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.

I have known people who have been burgled while they sat watching tv in their lounge.
I wonder what your insurance company would say if you were robbed via an unlocked door whilst you were in the loo.

Apart from anything else, I always have the chain lock on when I'm in, even if I open the door to see a visitors I d (gas person etc), I don't unchain unless I'm sure also have a deadlock as well as ordinary yale, my flat was broken into and the locksmith explained how easy it is to break into a yale lock with a jemmy iron, but not a deadlock

I always lock my door . Too many break-ins happen and too many opportunistic people out there too leave it unlocked

I voted yanbu but my circumstances are probably very different to the average. We only lock the house when we go away for holidays, but we live in the country on 1500 acres and half of our current "neighbours" are related to us. Having said that, I've lived in towns and only ever locked the door when I left home.

Ours locks when you close it so we can't actually leave it unlocked. If it didn't lock automatically I'd probably leave it unlocked a fair amount. We live in a very quiet area.

The door locks itself behind me when I come out of our house. But I would lock it if I didn't. There have been a few burglaries by mine and I live off a main road. The area isn't the best but it's not awful.

I live on a leafy lane in a rural area. In the daytime, when my husband is around, we tend to leave the back door unlocked because we are in and out of the garden. At night all doors are always locked but the keys are in a place near the door (out of sight) in case of a fire. Our area felt safe until a few weeks ago when there were 3 burglaries on our lane (only a few houses along it). Large items were stolen from the driveways (bikes, trailer etc), some during the day when the owners had popped out so someone must have been watching for a few days to see when the properties were likely to be vacant. That has made us all feel rather uncomfortable....We have an old TV and although I could afford good jewelry etc I have never wanted it, so I'm not worried about having things stolen. However, the thought that someone might come in uninvited, look through our drawers and mess the house up is not nice. I'll keep locking my doors!

What the actual fuck lol. Have you never watched a single serial killer documentary.

Yes I always lock it when I’m home , unless I just arrived home and I know I’m going to leave again shortly .

@Fleshmechanic

What the actual fuck lol. Have you never watched a single serial killer documentary.

I can't imagine being so cavalier about your own safety. When it literally takes 2 seconds to lock a door. I find it fascinating that people can live their life so carefree and be so trusting of the universe

Recently (within the last year), we lock our doors, front and back if we are moving about the house in the daytime. The front door is always locked when we are in or out. The back door is actually left open in the summer as we, the dogs and cats are in and out throughout the day. The reason for the extra security this year is because I’ve heard more and more about opportunistic burglary during the day time by people (men and women) who just walk around trying doors! I have heard of several people in our region being confronted by people who walked into their houses, one at 10am! We live in a nice area, with good neighbours and prior to this year, we left our doors open. That doesn’t mean that no one will ever cut through the area and target a house here.

You all realise of course that OP is a cat burglar and MN is about as secure as your unlocked houses.....😂😂😂

Yes if I'm alone and upstairs during the day I lock the back door, ( front door self closing) on occasions I forget, delivery men have come in as far as the kitchen to put parcels on the kitchen table! Makes me so cross that they open the door at all.

Always lock it when I'm in. I'm in a quiet rural town but I don't want some random coming in off the street. Only exception would be if I knew my OH was on his way over and I might be in the middle of something and unable to get to the door. Which, now I think of it, was pretty much what the other thread was about.

I lock them all the time but that's because we can't trust the neighbours and they're harassing us 😞

Always lock mine, day and night including when I am in. Having my ex husband walk in on me one night cured me of leaving it open!

I hardly ever lock my door. I do if I’m going away for at least a few days, or occasionally at night.

We live in a flat on the second floor. I know others who don’t lock theirs and they’re on the lower floors so imagine they’d rob them before they get to us.

Plus there’s unlocked bikes in the cupboard, which if anyone dodge gets in, will be the first thing they take.

Plus, if anything happened my neighbours would hear and check in on me. It’s also convenient for if I forget or lose my keys

I can't imagine being so cavalier about your own safety. When it literally takes 2 seconds to lock a door. I find it fascinating that people can live their life so carefree and be so trusting of the universe

I find it equally fascinating that people are so anxious about leaving doors unlocked.

I have no personal experience of burglary, I don’t live in a high crime area either.
However, I always lock my door, whether I’m in the shower or not.
IF anything should occur such as a burglary or worse, what would be your defence? You very likely wouldn’t be able to claim on insurance, and if any physical harm came to you, how would you justify (to yourself) leaving the door unlocked?
It may seem inconceivable to you now, and that “it just wouldn’t happen “…:: more likely that the poor souls it has happened to, thought that way also. Nobody expects to be burgled or worse in their own homes, but personally I couldn’t be at ease if I didn’t take precautions.
It’s certainly very sad not to be able to trust, I do agree.

I never leave my doors unlocked, but current house has a yale lock with a snib.
I'm from the country & live in the city. As kids our doors were never locked, we were in & out of each others' houses etc.
Friend also from the country, also moved to the city, bought house with country-raised partner. The didn't lock their doors. Someone waltzed into their house, lifted a handbag and car keys. Friend never again left doors unlocked.

My front door is locked 100% of the time whether I'm in or out.

Conservatory door open 100% of the time when the dog is at home because he needs to get into the garden to go to the toilet, but if we're both out then it's locked.

My front door is locked 100% mostly because I have epilepsy which makes me feel vulnerable and a newborn son which makes me perhaps a little over protective as he's poorly atm. My brother on the other hand also has a baby and an annoying little dog which barks and wakes up his baby if people are banging on his door so he always has his door unlocked and asks people to just walk in.

So basically I'm saying I understand both sides i don't think anyone is being unreasonable, your house, your rules at the end of the day.

Only when everyone is out. Don't even bother at night as I have a very alert Border Collie that sleeps with me. No intruder would get in without fearsome barking. The other dog, not so much...

@ZZTopGuitarSolo

I can't imagine being so cavalier about your own safety. When it literally takes 2 seconds to lock a door. I find it fascinating that people can live their life so carefree and be so trusting of the universe

I find it equally fascinating that people are so anxious about leaving doors unlocked.

It's not anxiety, it's common sense. Unless you live somewhere really remote there is always the chance of an opportune burglar passing by. Even if the risk of being burgled is small, it isn't a risk I am prepared to take.

It's naive to assume it won't happen to you, and it affects your insurance claim should you get burgled. I believe it is called contributory negligence.

No, we leave the side door unlocked, but then we live in a very friendly and safe village. More to the point, we have two massive dogs who would bark their head off if they heard someone come in. We always lock it at night or when out. When I lived in London, I locked the door!