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.

My parents had a door that automatically locked. My inlaws would leave their door unlocked and quite often any random family member would just waltz in. I always lock our door, we have young kids and they often play downstairs whilst I'm putting laundry away upstairs or hoovering.

Always lock my door no matter if I'm in or not, but I have an abusive soon to be ex husband who threatens to return.

People seem to think that an intruder will only want their valuables, what about your body or your life? Or it’s fine to leave the door open, as they can hear anyone who comes in. Hopefully the intruder will be terrified of a single woman & a few small children. Rural’s even better, they could torture you for days after they’d killed the barky dog. No one will will hear you, no one will come. Just because it’s never happened, it doesn’t mean that it never will. It’s usually someone you know, or it could be someone passing through who’s been watching you. Check the crime rate of your nice area, it really is quite shocking to find out how many sex offences & acts of violence have been carried out in what you believe is a nice area, & in broad day light.

@FrankGrillosWrist the posh areas can be the worst... villiages and Country side it has an ery feeling to it on a night. It's an easy target a wealthy area and a nice car on the drive. I'm with you on that point.

All together now Murderinos - “Lock your F-ing door” 😂👍

I live on an island where crime and break ins are non existent so we never locked our door when we were in or out …. Until….I pulled up outside my house one day and seen a delivery many through the window in my bedroom! I was so shocked when he came out I didn’t even say anything. I lock the door now….

@FrankGrillosWrist Sound far fetched but definitely possible. My mum had the shit kicked out of her by an intruder, I can still remember her two black eyes.

@MrsPetty

I live on an island where crime and break ins are non existent so we never locked our door when we were in or out …. Until….I pulled up outside my house one day and seen a delivery many through the window in my bedroom! I was so shocked when he came out I didn’t even say anything. I lock the door now….

Yikes! Was he sniffing you underwear?

The three times I've been burgled all the doors and windows were locked. Twice I was in the house, once I was out.
This is in different houses in different areas. Once a back door was kicked in, second time lock was forced on a patio window and third time a window was smashed at the side of the house and they left through the back door.
I live on a very busy road with neighbours about all the time. I tend to leave the front door unlocked when in in the house especially if I'm working from home as I can see if anyone comes on my drive. Its usually only positives or deliveries and they just leave at me and open the door to leave my letters and goods.
I'd never leave it unlocked if I was in the shower or out.

When I was a child we rarely locked the doors unless we were going away. Never had any issues, frequently had friends and family just letting themselves in unannounced, it was nice.

BUT, when I was at university, a girl I knew had her house robbed while they were all downstairs in the living room at 6 o'clock in the evening. The thieves climbed into an upstairs window, stole everyone's laptops, a couple of handbags, plus one girl's car keys and made off in her car. They were all sat watching telly oblivious.

My nan (who lives in a sleepy rural area) also had someone let themselves into her house while she was upstairs during the day. Luckily her big dog saw them off (she didn't see them, but the fact the dog barked at them so viciously and she heard them run out, slam the door and drive off at speed suggests they weren't friends or family).

So yeah, now I would think twice.

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

I've lived in big cities where, if you leave a ground floor window open when you're not in the room, you're quite likely to come back and find someone in there with you. In one block of flats both my downstairs neighbour and next door neighbour had break-ins. Friends had their cars stolen so many times that they struggled to get any insurance and left the glove compartments of their cars open and empty so people could see there was nothing in there to steal.

I once found a driving licence and credit cards by the side of the road. By one of those weird coincidences that sometimes happen they belonged to a colleague. I phoned her up. She had no idea she'd even been robbed but she'd left her back door open with her handbag in the kitchen and someone had got in, taken it, driven off, removed anything valuable and chucked the rest by the side of the road where I found it, all without her knowing. She lived in a small village.

So yes, I lock my door. Is it anxiety if it's a worry about things that have actually happened, and happened quite frequently?

I guess you don't live in an area where people will steal your washing off the line. Lock your doors OP. There are worse things to lose.

