Would you still lock your doors when you went out if there was no risk of being broken into?

[slo]

Yes
Yes
and Yes!

I’m never gonna trust that someone won’t come into my home.

 

[ncc1701]

Yes. For me locking the doors is just a good habit. I don’t even think about it. I just automatically do it. It wouldn’t matter if there was no risk. I’m still going to lock you out.

I grew up in a safe neighborhood & the front door was locked. During the day if we were home the back door might be unlocked but at night it got locked ( it went into the family room & kitchen so someone was usually there.) Based on the layout of our home ( also in a safe neighborhood) we usually have the doors locked. If we are out doing work in the front yard that door is open , same with the backyard.

 

[Kimkimba]

Always. I’ve watched one too many Lifetime movies. The bad guys always love the “safe” neighborhoods.

 

[ChiGirlMom]

Yes or no?

Did we not all learn something watching all these crime docuseries on Netflix during quarantine? Killers always come in through an unlocked window! Or door. And even in your “safe” rural, small town.
Doors and windows always locked. I live in the city now but the only break in I ever had was in the well to do suburb I grew up in.

 

[aprilchem]

We've lived in this house for almost 20 years and we've never locked the doors. For the first 19 or so years we didn't even have a key to our front door, but we refinished the door as a quarantine project & got the lock replaced at that time (it's an old 1930s lock, so we had to get a vintage one to replace it). Even though we can lock it now we rarely do.

Ironically, someone did try to break in about 7 or 8 years ago but they didn't even try to the front door - they tried to come in through our bedroom window but our dogs scared them away.

 

[mrodgers]

On the premise of suddenly it was safe to leave doors unlocked all of a sudden, then no, we are all conditioned pretty much to lock our doors. Heck, after 17 years married with 2 daughters, I am alone mostly now and still lock the bathroom door. I'm conditioned to it.

If we're talking the past was never the past and do I think I would lock the door if crime was never a thing, no one can really answer that because what has shaped our minds to lock our doors now would not have shaped our minds if it was always safe.

Another question that would be interesting, which has more variables, would be do you lock your car doors? Only time I lock my doors is at work or if I have my firearm in the car. The only time my firearm would be in the car is if I'm out at the house with the kids and I don't want to sit with in in my waistband all day. If we went anywhere, then the firearm is in my waistband. I don't have anything in my car any other time unless I am shopping store to store with purchases in the car.

 

[Alicefan]

3 pages full of people telling exactly how their front doors are wide open on a public forum. LOL

 

[dvcgirl67]

I chuckled when I saw this....kind of apropos for my house this past week. Nothing like this has ever happened to us before. We live in a safe town....not a lot of crime, and we live literally one block from the police headquarters. What we learned this last week was that people trying to get into your home....may not be trying to break in to steal from you, or hurt you. They may be hammered....and think *your* house....is *their* house. Or at least the house where they believe they are supposed to be.

Last Sunday night....went to bed around 10:30 or so. We have a ring camera. And we have three dogs, but they are gated in the rear of the house (to keep them off living room furniture when we're not with them). Around 10:45 we heard my youngest dog, Zuzu...2 year old miniature schnauzer start to bark. The other two joined in right after. I was listening to see if my Airedale barked....because sometimes my Zuzu will bark to alert us that the Airedale, Phoebe is having a seizure.

So..all good, they all barked...no seizure. We assumed that they heard the dog next door or something. We use a white noise machine, so didn't hear anything. My husband shushed them from our bedroom....and we went back to sleep. My husband must have drifted off really fast....because he didn't notice the notifications coming in from our Ring Cam.

I woke up the next morning to six videos....all about a minute or so long....over about 20 minute period .....where a very drunk man was trying to get into our house. But it was clear that he thought he was where he was supposed to be. He was stumbling all over, but also kept calling someone...and they talked to him, and he would ring our doorbell (the ring cam one...don't have another one).....and try the door again. He'd call the person back....that person seemed to be insisting he was at the right place....he'd try the doorbell and door again. They were speaking Spanish so no idea what they were saying. Anyway....it was amusing, but also a little scary. Imagine if we had left our door unlocked....he would have walked right in. My dogs would have gone ballistic at that point. But who knows what could have happened. Eventually he stumbled off into the darkness. I was glad to have the ring cam though, because he almost went over my porch railing a couple of times....and I had visions of walking out the next morning to a dead frozen man in my driveway. I was happy I had the video! I was also happy that he didn't hurl on my front porch or in my bushes out front.

