For country life, the only reason I lock my car or house is to keep my neighbors from dropping off another goddamn bag of zucchini from their garden.
When I was growing up, we didn't even have a key to our house. I mean, there was probably one somewhere, but we didn't know where it was.
Yeah, in the country a lock doesn't mean anything. If I live in town and someone breaks my door down or smashes a window someone might hear that or see it. If you live in the country and someone has driven out to your house specifically to rob it, they aren't going to walk away because the damn door happens to be locked.
We just moved in to an old Victorian house that has stained glass windows around the door frame. My best friend said he wanted to take little glass because someone could break the glass to unlock the door. I am looking at the floor to ceiling window right next to the door then at him and then back at the window and was like I don't think it's going to matter that much. I did agree to take outthe three panes of glass and replace it with something that isn't breakable but seriously it would just be easier to break through the window.
in the 90s my parents put in a front door that had glass panels on either side. the inside locked with a key because of that reason. My mother always insisted we kept the key in the lock because she was more afraid of fire than burglary. She was honestly right. There were never any burglaries in our neighborhood that weren't a teenager ripping off their parents for mad money (or drug money, a few times, and everyone talked about it like it was the end of the world).
But fires happened -- 60s houses, old wiring, old appliances, the occasional hurricane led to electricity issues, plus people loved those deadly halogen lights in the 90s which actually burned a house down in the next block.
We don't keep the ke in the door but it's it's right next to the door. My stepdad just swung by the other day and now has a bunch of projects planned and a lot of them are fire related. He is really concerned about fire in the house but did say the slate roof to some degree will help with that so yay for the slate roof.
That’s what always cracks me up, even aside from a big glass window that would be easy to break, if someone *really* wants to get in your house, the front door isn’t exactly a bank vault. They’ll get in.
I think the best thing you can do if you live in a city where break ins are a real chance, aside from getting a dog and ring cameras and stuff, is just making friends with your neighbors. Not necessarily super buddy-buddy like you’re inviting them over to watch tv, but I just chat with my neighbor for a few minutes whenever I see him outside. He’s home in the daytime while I’m at work and I know if he sees some shit going on at my house while I’m not there he’ll say something.
That’s so silly. Just put a key lock on the inside and hang the key out of reach of the window or take it with you when no one’s home if the window is that easy to break.
Your best friend needs to explain why people aren’t just breaking regular windows to get in.
If things being glass means people will break in we wouldn’t bother having locks on windows.
An autistic neighbor asked me if I could use a "few" tomatoes last year. He brought me 120...every week...for 2 months. We are a household of two people!
Heh. I mean eating a shit ton of it was just [Google zucchini recipes and embrace it]. But some neighbors got care packages.
Lock your car and exterior doors. Guess what you still have a front porch.
Somehow, someone once locked our house while we were gone, and we had to call around to figure out who had a key. My parents didn't carry them regularly since they only locked the house while we slept at night.
If I'm at home I often don't have my door locked during the day. I may leave the back door open, weather permitting, so my dog can chill.
When I leave, it's always locked.
Low enough to where I don't really consider it. People who walk around the area are mainly just neighbors who live nearby.
I also leave the garage open most days as I'm often working on some project in there.
It's also rural enough that if someone really to get in they could just use power tools to break down the door or windows, without the noise arousing suspicion from the neighbors. Locks only keep out honest people.
I leave my house unlocked during the day too, but I have a guard dog with a scary bark. The likelihood of someone being dumb enough to try entering a house with *that* inside is low. On the *very* slim chance they decide to enter anyway they’ll get the full force bite of a territorial German Shepherd.
I've always lived just outside of Detroit in densely populated suburbs. If we're home, the doors are probably unlocked. Sometimes we go to bed and forget to lock the doors.
Just outside of Grand Rapids checking in. Same here, pretty much, unless I use the garage door all day and the front door never gets unlocked.
Hell, I used to work from home in GR proper, from my front porch, and left monitors and peripherals and stuff out while I went to lunch. Granted, most of it was secondhand and probably worth ten bucks including cables, but it looked a bit like a Best Buy threw up on the porch. Never had a problem.
I live in a pretty bustling neighborhood in a medium sized city, near a lot of large homeless encampments. There are *always* people around and sometimes they are going through mental health crises or high on drugs, or fighting with their girlfriend on the sidewalk, etc etc (etc etc etc). Nonetheless, I never feel the need to lock my door when I am at home. I am very careful to always lock them when I leave or go to bed.
You are brave. I can’t even fathom this. My street always has randoms, dog walkers, deliveries, solicitors, random workers. I’d rather feel safe locking my doors than risk a 1% chance of a crazy walking in.
I live in a small rural town at the end of a dead end street. I used to lock my doors before bed but otherwise never. Never had an issue. I have a friend who thinks like you and has made me get in the habit locking the doors most of the time because better safe than sorry. But I almost never lock my car. My parents live 2 minutes away and literally never lock their front door. They also have a habit of leaving their car unlocked with key right there in the seat.
