Do you lock your doors?

[Chakan]

I keep mine locked as much as possible (sometimes I forget ) because I believe it's best to remove the possibilities of someone intruding.

I live in a city near other alright folk, so if someone used more forceful methods, I do believe the police would at least be notified...

 

[No-name]

I hear that locks are there to keep honest people honest.

 

[Nothingness]

Yeah I do... stupid forest creatures.

 

[zeroyon]

when i lived in canada I usually left the doors unlocked when I was at home, and locked the doors when i went to sleep or left the house though.

Now that Im in the USA I really don't have a choice... as my dorm room's door locks automatically. Ive already locked myself out of my own room 10 times because of the damn auto-locking door >.<

EDIT: lol scary time once though... my house was having probs with its alarm system (we only turned it on at night, and sometimes when we went out for a while), and while I was asleep, the alarm suddenly went off (even though it wasn't activated) becuase it malfunctioned, but didnt wake me. I was the only one home at the time as well.

Anyways.. the cops came, and when they went to the back of the house, they found the back door open (my mom leaves it open for the cats a lot), so they thought someone had broken into the house. So they drawed their pistols just incase, and once one of the cops finally made it up to my room, he hit the door open really hard (which woke me), and I awoke with a gun pointed at my face. I seriously almost shat my pants.

 

[StarCrap]

Shooot, we lock our doors day and night. Also we have a security system....we use to have a dog in the back yard. The doggie was too nice and end up being taken away. It was so well discipline too, gosh I miss that dog.

 

[architect]

I lock my doors. I remember as a kid, not having to do that as much. Changing times. I'm in the DC metro area and its not advisable to leave your door unlocked. We have had a number of people getting into the apartment building posing as maintainenece or what have you. Why make it even easier for them? A friend at work recount a story where someone walked into her house WHILE SHE WAS NAPPING UPSTAIRS. She thought it was her husband coming back early and went downstairs and there he was just walking about the living room looking at stuff. When confronted, he said something about being with the utility company and beat feet. Wtf, right? Changing times. In our culture these days it is not the norm any more to leave our doors unlocked. I saw Michael Moore's movie, I envy the Canadians or any culture where people respect other people.

 

[Sensebend]

Why bother? If someone wants in bad enough no lock will stop them.

 

[BrennaCeDria]

My boyfriend locks the door whether we're home or not, but if I'm home alone and come in from outside (from going around town or just to take out the trash) I normally lock the downstairs lock (landlord's rule) and leave my lock upstairs undone. My exception is when I get a shower and am alone--EVERYTHING gets locked, then.

 

[The AnteLyfe]

I have always locked my doors, not because the fear of getting robbed keeps me up at night, but because why take the chance? Sure, if I always left the doors unlocked, maybe 1000 days would go by and nothing would happen; but all it takes is 1 time for someone to come by, realize the door is unlocked, at which point they might decide to rob your place... and it all could have been preventable with the two seconds it takes to lock the door.

I think that leaving the doors unlocked is an unnecessary risk to take. If anyone's going to come over, they knock or ring the doorbell anyway, so how does having a locked door shut me off of the world (as michael moore says in his movie). I wouldn't want people constantly sneaking up on me from behind in my own home, I rather they knock.

 

[Bob in Iowa]

I live in a rural area near a small city in eastern Iowa. Unlike most of our neighbors, who never lock their houses unless they are going to be away for a few days, We always lock our house, even when we are inside. I suppose that this is just a conditioned behavior from having grown up in a high crime area in Dallas, but I prefer not making it easy for someone to enter our house uninvited.

I am always amused by the public uproar that occurs in the rare instances of break-ins in our area. "How could that happen here?" "We've never had to lock our houses before!!!" Yeah, right; OK, whatever. An ostrich with its head in the sand shouldn't be surprised when its butt gets kicked.

--Bob

 

[Dutch Baka]

We lock the door, always. We have one door(that you enter by a main stairway, we have 7 people living in this block) ,on this door we have 2 locks. when leaving for a long time we close them both, and when we leave for just a short time we just lock 1.

Also we have one door from the balcony, that we always close(we live on the second floor), because there are enough story's of people climbing up.

I live in Amsterdam, and in 2004 there were 86.000 houses got burgled. So we lock it!!!!

Another main reason that we lock it, is because they burgled our house around 5 years ago:

We were on the Camping (small house in nature area, summer vacation), when we got alarmed by the manager's daughter that there was broken into our house, so my mom and dad rushed home, and what they found they never forgot; Grass all over the floor, 3tv's stolen, 400 cd's, my dad's wedding ring, etc. My mom had so many nightmares about this, so now we have extra locks on the door.

Also from this time, we have this time switchers, so that the light goes on and off when you want, so they think you are home, warn neigbours to keep an eye on the house when going on holiday, etc. Here is a link for tips on how to secure your home while you are on vaction.

I wish to live in a city were you don't need to lock your door, don't need keep your bag close to your body, and don't need to be aware of the danger that they can steal from you!

The movie Bowling for Columbine was a great movie, and makes people think a lot about this kind of things.

 

[Kinsao]

I can't imagine a place where it's OK to leave your door unlocked.

In fact, though, my front door is the kind that locks automatically when you close it behind you, so I don't need to worry about forgetting to lock my home. :relief:

 

[Flashjeff]

Not only do I lock my doors, I have a security alarm system in place, on top of that, I stuff rolled up towels at the bottom of my front and back doors before I go to bed, so if someone were to force the doors, the towels would keep an uninvited visitor from fully opening the doors. I live in the inner city where crime is very much a way of life, where you never know when you might become a vicitim as people aren't even safe in their homes today. Perhaps this view stemms from the paranoia that comes from living in a city, but I can't imagine going to bed at night with the doors unlocked. In my mind, that's folly of the highest order.

 

[Tsuyoiko]

I can't imagine a place where it's OK to leave your door unlocked.

I agree. I have two back doors and one front door that I always lock. I might leave the back door to the kitchen open if I was just nipping out in the daytime - mainly so Iris can run around, as she lives in the porch between the two back doors. But I always lock both at night, so mice can't get into the kitchen. At the back I also have a six foot fence and gravel, and lockable windows at the front. I am actually so afraid of getting broken into that going on holiday makes me feel ill. It all stems from when my parents got burgled on my wedding day - although everywhere was locked and the neighbours were supposedly watching the house.

 

[m477]

The doors at my place are all auto locking, both the front door as well as the door to my unit. So yeah. I don't have a choice.

 

[No-name]

Some meth head dreg keeps breaking into my cars in front of my house! Get a clue, there's nothing left to steal. Last time they cut my son's soft top to get in. (The car was unlocked, you theiving Bozo!)

 

[Flashjeff]

Some meth head dreg keeps breaking into my cars in front of my house! Get a clue, there's nothing left to steal. Last time they cut my son's soft top to get in. (The car was unlocked, you theiving Bozo!)

Sounds to me like a justifiable excuse to have Mssrs. Smith & Wesson convince this lowlife of the error of his ways.

 

[Maciamo]

I have added a poll. Much easier for comparison between countries.

 

[CC1]

I only lock my doors if I am leaving for several hours. There is really nothing worth stealing in my home and people would have to be crazy to break in while I am here!

 

[cursore]

Usually the doors in Italy self lock and on top of that you can put the strong lock, specially if you are away for shopping or for the day