To lock the front door even when we are in?

[fitofthegiggles]

Not always but often enough that OH comments that I'm a bit obsessive about it and tbh I feel I'm a bit overly cautious.

Context is we live in a pleasant suburb in a peaceful neighbourhood where there is a very low crime rate. However occasionally over the years people have had someone walk in through their unlocked front door in broad daylight - even when they were in - pinch stuff and scarper. It was quite a scary experience especially for one old person who was living alone. As I say this has happened maybe twice in the 12 years we've lived here. My thinking is "better safe than sorry".

So I lock the front door (it's one of those ones where you have to use the key on the inside rather than a "snick lock" but I leave the key in the door for emergencies) if ever we are in the back garden or upstairs or I'm leaving the (now adult) kids at home and they are upstairs.

They and OH sometimes raise their eyes and think I'm being OTT and to be honest I feel that in terms of crime rate statistics in our area it's not really necessary and I don't want to be that person who thinks there's danger lurking everywhere (I don't believe there is) or give that impression of fear to the kids.
But I still do it.

I always lock the doors. Watched too much true crime. But for me not worth the risk.

Yale digital door locks, I have v2 on my doors they lock automatically and are amazing.

I think people don't understand them on here 🤔

I was burgled when I left the back door open and went upstairs. I keep all doors and windows locked now!

The ring camera things go off on my watch anyway if someone is in the front garden and loads of people have those now so would be alerted if someone was there so it would be difficult to quietly sneak in, the door is locked anyway

We keep ours locked. Luckily DH and I are both keen on doing it. We have a key close by always in the same place so we could get out in a fire. Now we have a lodger who has been given clear instruction on locking the door but he still forgets and DH is getting wound up about it! It's mostly safe where we are but you can never be too sure. A lot of criminals are opportunists who won't break into your house if it's challenging or noisy, but they will check for unlocked doors and wander in to those houses. I dread to think how I'd feel if I found a strange man walking into our house! Plus, we need to make sure no one opens it from the outside lets our dog run out toward the road.

Governments statistics.

In the year ending September 2022 there were:

407,189 cases of domestic burglary.

In comparison to

In the year ending March 2022 there were:
27,166 dwelling fires, this has increased by one per cent compared with the previous year (27,016).

@YourNameGoesHere

But how many of those burglaries happened during daytime when the occupants were at home?

I'm guessing that stat also includes when people were out of the house, or were asleep in bed (with the door locked)

Without this info, your stats don't mean much

Oh and a flat mates (accidentally) locked me into a rental flat a few years ago. Type of lock neither of us had seen before (Evva, I think) which was a yale type lock with internal turnlock and a key on outside.

When you turned the key from the outside twice the turnlock inside is disabled so the door could not be opened from the inside.

I had to get my friend's husband (who was WFH locally) to come round and I dropped my keys out the window to him and he came into the stairwell and up to the flat and opened the door to let me out.

It really unsettled me!

I lived in Central London. Once I had come in from shopping, taken bags through to the back and returned to find someone in the hall. Luckily he left when I told him to go.

Another time I was home and didn't get to the door fast enough when the bell rang. When I got there I saw a plastic card being slid up and down by the lock. I got hold of it and pulled but lost the fight.

That was during the course of a couple of years. I had a front door and an inner door and I locked them both at night.

@Theoldcuriosityshop

I bet you actually do without realising it. Any of the doors with a proper handle will be like that.

Next door got broke into while they were away for a weekend, they used tools from the shed to break into the house

Always keep my door locked. I don't feel comfortable with it unlocked. Don't care how small the odds are, I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Our front door is always locked as we rarely use it, it is easy to locked though as you don’t need a key just have to turn the lock thingy which definitely helps! Our last house I was much more lazy about locking the door as I could never find a key!

That said our back door is pretty much always open! Even though it would be quite easy for someone to walk in if they really wanted to.

Well, that goes for fires too, doesn't it? We don't know how many happen when people are at home during the daytime.

Ours is always locked. Despite being a safe rural area there are people going round offering to cut trees, re-do our drive etc, as an excuse have have a nose and steal.

Well I can drill down and get exact numbers of needed but I suspect it still won't convince some posters.

Fires are awful but they are not as common as someone entering your home and taking your possessions.

We know fires are terrible so sensibly most people have fire alarms. We also have doors which lock to prevent people coming in and taking our hard earned possessions so why wouldn't people use them to do so?

I always lock mine, I can fully relax that way! My keys are always in my door or right next to it in case I needed to get out in a hurry. The exception to this, though, is the height of summer, where sometimes I want a door open to let the air in. I always feel hyper-aware when I do that, though, and even though I love leaving doors and windows open on a hot day, the extra wariness is a shame.

I have twice had people walk through an unlocked door. Once they were just confused and drunk and didn't mean any harm but it was a bit frightening. It was a student house in a not great area and we usually locked the door but some residents were more careful than others.

The second time was at my parents house, in a nice area, we were awake and downstairs, it was teatime, the door wasn't locked as my Mum wasn't home from work yet. I had just gone through to the next room when someone walked in, and helped themselves to a handbag, a wallet and a set of keys. We heard them and disturbed them before they got anything else. I have never been more frightened than I was when my Dad ran out to chase them (luckily he didn't catch up with them).

It is so simple to turn the key and lock the door behind you and I always lock myself in. It saves a lot of cost, hassle and upset.

And yet it is on the rise!

I think the assumption that a widespread domestic fire is more likely than someone walking into an unlocked house is interesting.

Fires are much less common than they used to be. Personally, I don't know a single person who has experienced a domestic fire that is serious enough to leave the house.

I don't know anyone who hasn't been the victim of a burglary or an attempted burglary.

I’ve just checked Lloyds insurance policy and it makes no mention of locks at all. There are occasions that aren’t covered, having guests etc but not locks. Unless that’s in a separate document but this policy was 40 pages long.

As I said earlier, I don’t often lock my door in the day. We have the type of composite door that doesn’t lock on closing, hard to imagine I know. I have three children and a husband that are in and out frequently, we would have to make sure the key was taken out after locking, or the next person couldn’t get in.

Also, we live on a busy street but only terrace of 4 houses. It would take some gumption to just walk in I think. I think if I lived more rurally, I would be more inclined to lock it.

I live in the biggest police area (can’t think of the proper name) outside of the Met. Figures state that there were 600 odd burglaries reported in May 2023, across the whole area. Approx 40% of those would have been in the day.

It’s just not something that particularly bothers me. However, when I do get round to changing my door, I prob will change the type of lock but that Is more to do with aesthetics as we have a Victorian house and would like a door more in keeping.

I don't really lock my front door unless I'm in the garden. I am more worried, I think, about being able to get out of my house than anyone coming in. It just doesn't worry me. I live in a town too. When the kids were little I did lock the door so they didn't escape.

My husband is the opposite. Always locks the door. So at least he takes charge of locking the door before we go to bed!

I’ve got Admiral insurance and they define my ask if o have mortice locks.

Don’t forget that if you have a key card for your car, you need a holder for it if you put it near your front door. Or someone can steal your car without needing the key, they just need hold an iPad outside your door to copy the key. Several people where I live had their cars stolen that way from their driveway a couple of years ago (I live in a very quiet and usually safe area).

Years ago we had someone try to get in our back gate but it's well locked so probably was to much bother for them, it's not one you could easily climb over, two door down weren't so lucky as they went in there and stole the bikes the same night.