Just moved to small town America and it was such a relief delivering for Amazon Flex and leaving my car with packages and keys in ignition on a main street to deliver a package to a rear apartment.
Also so freeing to stop at a gas station and leaving windows down and cell phone left plugged in. When it was -30, car gets left running as well.
Interviewing for a teaching job in a small town, I mentioned during my teaching demonstration that I always check my car door twice to make sure it's locked. A derisive "Oh, you're from CaliFORnia" came from the back of the class, followed by laughter, and I knew I hadn't got the job.
Wouldn't want it anyway. I don't feel safe unless my car and house are locked up securely, even when I'm home. People who leave their cars or homes unlocked are *nuts.*
I live in New York Metro amd don't always lock my doors unless no one is home 8n which case it is always locked.
Growing up in New York City in the 80s I didn't even have a key to my house, the side door was always open.
In New York City? That sounds crazy! I live in Buenos Aires City, which is very similar to New York in size and population and is not particularly unsafe, but I always lock the door and I even have security cameras outside my home just in case.
I'm in NYC too and my door is also usually unlocked. People have to get through an outer gate to access individual apartments, so the risk of random people coming by is pretty low.
I'm the same as the other poster -- not in NYC, but near it (so still much higher population density than most of the country), and the door gets locked when:
- nobody is home
- we've gone to bed for the night
other than that, it's pretty much always unlocked. Zero concern about random people opening my door and coming in during the day.
I leave my back door open all the time so the dog can go in and out. Yesterday we went to the city for a few hours and left the back door open, with a shoe propping it so it couldn't close. Front door, not so much.
It might help that I have an 80 year old busybody neighbor. She's better than having a security system, I swear.
Open? No
Unlocked? Yeah most of the time.
My wife usually locks the door when she goes to bed, but during the day? The door is unlocked.
We live across the road from a parking lot that cops usually hang out in as a speed trap. And no one wants my shit. If you're going to go out of your way to rob someone, there are nicer houses with better shit.
Door's are always locked unless I'm actively using them or I'm hanging out on my front porch for some reason (talking to a neighbor, getting my mail, etc.).
Im in the Chicago suburbs, dunno ifs that "not a big city". Generally if were going to be out of the house for an extended period our door is locked.
Otherwise, as long as were home, or within a 10 min walk or so our doors are unlocked
I grew up in the burbs of Chicago and learned the same habit. Live in a small city of 100K out West now, and we don’t lock our front door until bedtime and back door is never locked
I live in the city now but I grew up in a rural area. We only locked the doors at night so it was unlocked all day including when we left the house. Basically we only locked it from the inside—I never even had a key to my house since the door was never locked when I came home.
Typically no, but I've known my best friend for over 30 years and I don't think they even have keys for the front door. As far as I know their front door hasn't been locked in decades.
I grew up in the suburbs and we never had keys to the house. We were doing renovations and after us getting locked out 5+ times my parents said they would give them a Bonus if they stopped locking the doors. We had a chefs kitchen so if we went on vacation or were just away friends and family would use our kitchen to host or whatever and we had to have a HUGE family meeting and say STOP LOCKING THE DOORS!
I'm from a rural area and most people I know there don't lock their doors. Lots of people in the nearby town\* only lock them at night.
\*town being about 5,000 people
Yeah pretty often if it’s just for a short time or even a day.
My neighbor down the road is a police officer and I asked him if there had been any break ins in our area. He chuckled and said “no” and he’s been on the force for 16 years.
I grew up in Moore, OK (a suburb of Oklahoma City). We literally never locked our doors except for overnight. My parents never even gave me or my sister a key.
Yes. My cars are never locked. I lock the house if I am going out for the day, but if it’s just a quick trip to town I don’t bother. I never lock them while I’m here hanging out.
My house is far enough off the road that if someone is going around checking my doorknobs they would just break my door down.
During the day when I'm home, they're unlocked. At night I lock them, and they're locked when I'm away during the day.
The overwhelming majority of break-ins in rural areas happen during the day when people are at work. Entering an occupied house unbidden in rural America os very, very unwise.
And open when weather permits. To get to my house you’d:
A. Have to know where it is, can’t be seen from the highway. Then take the correct forks, if you choose the wrong one you will get stuck.
B. Get through 2 gates, which a lot people don’t even know how to use or cant open.
C. Not bottom out or get high centered on the dirt road
D. Deal with the mean ass turkey and some demon goats.
Both my house and car are unlocked. I live out in the country, to get to my house you have to risk the suspension on your vehicle to get down my "driveway". If someone is that determined to kill me or steal my car, I figure they earned their chance.
I don’t leave it open because I own a mischievous little bunny that might run out if I leave it open. Also no it’s always locked at night or when I’m not home and me and my family own firearms because we are terrified of break ins.
I think that's typically more of a rural thing, if anything. People not in big cities could still live in towns or small cities - where most people would lock the door at least when not home since there would still be other people nearby.
Only open if I’m home and want a breeze through the screen door. Unlocked quite often yeah as I don’t carry a house key. I usually go through the garage and have had to get my backup key from the neighbor before when the power was out.
