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.

Just to add… I work in justice services and I am unfortunately aware of the horrific details of real ‘hamesucken’ (Scotland) crimes. They have been homes I would have considered ‘nice’ or ‘safe’.
Lock your doors

Honestly can’t remember when it was last locked.

Nope.

This is eye opening. Always lock doors and we're in a "safe" neighbourhood.

Well I'm absolutely gobsmacked that people leave their doors unlocked - genuinely 😲!
I wouldn't dream of sitting in my house with the front door unlocked, and god knows who able to breeze in at any time, and I don't know anyone who would do that! MN is weird 🤨!

I'm shocked by how many of the posters don't lock their doors - what kind of doors / locks do you have?!?

We have a front door lock that bolts locked when the door is closed, you need a key to unlock it to get in. I've never lived in any home where the front door doesn't automatically lock when closed.

I should probably have added that it gets locked when we go to bed.

We always keep our front door locked. It’s a nice area, but there are break-ins every now and again. Not worth the risk.

Always !

We never lock the door (it is not self locking) apart from when we go to bed, but reading this thread has made me think I am being a little naive. .

Front door is always locked. I don’t get why people don’t lock the door? Back door is normally locked, but if I’m in and out of the garden, it would be unlocked, but to get to the back garden, you’d have to climb about 6 other fences.

If a burglar tried their luck, they could have everything We own of value with in about 6 strides of the front door (small house). I know they might get in anyway, but why would you make it easy for them?

With the rise in dog thefts, I lock the door as soon as I'm inside. Better safe than sorry.

Pineapple- we have sort of lock that you have to use a key to turn, not a 'Yale' type lock IYSWIM.

Locked whether in or out. I didn't used to lock it when we were home but someone once straight up opened my door and had a quick look around once, terrified my DC (and me if I'm honest but I like to think I was more angry than frightened). I jumped up and ran out after them asking wtf they thought they were doing but they just ran off down the street. Ever since then it's been locked when we're in.

We never used to lock the doors during the day, in fact, one day I came back from the supermarket and I hadn't even shut the door let alone locked it!

Then we had an intruder one afternoon and got such a fright that the door is now permanently locked. I hate living like this, I prefer to leave my front door wide open during warmer days but can't risk it anymore.

Yep, my door is always locked. I even lock it when people come into my house. Family automatically lock it behind them now, works/trades people tend to look at me funny but I just explain that it's not the best area and they're fine with it.
I'm pretty sure any insurance you have would be void if you got burgled while you were out and had left your door unlocked too.

Our door is locked at all times, I'd never leave it unlocked, you could steal my dog in 1 second.

Always have and I live in a pretty safe area and I’m a flat so there’s a main front door (which locks as soon as it shuts) plus my own front door which I always lock.

I do live alone so it’s not like there’s gonna be anyone else coming in and out.

Yes we lock it when we are inside - either with a key or the chain.

When we leave the house we always lock it. Wouldn’t even consider leaving it unlocked. I live in a nice area. Burglaries happen everywhere.

When I was younger our door was only locked when we went to bed if we were at home. When we went out we often left a key under the mat for other people. Madness!

Another one here who only locks doors if we are not in. We have 3 mobile (adult) children with learning disability, I would worry they would not get out of the house in time. DH and I would be hoisting youngest to get her out quickly in an emergency . Scares the pants off me!

Always lock the door. I wouldn't feel comfortable or safe knowing the front door was unlocked. What if youre in the house on your own & in the bath/shower...any old Tom Dick or Harry could walk into your house. Safe area or not, lock the bloody door!!

Yes our doors are always locked. We don’t live in a rough area and haven’t had any issues but there’s no sense in inviting trouble.

We aren’t ‘popping in’ people so there’s not a steady stream of visitors coming in or out either.

front door self locks, back door rarely even closed. But it's a very safe area and the back is almost impossible to get into other than from the house,

Always lock at night, unlocked when the first person leaves the house as long as someone is in and awake.

Ours locks automatically from the outside, but I would anyway - when I was younger, someone walked into my parents’ house through the unlocked front door and walked off with the car keys (and hence the car).