Did you lock your doors in the US?

Our neighborhood watch guy just sent around an email regarding a car theft on our estate. This got me and DH talking about how we could better secure our home (the car was stolen after the perpetrator broke into the house and stole the keys). It then came up that my family never locked our doors at my parent's house. Sometimes we might lock the door at night, but usually the door would be unlocked 24/7 unless we were away on holiday. DH thought this was insane and thought we must have been robbed all the time, but nothing ever happened. My aunts and uncles up the street from us never locked their doors. My friend's families never locked theirs either and no one had ever been the victim of a crime.

DH's reaction got me wondering if it was just something we did in my small suburb town (I would assume people would be concerned with security in cities or rougher areas), if it was a regional US thing or if it was more widespread than that.

So, did you always lock your doors when you lived in the US or if you live in the US, do you lock them now?

Nope, except at night when people are inside.

You did not lock the front door of your house? Even at night?!

Wow, we had 8 locks on our apartment door in NYC, and we only locked every other one, so if someone tried to pick the locks, they would lock an unlocked lock, and unlock a lock, lock an unlocked lock, and unlock a lock, lock an unlocked lock, and unlock a lock, lock an unlocked lock, and unlock a lock. And in the end they would still be locked out! Additionally, we had a metal rod that went across the door from the inside, for use when we were home. And we had metal gates on all of the windows.

We could have loaned you a lock if we knew you had needed one! LOL!

But, that was NYC, in the 70's.

You did not lock the front door of your house? Even at night?!



We could have loaned you a lock if we knew you had needed one! LOL!

 

Very rarely at night and we had working locks and keys. We just never used them. The most exciting thing to happen to my hometown was when we got a second Dunkin Donuts. My hometown is pretty tragic.

Aw! Cute! Nice and safe anyway!

We always locked the doors, but it was kind of silly because my parents live out in the woods near a river and there has never, in the 30 years they've been living there, ever been any kind of robbery on the road they live on. It's not even small-town. There is no town. It's a region of land in rural NJ that they decided to name. No post office, not even a traffic light.

But, we locked them. Whether we were in the house or not. The house would have been easy enough to break into though because we always left windows open in the summer.

The places I've lived since (Hartford, CT; New Brunswick, NJ; Glasgow; Jersey City), there was no question about locking the doors.

But, we locked them. Whether we were in the house or not. The house would have been easy enough to break into though because we always left windows open in the summer.

Yup. We did that too! 

As a city chick, I tend to be way more scared in small towns and wooded areas then I am of urban areas.

I've seen those films. I know where the serial killers are.

They ain't on Broadway in NYC... They are in the woods, and the small towns! Coz you are all easy prey! Coz you don't lock them door and windows...

I'm no fool. I saw all them films!

 

I have always locked but I have also lived in cities. I have known those that didn't lock and they almost exclusively lived in the country.

I've seen those films. I know where the serial killers are.

I'm no fool. I saw all them films!

 

Don't say "I'll be right back" because you won't.  

You just have to follow the horror movie rules a la Randy from Scream.

As a city chick, I tend to be way more scared in small towns and wooded areas then I am of urban areas.

I've seen those films. I know where the serial killers are.

They ain't on Broadway in NYC... They are in the woods, and the small towns! Coz you are all easy prey! Coz you don't lock them door and windows...

I'm no fool. I saw all them films!

 

Semi-related: As a child, one summer, I would hear what sounded like a woman's blood-curdling screams coming from the woods behind my house at night. This would terrify me, but I was too scared to say anything. My natural assumption was that someone was killing women in the woods every night and they might try to do the same to me if I said anything.

Finally, after probably 2 weeks of this, I couldn't take it any longer. I told my mom about it, how there's someone in the woods murdering women, how I've considered sleeping in my dresser drawer so that if he comes he can't find me. She starts laughing uncontrollably.

The sound. That wretched, god-awful sound ... was baby foxes. 

my parents in the states lost the key to our front door years ago and still haven't managed to replace the lock.  It's probably been 10 years since the door was locked, and we've gone away on vacations as well.

We used to come home sometimes to my brother's friends sitting on our sofa watching TV and eating pizza.  I actually loved it.  My dad's theory was always "if they're going to break in, they'll break the glass door regardless, so we may as well save the door and not lock it."

We lock everything in NI.  I hate it.  I miss trusting people to not be eejits. 

When I was younger we usually only locked the doors at night. My parents still live in the same house, and it is still a very low-crime area, yet my Dad has become obsessed with locking the doors. When I stayed with them last summer, he locked me out MANY times when I was just getting the newspaper or taking out the trash. It drove me NUTS!

I'm in the US and lock my doors.  It's partially a habit from living in Houston, and also that my front door has blown open at times.  When that happens, my door-dashing cat runs for it.  Even though I live in a smaller town now, I don't want to worry about my door blowing open.

I've grown up in the suburbs of Atlanta. We've always locked the door. Always. Even if we're inside. When I lived on a 3rd floor apt, I often left the door unlocked when I went running (cos, really, who's going to climb all those stairs just to steal my 15 year old tv??) Then my neighbors were robbed while we were at work. I always locked it after that. And we always lock our door in London!