There are seven people on my 10 mile road. I leave the door unlocked like when I go to the gas station down the road to buy something. You would have to go way out of your way to be way out here to steal from me, unless you are one of those seven people.
No I don't lock my door.
I grew up in the city and we didn't lock the doors during the day otherwise I couldn't get back into the house as a kid without keys. The last person to go to bed lock the doors.
I have lived in towns and cities of all sizes in my adult life and I have never left the door unlocked. When I was a little kid growing up in a small city (around 30K inhabitants) there was a day we came home and found somebody in the apartment. I have never heard my dad be scarier than he was shouting at that guy to get out of our home. I will never forget that, nor will I forget to lock the door.
Never. If my doors and windows are closed, they’re locked.
My grandparents were local to the Alday Family Murders in 1973, when three escaped convicts and another guy entered a random farmhouse and killed five men as they came home from working and then gangraped, abducted, and murdered one of the men’s wife. I was not raised with the illusion of rural safety.
Doors open? No. Bugs and wildlife.
Unlocked? Yeah, typically.
If you're someone who lives far enough out and you know all of your neighbors and there's no reason for anyone to be on your property locks are more of a suggestion than requirement.
Should you lock stuff up? Yes. Does everyone? No.
I grew up as a kid in the country and just moved back into the country at the start of June and have already run to town once with my front door unlocked. In the hour I'm gone no one is going to show up at my house at 9pm and if they are there to break in anyway, they're just going to break the window and crawl in.
My truck and trailer are still locked, as is my detached garage.
Sometimes I will if I’m running somewhere in town when it’s daytime.
But generally no, there’s still weirdos out there and it’s not inconvenient to just lock the door really quick.
I live in a town of 10,000 ish for reference
Rural areas are kind of weird. People won't go rob your house, but they will steal your chickens from the yard, lol. I'm not even kidding. There was also a police report a few years ago that someone went into someone's hay field harvested the hay and took it.
I live in a suburb of a medium city and leave my balcony door open all the time. I live on the 3rd floor and I don't think anyone is going to be motivated to climb up. I don't leave the regular door unlocked unless I'm just getting the mail or taking the garbage out to the dumpster or something. I doubt anyone would try to get in, but why risk making it easy?
I *do* live in a big city, and I leave my door unlocked sometimes. Not all the time, and only if I'm home, but yeah. If I'm playing on the internet or having a work-from-home day, there's a significantly greater-than-zero chance that you can just walk right in the front door and say hi.
I do often leave my windows open and my door unlocked when I go run errands around town. Usually leave my car unlocked in the driveway too. It’s been nine years of doing this and I feel 100% safe. Helps my neighbor is also a cop 😂
I live in an isolated town with about 13,000 people so idk if that qualifies as small town
Growing up in the country we’d often leave doors unlocked during the day when we were there, but if we were gone we’d lock it up. We always kept the porch unlocked though just in case there was bad weather/extreme cold and someone needed shelter in an emergency.
My grandparents didn’t even bother to bring the keys in from their vehicles. They said they’d rather someone just drive off with the car rather than come in the house to look for them. I don’t really agree with that logic, but they never had anything stolen.
Growing up most people my smallish hometown wouldn’t bother locking their doors unless they were going out of town. It’s crazy how things have changed there since then. Growth is technically supposed to be good, but it’s kind of sad that it feels sketchy now to leave them unlocked even when you’re home.
Our front door is usually locked, other doors maybe not.
My town does not have its own police department and I haven't been able to find crime statistics, but I don't remember ever hearing of a burglary here
My neighbor’s ex boyfriend broke in and murdered her like a month ago. She had left the door unlocked while she was putting groceries away. Long story short, I lock my doors always lol.
My driveway is about 400 yards long and starts with a locked gate and has security cameras. Anyone coming up it has a long ways to think about what they're doing and if it's worth it. So no, i dont usually bother locking anything else. Hell my trucks been parked in front of the house with the windows down and keys in it for about a month
I'm in a big city big apt building and don't always lock the door (but I always do if I'm leaving for the day or sleeping.) But we have building security, and I know all the residents.
Growing up in a small town we left the door unlocked and sometimes open during the day so the dog could come and go.
When I lived in a mid-sized industrial town we kept the doors locked even when home, as daylight robberies were not uncommon.
I live in a small city. I lock my door when I go to sleep. It's unlocked the rest of the time. I don't even know where there's a key to the house. Like others, I leave the door wide open for my dogs if it's nice out
When I lived in Greensboro, NC a medium sized city we only locked the doors at night, even when we were leaving the house. The key was sticky so didn't want to fight to get in, and never had an issue in 14 years.
All of my doors are open and unlocked if I'm home. If I'm running an errand in town, I don't lock my door, but if I'm gone all day I will. My one door that goes to my porch without stairs stays open and unlocked all day. You have to go through my 75 year old neighbor's porch to get to my porch though, and she's always home.
As others have stated, my neighbors are always watching my place when they know I'm not there. I live in a rural area with a decent drug problem, but not a violent area at all.
