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.

@AliceinBorderland

If you're leaving your door unlocked you're probably invalidating any home insurance policy you might have

Check your policy wording. Mine doesn’t say anything about locking doors and windows although if things are stolen from a car you can only claim if that was locked including the boot. I’ve never seen a policy that requires you to lock your door while you’re at home, only while you’re out.

I live alone in an average area, towards the end of a long street, my door is always locked from the minute I enter the house and when I leave. The back door is often open when I’m in, but it’s not accessible and it’s in view from the living room, I wouldn’t lock it if I was popping upstairs to use the loo or do some cleaning, usually close & lock if I was going be a couple or hours out of view. And always before bed, even if it’s been closed all day I check it’s locked before bed.

My mum lives in a mildly rough area and has lived in a few areas like this and only locks her door when going out or to bed, been burgled once 20+ years ago when out and doors locked and it was by someone she knew

I'm obsessed with locking the door the second we're in. There's an abusive ex somewhere out there and although he doesn't have our address it's enough to worry me.

But also I would never ever in a million years tell people to just walk in

Always the front door, sometimes leave back door unlocked while i'm in and wide open in summer for the cool air. Wouldn't go out and leave them unlocked!

Never during the day even if we are out, only at night. The postman knows to open the door and throw our parcels in.
I have never heard of a break in around here, it doesn't happen, I'm not one bit worried about being broken into so locking up just never occurs to me.

Always lock the door when we come in, and put the chain on last thing before going to bed. There are loads of burglaries in this area.

Gosh absolutely it's locked when we're out and when we're in. Didn't used to be locked when we were in minus when sleeping until 10 years ago a random man walked into our house and started screaming at us. Now it's locked 24/7. Also been burgled even though all doors and windows were locked. Also had a local friend who woke up in the middle of the night to a man standing at the end of her bed.

For those that live in a sort of place where you feel safe freely leaving windows open and doors unlocked, number 1 you are incredibly privileged, number 2 you are incredibly naive.

100% of the time. It’s one of the few things I get cross at DH about, if I discover the door isn’t locked. I don’t feel safe otherwise.

Always - unless we are in the room next to it. I read somewhere that burglars choose early evening as parents are distracted by the children’s bedtime routine and it’s a great time to wander in during dinner or at bath time to steal

I'm even slow to come to the front door (which is locked when I'm in) because I always check the back door to make sure it's locked - before answering the front door. I don;t have a massive house but if I was in the kitchen cooking and with the radio on I wouldn't hear someone slip in through the front door and if I was in my downstairs study I probably wouldn't notice anyone slipping in through the back door - hence I kept them locked - it's not a high crime area - a nice town but there is opportunist crime.

My door is always locked if I'm the last one in/out. My ex husband was obsessive about it and I just got used to doing it. My DP is terrible for leaving it unlocked and it irritates me beyond belief.

When I was a kid my mum always left the door unlocked and half of the time it was wide open too. It used to drive me mad, especially as someone walked into the neighbour's locked house and stole their phones and car keys.

Unless Im walking into and out of the garden for some reason my doors are always kept locked and every angle of my home is covered by cameras. A few years ago masked men kicked my door in and demanded money. Now I have doors that are very difficult to kick in and the alarms get set as soon as it goes dark. I have panic alarms in every room and wear one around my neck 24/7.

Anyone knocking at my door without an appointment or a parcel to deliver gets spoken to over the intercom and a generally frosty reception.

Victim blaming at its best

I hate this phrase.
"Being sensible" or "reducing risk" isn't a bad thing to do.

Yes, it would be lovely if we all lived in some sort of utopia where no crime were ever committed, but it is an unquestionable fact that we don't, so why would you make it easier for those people who commit crimes, to do so against you ?

Apart from invalidating your insurance, it is actually incredibly unsettling for most people to find a stranger in their house. Why would you want to increase the risk of that happening?
Saying "why did they leave their front door open?" when you hear that someone has walked in to your house and taken your handbag / laptop / whatever is a perfectly valid question, because everyone knows that there are people that do that. 'Victim blaming' is a daft thing to say in those circumstances.

Yes. In my old house I'd leave the porch unlocked all the time and the inside door (yale) locked and my MIL used to have a fit about it.

New house I keep it locked all the time because I have insurance now, plus more (mostly electronic) things I wouldn't want stolen as I have more money now.

For those that live in a sort of place where you feel safe freely leaving windows open and doors unlocked, number 1 you are incredibly privileged, number 2 you are incredibly naive.

I don't have anything worth robbing to be honest, I can't think what anyone would take that is worth anything. Even if someone robbed our car they would just be taking €1000 worth of repairs. Maybe they would take a few aldi power tools? I have 2 noisy dogs and neighbours with more cctv than the Queen and our houses at the end of a cul de sac so their cameras would pick anyone up. There are far better places to rob than our obvious poor person house.

I rarely lock mine. We live in a very quiet area. I've been known to leave my car keys in the car on more than one occasion. I take the kids to school and don't lock the door. I would probably forget to lock it overnight if my husband was away. The postman has put the keys through the letterbox on more than one occasion 🙈.

My husband on the other hand locks the door every night when he is home and gets frustrated with me about where I've left the car keys 😂

The only time I ever lock the doors is when the children are by themselves downstairs. I rarely lock it when we leave the house either, only if we're going out for the entire day. We live in a very quiet hamlet where the crime rates are nonexistent.

Of course I lock it. For my own safety. And my kids safety. Yabu

I lock it each and every time. It's probably never been necessary, so far, but it's one of those things that aren't necessary until they are. You won't know someone's going to come in until they do.

Our door is easy to lock/unlock, and it makes me feel safer to know that it's as secure as it can be.

I know people can still get into the house if they're determined, but at least this way I'll have a little advance warning, and they'll set off the dog alarm, which might be a burglar deterrent in itself!

Can honestly say that our house is always on the latch !! Never lock up unless on holiday or if I am here on my own ! My parents never locked up and lived in an amazing house..never brought up with house keys!

Mines locked all the time. Single parent with an abusive ex husband and I am half a mile from our town centre. I grew up in the golden age in a village where we didn't lock doors but that age is gone. Our local "Spotted" Facebook site posts daily video footage of people trying doors and cars, even in the day time.

I don't have anything worth robbing to be honest, I can't think what anyone would take that is worth anything.

This is about our own safety though. We were robbed even though we had not much money and owned nothing spectacular. We also came home and walked in on two men burgling our house and in their attempts to escape tried to swing at me.

Even if you have nothing of value, it's wrong to assume it won't happen to you. And even if you think well I don't own anything expensive or anything I'll particularly miss, you'll miss feeling safe at night and being able to sleep.

No, but I'm in an apartment so we have a main door. I lock it at night of course!

I leave my door locked all the time. I also lock my bedroom door at night! And have a lockable door between the front door and the rest of the house which is also locked. And I live in a gated community with guards

I don't have much worth robbing but I do watch a lot of crime TV!