@BertramLacey

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

I've lived in big cities where, if you leave a ground floor window open when you're not in the room, you're quite likely to come back and find someone in there with you. In one block of flats both my downstairs neighbour and next door neighbour had break-ins. Friends had their cars stolen so many times that they struggled to get any insurance and left the glove compartments of their cars open and empty so people could see there was nothing in there to steal.

I once found a driving licence and credit cards by the side of the road. By one of those weird coincidences that sometimes happen they belonged to a colleague. I phoned her up. She had no idea she'd even been robbed but she'd left her back door open with her handbag in the kitchen and someone had got in, taken it, driven off, removed anything valuable and chucked the rest by the side of the road where I found it, all without her knowing. She lived in a small village.

So yes, I lock my door. Is it anxiety if it's a worry about things that have actually happened, and happened quite frequently?

I agree . I only started locking the door after someone tried to get in via the front door one evening. So same as you @BertramLacey it’s not anxiety it’s just reacting to a past experience.

Its just like project management, I’ve assessed the risks and now I’m putting a mitigation in place. If something has a low probability of happening but if it did happen the impact is huge, you’d want to put something in place to stop that happening, that something is my locked door 🤣

I dread to think what he was doing 😬 he’d walked right around my bed and was standing in front of my bedside table. Thing is I’d met him quite a few times while he’d delivered things and he seemed so normal and pleasant 😂 I think that’s why I was speechless.

I have a friend who lives in quite a nice area of a big city. Has a cat flap in the back door, and the back of the house can only be accessed via an alleyway in the middle of the terrace that all the houses use. Her door wasn’t even unlocked but someone, during the day, came round the back and used the yard brush to hook her handbag (on the side in the kitchen) through the cat flap.

If the door was unlocked he/she would have just walked straight in and the only reason for being there was opportunist - to try the doors. Leaving doors unlocked, even when you’re in, is mad.

Thieves who try doorhandles, are encouraged to do it by the people who leave their doors unlocked.

Yes, I do. Front door locks automatically. Back door needs to be locked. We live in urban area large city.

Partner doesn't lock the back door even though working from home upstairs he has no way of knowing if anybody has come into to the back garden or the house.

I beg him to lock the back door because when I was a child a man came into the house and my mum found him trying to get her purse out of her bag. She never felt safe after that.

Falls on deaf ears. 😣

My house gets locked if I am home alone. Even if I am in the living room. Simply because in my house before this one I had a stranger walk in to my house. He was a known drug taker. I also have had police on my door looking for people who they assumed walked in to my house but had actually gone in to a neighbours. I’m very wary now when I’m in my own. Or even just me and my child. I won’t even answer my door unless I know somebody is coming.

Generally my doors are unlocked if I’m in but I do tend to lock up early evening. If I am upstairs for a length of time or going to have a shower, I usually lock it as well.

Yes because twice someone has walked in thinking it was their house.
First time, old man next door he had dementia.
Second time, some pissed bloke. Luckily husband was in the kitchen when he walked through the back door and knew him.

Yes I lock it as the layout of my flat means my front door is upstairs away from the living room so I lock it as I'm always downstairs.

The front door locks on closing. The other doors are the original Victorian fitting and weigh and absolute ton. There are bolts, top and bottom, and secondary locks on each door. Doors are locked and bolted at night. We also have a large dog.

Always. I'm a single mum. Security is a main concern.

Yes! My Granny had someone walk into her bungalow and steal her jewellery from her bedroom all while she was watching TV in the lounge which was right next to the front door. Luckily a neighbour spotted him and frightened him off and he dropped her stuff and ran. This was in a small, quiet village in Cornwall.

TBF we don't lock the back door into the garden all the time, but that's behind gates that are locked. The only time the front door is unlocked is when the children are playing outside, so they can get in easily.

Its just like project management, I’ve assessed the risks and now I’m putting a mitigation in place. If something has a low probability of happening but if it did happen the impact is huge, you’d want to put something in place to stop that happening, that something is my locked door

Yes, that's pretty much what I do. The risk may be relatively low where I am now, it was much more significant when I lived in big cities. But what might happen could be quite horrendous. The simple act of locking my door dramatically cuts the risk. So why wouldn't you?