Do you lock your doors?

[DrewKaree]

I have a keyless lock for my front door.  My kids are CONSTANTLY leaving the front door open.  I lock the house doors whenever I leave, but I leave my car doors wide open.  I NEVER leave anything in my car because I had 2 cars broken into, one, they stole a CB radio, but left the in-dash, and the other, they stole some crap from my glove box that was worthless (but left an envelope full of cash that my passenger had left in there, unbeknownst to me).  Consequently, I no longer lock my car doors, hoping that the assholster who wants to steal something from my car will try the door first.

Seriously, NEVER anything in my car worth stealing.  Brake fluid, quart of oil, transmission fluid, power steering fluid, that's it.

Howsabout you (and why)?

[saint]

I lock all my doors at all times, and have an alarm system in the house for when we're away and asleep. I don't think a lock will keep out someone determined, but I hope it will give whomever's in the house advance warning to be able to react in an appropriate manner. Also, locked/alarmed doors mean my kids can't sneak out without alerting me. Not that that's an issue yet, but someday? I was a good kid (seriously, never in any trouble, didn't party until I was a senior in high school, etc) and I still sneaked out at night. Oh, and yes,l all the windows in my house are alarmed as well.

[pointdablame]

I lock all my doors... house, car, anything.

It's equal parts OCD and growing up in the city where it just wasn't smart to leave things unlocked.  I wind up double checking that things are locked, and even make sure the doors in the house are locked when I'm in the house.

[shardian]

We keep all doors locked at all times. It has come in handy more than once too when people we don't even know have tried to come into our house. What the hell is wrong with people that go straight to trying to open the door instead of knocking or ringing the bell?!?

[bfauska]

I wish I lived somewhere that I didn't feel like I should lock my doors.  I see the argument of not locking a car with no valuables in it.  I've had 2 cars broken into and in both cases the damage caused by the entry to the car was more expensive than the things that got stolen. If I think about the idea of not locking the doors it sounds crazy to me, but that's probably not even why I do it.  I've always done it, always all doors, it's how I was raised and it's a strong habit.

[danny_galaga]

house and car. but i will leave the car unlocked at certain times when im away from it for a short while. like drew, nothing to steal from it. overnight because it is potentially easy to hotwire and who knows, some kids might do it just for a laugh...

[crashwg]

I lock the car because I don't live in the type of neighborhood that has a lot of "breaking in" to cars and the locks keep the people not determined enough to break windows and such from stealing my radar detector which is the only thing worth anything in my car.  I couldn't afford another if it got stolen and I believe speed limits are almost always 10+ mph slower than they should be so locking the doors solves any potential problems in that area.

Home the doors are almost always locked.  Especially the back door because it would probably be forgotten about when leaving.  The front door is usually only unlocked when someone is in the living room which is the room you first enter.

A little over a year ago now I believe there was an acquaintance of mine that had found out where I lived...  I knew he was a less-than-honest person but I had always been friendly to him in the past so I was under the impression that I was on his "do not steal from" list, so I let him in.  We talked for a short time before I had to kick him out (in a polite way) because we were heading out.  Little did we know that his only intention coming over was to case the joint.  We forgot something, had to come back less than 2 minutes up the road and when my GF came in to get whatever it was he was at the back door trying to credit card the door!  He claimed that he was trying to come in just to leave me a note for some thing or other.  I don't recall exactly why I didn't pursue it legally beyond calling the police from the aforementioned prior obligation's house...  They said they'd keep an eye out or something to that effect.  Anyway, he's never come back and hopefully never will.

Whenever I consider the inconvenience that is locking doors/windows/etc. I just have to think about how much more inconvenient it would be to file police reports and try to replace/repair anything that was stolen or destroyed.

[patrickl]

I don't think my insurance covers break-ins if I don't lock the house.

My dad left his car doors unlocked for a while because he got fed up with thiefs breaking his windows just to check that there was nothing valuable inside his car. Until one morning he found a sleeping homeless guy in his car   He still insist on living in the center of Amsterdam though.

[shardian]

I'd have to read my homeowners policy again to be sure, but I don't think they pay unless there is physical damge/evidence of forced entry.

[patrickl]

I'd have to read my homeowners policy again to be sure, but I don't think they pay unless there is physical damge/evidence of forced entry.

Yeah sorry, that's what I meant too.

[ChadTower]

Here in the States I lock my house doors when no one is home... when people are home, it is about 50/50.  We always lock my wife's car because it is recently new.  My car, the Civic with 112k, I lock if something valuable is inside, if not I'm about 50/50 depending on where I am.  That car has been stolen twice (both before 8k) but at this point it's worth thousands more to me stolen than it is in the driveway.