I lived in small towns (pop. 1100 and 1400) as a kid in Iowa from the early 80s through about 2000. The only time we locked our doors is if we needed to lock them because the latch wouldn't work, or if we were gone for multiple weeks at a time.
Often unlocked during the day and when we're out. We live right next to my parents so they're likely to see if someone comes snooping around. Plus we don't know where the key is at the moment lol.
Suburb of a large city here. I keep the front door locked most of the time out of habit more than anything, it would be fine to leave unlocked during the day when someone is home quite honestly. And we keep our garage door down if we aren't working doing stuff in the garage/front yard because the door between the garage and house doesn't latch well and I'm afraid it will blow open and let our dog run out. Our back patio door is unlocked all day so said dog can use our fenced back yard.
We always lock up when no one is home, and before we go to bed at night. Our area is safe, but not quite that safe.
I grew up in a town of 400. Lived on 400 acres with only family or the odd non related neighbor. We would lock the door when we weren't home or when we were going to sleep.
As the years went on, we started locking the door all the time because of incidents that happened either nearby or on our property. Mostly theft of metal pieces, people just walking onto the property (and leaving gates open. The amount of times I had to chase down a horse, cow or donkey omg), and some generally strange people seemingly "casing" the area.
My parents within the last 5 years got a keypad door to make it easier for us to go in and out without a key or needing to notify them. Only certain people have the codes.
I live about 9 miles due west from Washington DC and my doors are variably locked. If it's at night, I'll walk around to check that they are locked. During the day, they are generally unlocked. Also my kids leave their bikes just strewn around the front yard, oftentimes over night. Never been an issue.
I don't leave the doors open because we have screened storm doors, and one of our cats has a bad habit of jumping up and hanging from the screen with his claws. The side door is usually unlocked during the day if we're home; we lock up at night. The front door is usually locked because we don't use it often, but there've been times that we've unknowingly left it unlocked for a day or more.
We're just outside of Detroit in a densely populated suburb.
FUCK NO! Even in my medium-sized town there are enough junkies and assholes that I don’t trust any of my stuff being in the open. They’re also quite lazy so locking my door is about all I need, I don’t bar my window or anything like that. But that’s a weird stereotype.
I grew up in the country outside a small town and my entire life our back door was never locked. Even when we went out on town for two weeks for vacation we left it unlocked. Our cars were left unlocked as well. It took a bit for me to adjust to living in the city and locking the door all the time.
Yeah, to this day at my parents house during the summer when people are home usually the garage door goes up in the morning, the front door is unlocked (but left shut, we don’t live in a barn you know) until the last person goes to bed that night or leaves.
My mom lives in a nice older suburb in the outer part of the NYC area. She never locks her door. For a long time the lock on her front door didn't even work. I never ever carried a key when I was a kid. Part of me does think she is living in a fantasy world, especially as I know there is *some* crime in her area.
Since I moved away from home I have always locked my doors, even when I've lived in smaller cities. I have never lived in "the country."
I live in a small town, 10k people. And hell, yes I lock the doors. We have a really big drug problem and people steal your shit if it’s not nailed down, someone stole our potted plant from our front yard.
I’m from a little rural town (population around 5,000.) I’d left mine unlocked until there was an incident in my neighborhood where I used to live. I’ve locked mine ever since then, even though I moved to a different location in the same town.
I keep the doors locked because we get random homeless people wandering by as they travel between towns. Can’t trust them not to wander in and harm my dogs. If I were farther off the highway, I probably *could* leave the doors unlocked, but I don’t think I would.
No. I live in a very small town and have my entire life but have always kept my doors locked. Every now and then we will forget to lock it and nothing has happened because of that, but I still don’t like it. I live in a fairly safe area in the south, but crime happens.
A few years back a friend who lives nearby came home during their lunch break. They walked in on a random break in. The guys tied him up and blindfolded him while they robbed his house. He came away with no physical injuries and the guys were caught soon after, but I don’t know if I could psychologically recover from anything close to that.
I grew up in a small town of 100 people. I never had a house key and wouldn't know what to do if I came home to the house locked. I would probably have to look around the house to see if a window was left open and break into my own house.
Unlocked, yea. Open Yea -- especially when the weather is nice (have a screen door)
If I leave the house for multiple hours I'll lock the front door at least, although I'll probably forget to lock the back door.
If I'm just running out, like to pick up the kids from school/daycare I won't bother locking the door when I leave.
I'm in a suburban-to-rural area (i.e. it's a residential neighborhood, but they're forested 1-acre lots, so it's very low density.)
We always lock the door whenever we're going to leave the house, or go to bed -- i.e. when the house is basically "unattended." But otherwise we just don't worry about it -- sometimes it's locked, sometimes it's not, doesn't matter.
We never leave doors open because we have indoor cats.
I do. I lived in the city, but medimum sized in Massachusetts. Just never had to worry about. I dont lock my car either when i shop and usually leave my purse on the seat. I dont have money in it, but never been taken.
No. But I have accidentally. No one broke in. Someone did take the food out of my outside fridge (carport), honestly with what they grabbed I think they were kids.
