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!

Every time there's a thread about whether people lock their doors someone posts this comment

How are you not familiar with the operation of a door handle? You can't possibly never have come across a door with a handle and spindle type mechanism. There are literally millions of them

I agree. Most modern front doors don't have Yale type locks. They have multi point locks or 5 lever mortice locks.

Why do you have a keystore, if he won't use it to retrieve the key to let himself in? Who does use it?

I can't really get my head round why an adult wouldn't either carry a key (I've had a front door key since I was 11) and also won't use the key in the keystore; but instead prefers that the front door be left open to save him all that bother.

I don’t understand why you are even posting. You seem determined to argue the fact that leaving the door unlocked in this day and age is utter madness. HTH🤬

Surely no one is going to advise you that leaving a door unlocked at night when alone or not in a house ,regardless of a dogs presence is a sensible thing to do.

I almost never lock the door during the day if I'm in, usually lock the front door at night, don't tend to lock the back. The dog sleeps by the back door. We have cameras at both front and back which I assume are a deterrent to burglars, nothing is "on display" from outside. Honestly, I'm more scared of fire than burglary and I'd rather be able to escape easily if I needed to.

I don't imagine burglars would just wander down the street trying everyone's doors in the middle of the day until they found one that was unlocked.

I don't imagine burglars would just wander down the street trying everyone's doors in the middle of the day until they found one that was unlocked.

Of course they do! They do the same with cars as well.

I'm staggered at how naive you are.

We have very little crime in our village, but it isn't a zero crime rate. I lock the house doors and I use a steering wheel lock on my car and lock the doors.

I sometimes see footage on the local Facebook pages from people's Ring doorbells/CCTV showing scrotes trying people's doors or trying to break into a car.

I think the outrage is very much based on where you live. I lock the front door at night but it is
unlocked all day if I am at home so yes, anyone could walk but in 32 years no one ever has. We are one of seven houses in a dead end lane in a rural village.

We live in a dead end lane in a rural village, yet my next door neighbour has had tools pinched from his car.

The dogs wouldn’t leave the garden. Our house is tucked away- I of 4. I don’t lock the doors because I’d be more concerned about the dogs not being able to be rescued if there was a fire.

I’ll do things my way; you do things your way.

Are you really that confident?
My cousin had a Doberman, family dog but also very protective because her husband was away a lot.
The dog barked at anyone knocking on the door, but one occasion she was out and came back to find a burglar sat on her sofa, with the Doberman sat on his lap.

The dog didn’t bark because the burglar obviously didn’t knock, let himself in through the kitchen door, and the dog followed him around as he filled his bag.
The good thing was, the dog was so pleased with his new visitor he wouldn’t let him leave!

You aren't seriously saying you don't know about doors with handles that you move up and down to open are you?

That's so bizarre, how do you not know that?

You don't think anyone would enter?
That's fool proof then.
As a PP said, your insurance would not cover you.
I presume this thread is a joke?

What's bizarre is you expecting everyone to be familiar with the same types of doors that you are.

The only doors I'm familiar with opening is - the doors I actually open. So that's my house, and any holiday cottage I've stayed in. Since I like old properties, every single door I've had to open (as opposed to the doors opened for me by friends, to invite me in) has been wooden, with a Yale-type and a mortice.

Everyone is the sum of their experiences, everyone has had a unique set of experiences. Who knew?

I know that keys an unusually heavy these days and can weigh down one side of a jacket and cause people to limp.

However I do think he should have his own key, and perhaps wear it on a cord around his neck. Alternatively you could sew it on a piece of elastic to the inside pocket of his school blazer.

I refuse to believe that you've never seen a door handle like this (picture may have to wait to be approved)

Forget getting murdered in the night. If anything happens you household and content insurance iwon't cover you because you were negligent and failed to secure your property.

I have a Rottweiler and even I wouldn’t do this. DH works nights and doesn’t get home until the early hours. The Black and Tan burglar alarm is usually sound asleep by then and doesn’t bark anyway.

That’s exactly what they do 🙄

What? A woman is more vulnerable on her own. OP and her husband together are also vulnerable if people ‘break’ into their house. What a weird comment.

The naivety and trust some posters including OP have shown on this thread is actually quite touching. I am the polar opposite though having been burgled before whilst everyone was asleep and due to the fact I know how sick and depraved a lot of men are there is absolutely no way in merry hell I would ever go to bed with doors unlocked. All it takes is a knife to end the dog and then he's on his way up to your bedroom. The kind of people that burgle your house are off their faces on street drugs. They do not give a fuck about anything other than the next fix. They will try doors to houses, cars, lorries. They are opportunists and no-one is safe.

I don't imagine burglars would just wander down the street trying everyone's doors in the middle of the day until they found one that was unlocked.

Of course they do. I've caught people trying mine and seen would be robbers looking right in people's windows in broad daylight. My dog enjoyed rousting them out of bushes and caught one guy in the shed at 6 in the freaking morning. They're in and out in a few minutes. They find an unlocked door, go in, round up electronics left around, and walk on down the road and pawn or sell your stuff.

Maybe you are correct. I'm not an expert. It just seems an oddly high risk strategy. It would be particularly so where I live.

I'd assume most people wanting just to steal stuff want to do so without attracting attention and ideally don't want people to be in. Someone on my street going from door to door, for any reason, would be caught on several cameras and be noticed by people who live there.

Aren't burglary rates getting lower and lower anyway? People just sit at home scamming you online now instead.

Honestly, in nearly 20 years of posting on MN I had never become aware that there was Door Locking Discourse or a fight club focused on types of door handle. I can only apologise for stumbling into what it clearly an important issue with profound personal implications of which I had hitherto been unaware. I am going to take some time to reflect on my mistakes and, of course, educate myself. (Is this enough to get people to stop tagging me?)

Well the husband being there doesn't mean they could fend of 2 violent criminals does it?