Back home in Canada where I grew up we rarely locked the doors to the cars or the house.  Our "town" had only about 40 people in it and most of them were family.

[tommy]

I lock all my doors. Are you nuts?

I don't care if i lived in a shack in the middle of nowhere, I'd lock my shack. 

[missioncontrol]

I lock all my doors. Are you nuts?

I don't care if i lived in a shack in the middle of nowhere, I'd lock my shack. 

you wouldn't have to lock your doors if you had an attack pit bull 

[ChadTower]

I think he's locking it in.

[shmokes]

I lock my car doors always, and my house doors while I am away and asleep, but when I'm home during the day my house is almost always unlocked.  I haven't voted yet.  I'm torn.

[tommy]

I lock all my doors. Are you nuts?

I don't care if i lived in a shack in the middle of nowhere, I'd lock my shack. 

you wouldn't have to lock your doors if you had an attack pit bull 

Yes i still would. I'd have to worry about some guy breaking into my house to cause me harm and then suing me when my dog bites his ass off because he's a "pit bull".

[ChadTower]

You said your dog is trained to know its place and not threaten people regardless of the circumstance.   

[boykster]

I lock the house when I leave, and at night - we also have an alarm.  I leave it unlocked while home during the day.  I lock my car when it's parked anywhere but in my garage.  The garage is alarmed so I don't lock when they're in there.  I also don't keep anything valuable in visible sight in the cars.

Where I grew up, we never locked anything.  Doors were always left unlocked, car doors rarely locked, etc.  Heck, I don't even think I had a housekey for my parents house.

[tommy]

You said your dog is trained to know its place and not threaten people regardless of the circumstance.   

He said IF i had an attack pit bull.

[ChadTower]

I'm sorry, I can't see through the redundancy.

[tommy]

It was a hypothetical situation to where my dog was aggressive and i would be afraid to leave my door unlocked (you know, the tread being about that) , i would be scared to leave my door open for fear i would be sued if my dog bit someone, as in any other dog that would bite him i would not have to worry about being sued but a "pit bull" i would because of the bad rep only.

Don't try to twist this into something else or thinking you "caught me" in some lie.

And stop with the new big faces. 

[ChadTower]

Redundant:  characterized by verbosity or unnecessary repetition in expressing ideas; exemplar gratis: attack pit bull.

[mr.Curmudgeon]

I usually lock my house when I'm in it, but awake. Not always.
I always lock it when I'm asleep, or away.

I have an alarm system on the house, with motion sensors throughout. I had the system installed mostly for the discount on insurance and for the piece of mind that came with the *whole house* fire alarm system; meaning that if any fire alarm goes off, they ALL go off (think: small fire in basement, me asleep upstairs). The system will also INSTANTLY call the fire department. Pretty standard stuff with most packages. For me, I'm obviously more concerned about house fires, as opposed to home invasion. (I live in a safe neighborhood.)

I always lock my car when I'm not in it.

[tommy]

 attack pit bull.

Yeah, that was not my word but i was dumb enough to play along with it. I'm so used to this forum and it's crazy ideas about pits it slipped past me.

[Bones]

I have a lot of people that look different and who come from different counties that live around me, so I always lock my doors at night and when I go out.

[danny_galaga]

I have a lot of people that look different and who come from different counties that live around me, so I always lock my doors at night and when I go out.

because it would be ok if an AUSSIE junkie did your house over 

[polaris]

I have a lot of people that look different and who come from different counties that live around me, so I always lock my doors at night and when I go out.

thats one of the most mindblowing things ive read on this forum.

[Level42]

He must be an aboriginal.

[ChadTower]

Bones is definitely original, that's for sure, but dude has no abs.   

[Hockeyboy]

I wish I could live in an area where it wouldn't be necessary to lock my house and vehicles, but sadly that's just not the case. Just before I moved into my brand-new housing development, I lived across the street from a high school and I would always have to keep an eye on those young thugs-in-training. I'd see them trying doors on various cars, trying to be sneaky and such -- obviously the cars were not theirs because they would eventually break out some keys and get into a different vehicle.

I've had to remind the kids constantly to shut the garage door at night -- wife and I work nights at the same location and we get home in the morning and the big garage door is just wide open...of course the front and back door is locked but what's the point if you leave the garage door open?   

[lcddream]

yep. when you live in a major city you should lock the doors....even if you don't


just lock your doors.....there are psychos everywhere, no really...there are.