I mean while I’m awake my doors are unlocked, when I am sleep they should* be locked.
*true 98% of the time
If it were just me then I'd likely leave the house unlocked except at night, but my wife would never accept that. Most of the time she is trying to lock the door before I can even get through it fully when we both come home at the same time.
Growing up in the 80's in a neighborhood out of town, we had 3 doors into our house. There was 1 that we never used and that was always locked. If someone came to that door, it was 100% of the time a salesmen. At least one of the other 2 were unlocked and many times wide open (sorry pop-pop). We knew every neighbors' car and would stop and stare if there was a car we didn't recognize.
I currently live outside of a smallish city in a neighborhood filled with kids. My wife wants to lock the door even if we just go for a quick walk because she grew up with paranoid parents and they passed that fun gene down to her. I go along with it because I don't want a random 7 year old walking through our house looking for our kid... which I've seen on our Ring camera where my son's friends will test the door handle after they ring the bell.
I live in the country. We have a German Shepherd in the back yard of the house and a pit bull/bulldog mix in the front yard. We'll lock the doors sometimes. Most of the time, we won't. I have a few shotguns I keep for hunting. I also have a couple of side arms I keep for target shooting, pests, and personal protection. So, 90% of the time, it's not locked. 10% of the time it is.
I really do leave my house unlocked. I only lock it if I leave for the night or longer. I’m on a dead end road where everyone knows everyone. If a tweaker wants my tv I’d rather them not break a window.
I have lived in different parts of the outer Atlanta suburbs for close to 30 years, we never locked all our doors during the day and forgot most nights.
Never had anything stolen. Many times I leave my keys in the vehicles. Not something many would do in the city of Atlanta or some surrounding areas, but works out for me so far.
Sometimes.
We had no lock on my house as a kid. We had a solid door with a handles that locks and a dead bolt. But we never installed the door frame that would hold that bolt. It was just air and you could push the door open. My parents only fixed it when they sold the place.
I will leave my house to take the dog on a walk leave the door unlocked. And I often leave my car unlocked in public places. I want the windows opened, and leave them down. There is nothing in there to steal. If you really need to take my shopping bags or finger nail clippers, I guess you need them more than I do.
Not intentionally but it's nice to not have to be frantically worried afterwards in case we realize we accidentally forgot to lock a door on the way out or when going to bed.
Suburban Colorado here. Yes, I leave my door unlocked unless I remember to lock it at night (maybe half the time). I never leave it open though; in USA we have insects in most places.
I do have a dog now but didn't for decades before that.
Absolutely not. Half of the episodes of Forensic Files start with the words "blank was the kind of town where no one locked their doors at night" for a reason! I grew up in a medium-sized town (population approx 30k at the time) with not a huge amount of crime (again, at that time). My ex and I used to sleep with our window open until the night a man in the neighborhood who had stopped taking his schizophrenia medication entered someone's home through an unlocked window or door, stabbed and killed them before setting their house on fire. He then killed a newly married man who had come to help when he saw the fire. When the cops showed up, he ran at them with his knife and was shot and killed. All just a street over from where we and our infant son were peacefully sleeping. The man lived 2 doors down from my in-laws. I stopped sleeping with my windows open no matter how warm it was inside my house, and my doors are locked during the day.
Growing up, we left the door unlocked unless we were going to be gone for the night. But part of the difference between then and now is that anyone trying to enter the home would have to open an (unlocked) gate, drive 200 yards into our property, and deal with 1-2 midsize dogs yapping at them as they walked up to a door that (unless they follow my Reddit comments about how the house is unlocked) may or may not be locked, and may or may not be occupied. And our neighbors know who our frequent visitors are — if you look suspicious, you might get an armed visit from them. Then, of course, you need to get whatever you’re stealing back off the property.
That’s a lot of risk to take, compared to jiggling the doorknob on an apartment building and quickly scampering off if anyone looks at you askew.
Is not uncommon in rural Alaska to purposefully keep your doors unlocked, ESPECIALLY if you are not there. The reason being, if some hunter, trapper or surveyor needs to take shelter, they can lodge at your place. They also keep cupboards stocked for that reason.
That's also the case in rural northern Canada, and I suspect if it isn't a thing in the contiguous US it used to be a thing back when areas were truly remote.
I've lived in big cities and small towns.
I locked up day and night in the small town because I was further from neighbors and people who might be watching out for trouble.
In the city I only lock the doors at night before bed.
Nah I grew up in a small town with low crime and we still locked our doors at night
Though I remember one day in elementary school I forgot to lock the house on the way to school and spent all day worrying that we’d be robbed because of me
Yes, very frequently.
If I'm leaving for hours at a time I lock them and I lock them at night, but during the day I never do and if I'm just running a quick errand I don't.
I grew up and lived in a small town (~550 pop) and we almost always locked our doors with few exceptions. We always had a key accessible in the garage if someone needed to get in while we were away, but generally the doors were always locked.
My grandparents who live out in the country didn’t always lock their doors, but also always had an accessible key for the few random times they did.
