AIBU to leave the house unlocked when my husband is out late?

[PurpleLovecats]

AIBU to go to bed and leave the house unlocked?

I always do this when DH is out late, figure the dog will bark if anyone enters but my friend is horrified!

Depends where you live. I leave my doors unlocked all day and sometimes don’t lock them at night😂. I have no concerns about anyone entering my property.

Unless someone managed to incapacitate the dog! Seems like the dog bares responsibility for the house rather than the 4 adults who live there!

It's a very silly system, especially if you have a keybox; and I wonder if your insurance would cover you for theft.

I wouldn't! Way too risky - opportunistic burglars do go round trying front doors in the night... and once they're in the house they could do anything to your dog, or you.

And you can never say 'oh that wouldn't happen around here' because one night, it just might.

A quick scroll on your local crime alerts page will cure you of leaving the door unlocked. I see videos every day from people warning others, showing thieves trying to break in, trying doors, mostly looking for an easy mark. Recently, it's been in the streets near my house, which has made me doubly careful.

They don't care about your dog. Will thump it - and you - if need be. Use a key lock box if necessary.

I think you're mad. It's much harder to get someone out of your home once they are in than to keep them out in the first place. My doors are locked behind me every time I go through them.

Yes your dog might bark, but many intruders scope a place out beforehand so if they know there's a dog they might make friends with it/ leave something out for it to eat to make it sleep. Obviously it's not overly likely to happen depending on where you're living, but it's a vulnerability you're leaving yourself open to.

I think this is one of those this where people are divided between never ever leaving door unlocked, and those who have the door mostly unlocked during the daytime, and it does indeed depend where you live. We are in the second camp and I sometimes go to bed with the door left unlocked but it kind of depends where DH is and when he's likely to be in. I take ages to fall asleep so if he's going to come in within about a hour I'd leave it open. If not or I'm unsure, I'd lock it.

We were burgled at 4am when obvs all doors were locked and the house was in darkness, it's far less likely to happen at 10.45pm when there are still quite a lot of people up and about with lights on etc. I'm not saying impossible, but it is less likely.

Yes this as well! Think about your dogs!
My gym instructor had a big barky dog, very protective, good guard dog. Burglars posted some meat which contained some sort of tranquliser through a window which was slightly ajar. Dog ate it and was knocked out. Burglars then broke in and ransacked the place. Owner came home to cash, laptop etc gone and an unconscious dog.

The dog luckily recovered but a smaller dog or bigger dose (and Burglars really wont be thinking about the dog's welfare) and she might have died. You are making it easy for Burglars to get into your house; the dog is the only obstacle and unless purely opportunistic they will have a plan for that.

It's all very well saying it's a nice area blah blah but one day Burglars are going to take a day trip to the "nice areas" and see which mugs leave their doors unlocked. Easy day or nights work for them!

Our house door is never locked whether we're in or out so I don't see the problem with leaving it unlocked.

What makes you think that some areas are utterly immune to burglars and rapists? What makes you think that they wouldn't know that people in "immune" areas tend to leave their doors unlocked because they think intruders only go into less fancy areas?

Serious question: why don't you lock it? What's your thought process here?

@PurpleLovecats "No because if anybody entered the house, the dog would bark so loudly I’d be up anyway."

Great. So you and your dog could be stabbed together! The old fashioned burglar with his swag bag no longer exists. It's most often druggies looking to snatch a laptop or something easy. They're desperate, off their heads and don't give a flying fuck about your dog. One almightly kick in the face and they'll kill it. And if you think they only target rough areas, they don't. They almost always target "nice" areas where people have got something worth stealing. You seem almost proud of your stupidity OP.

AND where they leave their doors unlocked as some sort of badge of swanky honour.

Been burgled three times, different scenarios - one “trusted” person in the house with permission, one day time invasion whilst wfh, one invasion at night whilst asleep.
None were pleasant but by far the most traumatic were the violent people there without permission.

Do what you can to keep them out but never assume it will be enough.

They don’t really know what they’re going to find until they are in the property so don’t make it easy - take common sense decisions like keeping valuables (keys, purses, handbags, jewellery, unused tech etc) OUT OF SIGHT!
And whatever you do, don’t challenge them when they do come in.

Yep, unbelievable.

Do those who.leave their doors open all the time realise their contents insurance won't cover for theft if they are out at the time. Ours wouldn't cover even an unlocked window upstairs - if that's where burglars got in.

The ones saying they never lock their doors, even overnight and posting laugh emojis astonish me.

Surely it depends where you live, our doors are always open in the day and whilst I mostly remember at night sometimes we forgot. I’m not overly worried about this.

We always leave the door unlocked if one of us is due back late. And, we don’t even have a dog to guard us! Does a cat count?

It's not even about being actively afraid of burglars. I live in London but I've never experienced burglars randomly trying house doors at night.

But locking the door and taking the key is such a minor thing to do just in case that I can't understand why anyone wouldn't. What is the antipathy they have to carrying keys on their person? I don't get it.

YABVVU. I used to work in insurance…

Leaving front and back doors or windows unlocked usually invalidates a home insurance policy if a burglary occurs, as insurers typically require proof of forced entry to pay a claim.

Leaving your home unsecured is considered negligence and a breach of the "reasonable precautions" clause in most contracts, which can lead to your claim being rejected.

Add to that the risk of harm from an intruder when you’re in bed alone - doesn’t bear thinking about…

Whether you own or rent, your house is normally your biggest asset. Why wouldn’t you adhere to the terms of your home insurance police (assuming, that even though you’re quite cavalier about risk, that you DO have one?) in order to safeguard it?

And it doesn't matter where you live! I grew up in the countryside in a very safe village and we still locked our doors whenever we left the house because... like I said... why would you actively choose not to?

Same. I know we're all different but it genuinely amazes me that anyone could be relaxed enough to sleep knowing their house is unsecured.

Paranoia over house invaders is in my head right now after just finishing The Death Of Us by Abigail Dean. Excellent book, but not recommended for anyone with an overactive mind who also would like a good night's sleep!

Well you can't lock the stable door after the horse has bolted.

In the early 90s, in London, we were burgled whilst we slept in our beds. We had redecorated and hadn't put the security bolts back in. The burglers forced the front bay breaking the catch. Of course we woke up and checked. They waited for half an hour or so and quietly crept back in.

They got the VCR, £60, a bottle of gin and whiskey, and my handbag where it was left in the hall. Full cheque book with £100 card - they went through 17 cheques. Passport, nice pen, couple of pairs of earrings and it was a Gucci Bag. They tried to steal my identity and the passport took an age to sort out.

The only reason the insurers paid was because we were asleep and in the house. I was about 34 weeks pg at the time and the baby was 4 months by the time they paid out.

I installed an alarm to protect my dog. I think that you'll find your house insurance wouldn't pay out either.

Have you considered that it might be speciesist to create unnecessary work for the dog that you wouldn't expect from the human members of the household, AND to expect the dog alone to put themself in potential danger when there are already measures in place to prevent that? That may be the reason for your neighbour's horror; are they in PETA?

If the key's in the keystore then any of the four adults can access it if they come home and find the door locked and haven't taken their key, so there's no reason to leave the house unlocked because someone's out.

I do the same all the time; pretty much the only time our house is locked is when we're all in at night or when we're all away somewhere. I bet it's open now actually.