So...my long story is my way of saying.....lock your doors.....you never know.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Had a home invasion when I was a newlywed so yes, I always lock no matter what.

 

[dislaney]

I always lock my doors.

 

[Mysterian]

There is always a risk, unless one lives on a house boat in the middle of a lake.

What if that lake is Crystal Lake?

(And it's a trick question, he's just going to smash through the windows anyway.)

 

[MeridaAnn]

I lock my apartment door every time I leave, even if it's just to go grab my mail or to throw out the trash at the dumpster out in the parking lot, just for the habit of it. If I'm ever out and about and I suddenly worry whether I locked the door when I left or not, I can confidently reassure myself because I *never* go through that door without locking it.

Even in a magical world where robbery doesn't happen (nor any other crimes), it's still a privacy feature - I wouldn't want even my family or best friends coming into my home when I didn't expect them in case I hadn't cleaned up or put away anything I didn't want them to see, etc.

Plus, I've accidentally gone to the wrong door at my apartment complex once when I was entering from a different direction than usual and I stopped one building too soon, since all our buildings look identical, so I was very glad the door was locked and I didn't accidentally wander into a stranger's home. On the flip side, I did accidentally get into the wrong vehicle once because someone parked next to me with the exact same make/model/year car that even had similarly peeling paint on the hood, but they *didn't* lock their car - I hit unlock on my key fob, I actually heard the click of my door unlocking, since mine was just one spot over, and then I opened the wrong door (since it was left unlocked) and sat down in someone else's car, only realizing once I was fully inside that it was far too tidy to be mine.

 

[Orion Nebula]

Had a home invasion when I was a newlywed so yes, I always lock no matter what.

That has to of been horrifying... I "thought" I did many years ago as my wife said she saw a figure leaning over my daughters bed. It was one of the most frightening things I have dealt with. It turned out my eldest was just stealing her sisters water at 2am. WHO DOES THAT!???

My kids... I swear.

 

[TippyThomas]

Would you still lock your doors when you went out if there was no risk of being broken into?

 

[LoveSpringsteen]

Heck yeah. All locked all the time - even when we're home. If the house is open in the summer and we're home, I lock the screen door as well. I wouldn't be able to sleep knowing my doors were unlocked.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Don’t tell anyone but I rarely lock my door unless it’s Halloween or something similar.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

My dad was a police officer who spent 10 years of his career as a burglary detective. Our doors were always locked, as mine are now. I've never really understood the definition of a "safe neighborhood." My mother-in-law used to leave her front door unlocked when she lived alone. She said, "I live in safe neighborhood, so it's fine." I pointed out that although she knows and trusts her neighbors, there are no gates or fences to keep people from coming onto her street. Burglars love breaking into homes in quiet neighborhoods. In fact, her house was burglarized once when DH was in high school.

One particular Christmas Eve, we were having dinner at her house when someone started banging on the door and rattling the door knob. I had made a point of locking the door after DH and I arrived. It was a mentally ill woman who had been visiting her mother a few streets away. The mother apparently got drunk and said some things the woman didn't like. She bolted from the house on foot. The mother's boyfriend followed her since she wasn't competent enough to be walking around alone at night. She ran up to MIL's door. DH peek out and asked what she wanted. She pointed to the mom's BF and said, "I need help! This man is beating me!" The man seemed very reasonable, and told DH the story. He said he was just following her, trying to make sure she was safe. I called 911 and the police came to sort it out. They ended up sending the man home and gave the woman a ride back to her group home. I could just imagine what would have happened if the door had been unlocked and she came bursting in! My FIL was very ill with cancer at the time. It would have been a scary situation for everyone. So yes, doors locked!

 

[VandVsmama]

I'd still lock the doors.

 

[ronandannette]

3 pages full of people telling exactly how their front doors are wide open on a public forum. LOL

Yep - you're welcome to drop in any time if you can find me.

 

[mrodgers]

Yep - you're welcome to drop in any time if you can find me.

Some kid on a gaming forum said, "Ha, you have to find me first" and so from his posts on the gaming forum I figured out where he lives in the UK from my computer at home in Pennsylvania and sent him his address in a private message. I was correct.

It may not be as difficult to find you as you think.