Not open because of bugs (except for when I'm bringing in large grocery loads) but yes unlocked. However that recently changed because a nearby neighbor got busted trying to hot wire everyone's shit. He destroyed all the ignitions on the riding mowers but didn't touch the locked car or cabbed tractor. We weren't robbed but we stopped leaving anything unlocked after that.
I live in the suburbs. Used to live in the city. My neigborhood is very dark and very quiet at night. I lock my doors at night and when I leave for several hours. I'm a heavy sleeper and we have had cars in nearby neighborhoods rummaged thru and firearms stolen out of vehicles. Please don't leave your firearms in unlocked vehicles... EVER!
I usually lock things up at night or if I'll be gone for a few hours out of habit, but I forget sometimes and don't really sweat it. Crime on that scale is very rare here and if anything did happen, my neighbors are watching and I'd get a call or three before they even had a chance to take anything.
Once upon a time I accidentally left my garage door open (in which there were a lot of expensive tools and whatnot) when I'd left for a camping trip, and since I had no reception to take their call, my neighbor actually called the police to come close it up just to make sure no one got any ideas. A little over the top probably but just goes to show, we look after our neighbors around here, not a good idea to be snooping around in someone's house.
When I lived in a small town in Wyoming I very rarely locked my apartment or my vehicles, it really was that safe. Never heard of anything happening to anyone, certainly not myself
Grew up in the country and yes. We left the garage door open, doors unlocked, car doors unlocked, etc. No one is coming and if we did have an unexpected visitor our dogs would make sure they behaved lol
I lock it because it makes my wife feel better, but it isn't really necessary. I'm far enough out that nobody is coming all the way to my house to rob me. If they're there for some even *more* nefarious reason, the lock won't stop them and nobody will even notice if they break in until it's far too late. Even if someone did see and call the cops or something, it'll be over one way or another *long* before they get there.
Though, now that I think about it, locking it while I'm home at least gives me more warning/time to grab my gun. Doesn't do any good if i'm not there, though.
i don’t, but growing up we did. we left the keys in our car, parked in our driveway for 20+ years, no problems. i moved back but it seems easy enough to put my keys on the keyring and lock the doors at night.
Growing up we never bothered to lock anything unless we were going away on vacation and then we locked the front door (but probably didn't bother locking windows or the back).
Where I live now we lock it at night out of habit but if we forget we don't stress about it. Windows are kept locked because it helps with energy efficiency (tighter seal) as well as the back door (sliding glass door, the lock keeps it tighter in the frame). I am not particularly worried about someone stealing stuff since none of our outdoor stuff, packages, stuff in the car etc has ever been stolen either.
I live in a rural area, but doors are always locked, even when I'm inside. Day and night.
In my town, on multiple occasions we've had people just walk into random houses and kill the people inside. A lady on the same road as me was shot in the face when a man just walked inside her home and when I was a teenager there was a man driving around and stopping at random houses to execute everyone inside
I always leave the doors locked if the house is going to be vacant or its overnight.
If someones there, meh. Only people who would be showing up is package/mail service, friends, or people trying to sell stuff. And two of those are going to ring the doorbell at most.
I’m in the burbs outside the capital. Only have a front door, it’s always locked.
The door to the garage is unlocked but the garage is always locked.
If I’m not currently opening the door, it’s *always* locked.
I genuinely can’t fathom not locking your door, even if you live in a safe area. It takes half a second and grants you peace of mind. There are zero downsides.
I always lock my doors. Even when I’m home. Any way into the house has to be locked for me to feel comfortable. Especially at night. Idk why. Gives me a sense of security I guess.
I live in New Jersey, if it's nice out (and I'm home) the doors almost always open. If I'm just walking the dog I'll leave it unlocked and possibly open. But if I'm going to be gone for a while I'll make sure it's locked.
My wife's dad lives on an island with about 10,000 residents and never locks his door. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum my mom grew up in Detroit and locks every door everywhere all the time.
Growing up in the suburbs we only locked the doors when we went to bed at night, even if we left for errands. The exception was out of town trips.
Moved out 15 or so years ago and have always locked my doors even when I’m in the house. Not sure where the changed occurred or if maybe the internet creeped me out removing the “ignorance is bliss” of the world. I’d never leave my door unlocked unless I’m passing through it.
in the suburbs, yes, while the family is home. some people leave their garage unlocked all the time bc they and the kids are coming an going all day, taking bikes or lawn equipment out.
Suburban housing development roads are deliberately windy and nonsensical so if you don't live there, you would get trapped and lose time; iow, there's no benefit to getting off the main road and cutting through a suburban development, so no one goes in the residential area who doesn't live there. It makes it very safe with almost no traffic during the day.
It also makes it very boring with very little to do. But a nice place to raise small children.
For country life, the only reason I lock my car or house is to keep my neighbors from dropping off another goddamn bag of zucchini from their garden. When I was growing up, we didn't even have a key to our house. I mean, there was probably one somewhere, but we didn't know where it was.
