if you knock you’ll just be called in and told to walk right in next time. We tell anyone the same, even the regular delivery-people know that they can open the door and put the parcel in if it’s open.

Yes and have CCtv and a vicious Frenchie 😂

Always lock. I am really surprised that some don't!

I forget a lot, even at night. Wish we had one that locked behind us!

@BarbaraofSeville @DaisyNGO Yep; we live offshore and locking doors is rare here. Maybe overnight or when going out, but often not at all. Can't remember the last time I saw a burglary reported.

Friends on another island are even more relaxed and didn't even have a front door key for several years.

(We live in a flat so Yale lock and electric building entry, by local standards it's like getting into Fort Knox).

Nope never. I live in cul de sac so no real footfall outside my house

Well until a number of people started saying they had footage of people trying their doors in the early hours

My friend a few streets across was awake early hours in her kitchen and saw someone trying her, thankfully locked door. I think they thought she’d gone to bed and left the lights on

I now lock the door as soon as I come in. Like others I’m scared of being locked in during an emergency but I leave the key in the inside of the door, obviously only when I’m awake, if I need to make a sharp exit

I only lock up when I’m out. Don’t bother at night. Rural Cornwall.

Always lock the door. Not worth the risk.

I don't. Don't lock it when I'm out half the time either. But I'm in a very safe a rural area and a stranger would definitely be noticed.

I used to lock my door when I lived in a tougher area though.

Name change because this may well be actually outing.

I live on an estate which is flats surrounded by privately owned houses.

The flats have security doors, plenty of CCTV cameras and good secure front doors.

This did not stop a locally well known "harmless" homeless man following a pensioner home and murdering him after observing him collecting his pension. They arrested him and he is due for trial but the pensioner is dead from what the police spokesperson termed blunt force trauma.

Before anyone takes issue with my description of the alleged perpetrator, it's on CCTV, that's how he got caught. My point being this, you cannot trust someone will not harm you just because you are used to seeing their face about locally and are not perceived as a threat. Nobody knows what goes on in the mind of others.

So, too right, I keep my door locked.

I have had my locked and bolted up front door handle rattled by people trying it on dozens of time in my thirty years of adulting.

Again, keeping that bugger locked.

A nod to the thread inspiration, no way on this earth would I go for what I knew was going to be an uncontrollable diarrhoea and vomiting trip to the toilet with the door unlocked.

To those saying, leave it open, what are the odds a nefarious person is walking by at that moment. A little story from my youth. 1am, walking with a group of friends and acquaintances through a nice housing estate. One house had a small bunch of keys left in the front door. One male acquaintance spots this, sneaks up to the door, quietly locks it a walks off with the keys. I thought he was going to take them back next day but later was told he'd given to keys to an older relative who went and robbed the place blind, splitting the proceeds. Is one of these reasons I don't trust people or chance.

@NoDecentHandlesLeft, Thanks, I didn’t know that, although it’s only when it’s me here on my own in the day time that it’s not double locked, when my son is here it’s always double locked. The house is small enough that I would hear someone trying to come in. It’s also a quite a quiet, ok neighbourhood.

@Staffy1 thank you.

I only lock up when I’m out. Don’t bother at night.

😧 this gave me horrendous anxiety

[quote ImInStealthMode]**@BarbaraofSeville* @DaisyNGO* Yep; we live offshore and locking doors is rare here. Maybe overnight or when going out, but often not at all. Can't remember the last time I saw a burglary reported.

Friends on another island are even more relaxed and didn't even have a front door key for several years.

(We live in a flat so Yale lock and electric building entry, by local standards it's like getting into Fort Knox). [/quote]
Even in a tropical paradise, I find that really surprising.

@Trethew

I only lock up when I’m out. Don’t bother at night. Rural Cornwall.

Intrigued by this…why one but not the other?

Yes. Even in this reasonably quiet village there are still people who try door handles. They come in from the cities flogging dusters and shit and thefts coincidentally happen. Odd, that.

If someone wants to leave their door unlocked that's their problem but there is nothing wrong with people who do, I don't understand the belief that there's no need to lock your doors when you're in because thieves don't try to get in houses during the day/when someone is home when that is demonstrably untrue.

Yes, I lock our door. In my last job I received a few threats (for no real reason, just dealing with volatile people who were dissatisfied with a benefits system). I don't feel comfortable with the door unlocked when DH is not home.

@Lulu2021

I only lock up when I’m out. Don’t bother at night.

😧 this gave me horrendous anxiety

Me too

A colleague recently had a hot choc in her kitchen about 1am as she couldn't sleep.

The hot choc was wasted as she was then terrified by someone rattling the kitchen door. Her DH looked from upstairs and saw someone trying doors, called police etc but he was gone by then of course.

My useless mother only has ever given me two pieces of advice that I actually find useful - always keep your front door locked and always have a light on if you are coming home when it will be dark.

I live on my own and there's no way I'd be sat here with a unlocked front door. When I was married to my last husband we were living in a rough area, he forgot to lock the front door one Friday night. Our next door neighbours were drugs dealers, and a group of their pissed off 'customers' decided to enter our house at 1am, hold myself and my husband at knife point, steal everything that wasn't locked down and sexually assault me.

So anyone criticising anyone for locking their front door at any time of the day or night can go fuck themselves with a serrated bread knife.

I can not imagine being able to sleep while my door is unlocked! You're so vulnerable in the unlikely event of anyone breaking in.

Jesus, noir, that's horrendous. I'm so sorry.

Currently live in a house where door locks automatically. However, was a different story when growing up at my parents (and it wasn't a nice area).
Door was never locked, and it was great to just walk in most of my DMs friends used to stroll in at all times of the day.
It was also forgotten, and left unlocked during night.

Current front door has 4 locks altogether (didn't change the door when moved), feels excessive to me. The automatic lock does the job, if someone is going to kick the door in, they'll manage with one or four locks.

I'm always wary of too many locks and bolts, because if I need to flee, I need to be able to open the darn door first.

Not in the day no . I only lock it before it goes dark but I do have a huge German Shepherd that keeps me feeling safe . She can hear a pin drop even when she is fast asleep

I am baffled when people say they live in an area they can do this. Where is the magic place?

Probably remote countryside or off shore islands. Almost certainly nowhere within an hours drive of a city.

I don't lock my door when I'm at home and I live in England's largest town (turned down for city status) and in an area of it that MN turns its nose up at. My NDN goes out and leaves her back door not just unlocked but actually open!
I don't even lock it properly at night, due to the risk of fire and needing to find the key, so we only lock the bit on the night latch and not the deadlock. We are getting a new door soon with a thumb turn though.

Yes

Always keep front and back door locked in this house. Never used to in my old house but we were end of a very long cut de sac and it was was a slightly more salubrious area.