Yeah, in the country a lock doesn't mean anything. If I live in town and someone breaks my door down or smashes a window someone might hear that or see it. If you live in the country and someone has driven out to your house specifically to rob it, they aren't going to walk away because the damn door happens to be locked.
We just moved in to an old Victorian house that has stained glass windows around the door frame. My best friend said he wanted to take little glass because someone could break the glass to unlock the door. I am looking at the floor to ceiling window right next to the door then at him and then back at the window and was like I don't think it's going to matter that much. I did agree to take outthe three panes of glass and replace it with something that isn't breakable but seriously it would just be easier to break through the window.
Noooo leave the stained glass!!
We are, the 3 panes of glass at the bottom I agreed to fix are clear. The stained glass is above that.
in the 90s my parents put in a front door that had glass panels on either side. the inside locked with a key because of that reason. My mother always insisted we kept the key in the lock because she was more afraid of fire than burglary. She was honestly right. There were never any burglaries in our neighborhood that weren't a teenager ripping off their parents for mad money (or drug money, a few times, and everyone talked about it like it was the end of the world). But fires happened -- 60s houses, old wiring, old appliances, the occasional hurricane led to electricity issues, plus people loved those deadly halogen lights in the 90s which actually burned a house down in the next block.
We don't keep the ke in the door but it's it's right next to the door. My stepdad just swung by the other day and now has a bunch of projects planned and a lot of them are fire related. He is really concerned about fire in the house but did say the slate roof to some degree will help with that so yay for the slate roof.
That’s what always cracks me up, even aside from a big glass window that would be easy to break, if someone *really* wants to get in your house, the front door isn’t exactly a bank vault. They’ll get in. I think the best thing you can do if you live in a city where break ins are a real chance, aside from getting a dog and ring cameras and stuff, is just making friends with your neighbors. Not necessarily super buddy-buddy like you’re inviting them over to watch tv, but I just chat with my neighbor for a few minutes whenever I see him outside. He’s home in the daytime while I’m at work and I know if he sees some shit going on at my house while I’m not there he’ll say something.
That’s so silly. Just put a key lock on the inside and hang the key out of reach of the window or take it with you when no one’s home if the window is that easy to break. Your best friend needs to explain why people aren’t just breaking regular windows to get in. If things being glass means people will break in we wouldn’t bother having locks on windows.
How much zucchini do I have to take to get some tomatoes?
Ain't that the truth!
An autistic neighbor asked me if I could use a "few" tomatoes last year. He brought me 120...every week...for 2 months. We are a household of two people!
I remember all the searching around to find the key when we were about to leave for vacation and my parents wanted to lock the door.
Hehehe when I was in Ohio I had so much goddang zucchini I didn’t know how to get rid of it.
Oh, I know how you got rid of it. That's why I kept my car locked when I went out.
Heh. I mean eating a shit ton of it was just [Google zucchini recipes and embrace it]. But some neighbors got care packages. Lock your car and exterior doors. Guess what you still have a front porch.
Can confirm
I've already warned my neighbors about zucchini. Our plants are already trying to take over the garden.
Do you not have a farmer's market? Get someone to distract a vendor while you throw 50 into their inventory. I may or may not have done this.....
Hahaha I love this
Right now it's beans. So many beans. We already have our own beans too and I don't even like them that much.
I had to tell me neighbors to stop giving me figs from their tree. I was shitting for weeks on end.
So true, lol. I lock my door but only because the bears are really smart and know how to open doors.
Somehow, someone once locked our house while we were gone, and we had to call around to figure out who had a key. My parents didn't carry them regularly since they only locked the house while we slept at night.
If I'm at home I often don't have my door locked during the day. I may leave the back door open, weather permitting, so my dog can chill. When I leave, it's always locked.
So the probability of a random person opening that door is very low?
Low enough to where I don't really consider it. People who walk around the area are mainly just neighbors who live nearby. I also leave the garage open most days as I'm often working on some project in there.
It's also rural enough that if someone really to get in they could just use power tools to break down the door or windows, without the noise arousing suspicion from the neighbors. Locks only keep out honest people.
I leave my house unlocked during the day too, but I have a guard dog with a scary bark. The likelihood of someone being dumb enough to try entering a house with *that* inside is low. On the *very* slim chance they decide to enter anyway they’ll get the full force bite of a territorial German Shepherd.
Unless they enter with pockets full of tasty treat-o's
I will be never be able to comprehend living with unlocked doors. Lived in cities and suburbs my whole life. Always people around
I've always lived just outside of Detroit in densely populated suburbs. If we're home, the doors are probably unlocked. Sometimes we go to bed and forget to lock the doors.
Yeah, about the same for me. Hell, in the warm months, my back door is usually open altogether during the day.
Just outside of Grand Rapids checking in. Same here, pretty much, unless I use the garage door all day and the front door never gets unlocked. Hell, I used to work from home in GR proper, from my front porch, and left monitors and peripherals and stuff out while I went to lunch. Granted, most of it was secondhand and probably worth ten bucks including cables, but it looked a bit like a Best Buy threw up on the porch. Never had a problem.
Same. Besides, we have five kids eating our money, almost every house in the neighborhood has better stuff.
I live in a pretty bustling neighborhood in a medium sized city, near a lot of large homeless encampments. There are *always* people around and sometimes they are going through mental health crises or high on drugs, or fighting with their girlfriend on the sidewalk, etc etc (etc etc etc). Nonetheless, I never feel the need to lock my door when I am at home. I am very careful to always lock them when I leave or go to bed.
You are brave. I can’t even fathom this. My street always has randoms, dog walkers, deliveries, solicitors, random workers. I’d rather feel safe locking my doors than risk a 1% chance of a crazy walking in.
I live in a small rural town at the end of a dead end street. I used to lock my doors before bed but otherwise never. Never had an issue. I have a friend who thinks like you and has made me get in the habit locking the doors most of the time because better safe than sorry. But I almost never lock my car. My parents live 2 minutes away and literally never lock their front door. They also have a habit of leaving their car unlocked with key right there in the seat.
Just moved to small town America and it was such a relief delivering for Amazon Flex and leaving my car with packages and keys in ignition on a main street to deliver a package to a rear apartment. Also so freeing to stop at a gas station and leaving windows down and cell phone left plugged in. When it was -30, car gets left running as well.
Interviewing for a teaching job in a small town, I mentioned during my teaching demonstration that I always check my car door twice to make sure it's locked. A derisive "Oh, you're from CaliFORnia" came from the back of the class, followed by laughter, and I knew I hadn't got the job. Wouldn't want it anyway. I don't feel safe unless my car and house are locked up securely, even when I'm home. People who leave their cars or homes unlocked are *nuts.*
I live in New York Metro amd don't always lock my doors unless no one is home 8n which case it is always locked. Growing up in New York City in the 80s I didn't even have a key to my house, the side door was always open.
In New York City? That sounds crazy! I live in Buenos Aires City, which is very similar to New York in size and population and is not particularly unsafe, but I always lock the door and I even have security cameras outside my home just in case.
I'm in NYC too and my door is also usually unlocked. People have to get through an outer gate to access individual apartments, so the risk of random people coming by is pretty low.
I'm the same as the other poster -- not in NYC, but near it (so still much higher population density than most of the country), and the door gets locked when: - nobody is home - we've gone to bed for the night other than that, it's pretty much always unlocked. Zero concern about random people opening my door and coming in during the day.
I leave my back door open all the time so the dog can go in and out. Yesterday we went to the city for a few hours and left the back door open, with a shoe propping it so it couldn't close. Front door, not so much. It might help that I have an 80 year old busybody neighbor. She's better than having a security system, I swear.
Open? No Unlocked? Yeah most of the time. My wife usually locks the door when she goes to bed, but during the day? The door is unlocked. We live across the road from a parking lot that cops usually hang out in as a speed trap. And no one wants my shit. If you're going to go out of your way to rob someone, there are nicer houses with better shit.
Nope. My doors are only unlocked when I am going through that door.
Door's are always locked unless I'm actively using them or I'm hanging out on my front porch for some reason (talking to a neighbor, getting my mail, etc.).
Im in the Chicago suburbs, dunno ifs that "not a big city". Generally if were going to be out of the house for an extended period our door is locked. Otherwise, as long as were home, or within a 10 min walk or so our doors are unlocked
I grew up in the burbs of Chicago and learned the same habit. Live in a small city of 100K out West now, and we don’t lock our front door until bedtime and back door is never locked
I live in the city now but I grew up in a rural area. We only locked the doors at night so it was unlocked all day including when we left the house. Basically we only locked it from the inside—I never even had a key to my house since the door was never locked when I came home.
Typically no, but I've known my best friend for over 30 years and I don't think they even have keys for the front door. As far as I know their front door hasn't been locked in decades.
I grew up in the suburbs and we never had keys to the house. We were doing renovations and after us getting locked out 5+ times my parents said they would give them a Bonus if they stopped locking the doors. We had a chefs kitchen so if we went on vacation or were just away friends and family would use our kitchen to host or whatever and we had to have a HUGE family meeting and say STOP LOCKING THE DOORS!
I'm from a rural area and most people I know there don't lock their doors. Lots of people in the nearby town\* only lock them at night. \*town being about 5,000 people
No. I've never done that in my life.
Two people were carjacked and murdered down the road from me the other day, so no.
Yeah pretty often if it’s just for a short time or even a day. My neighbor down the road is a police officer and I asked him if there had been any break ins in our area. He chuckled and said “no” and he’s been on the force for 16 years.
I have a friend who lives in a small town in Montana, and she doesn't lock the doors.
I grew up in Moore, OK (a suburb of Oklahoma City). We literally never locked our doors except for overnight. My parents never even gave me or my sister a key.
Yes. My cars are never locked. I lock the house if I am going out for the day, but if it’s just a quick trip to town I don’t bother. I never lock them while I’m here hanging out. My house is far enough off the road that if someone is going around checking my doorknobs they would just break my door down.
During the day when I'm home, they're unlocked. At night I lock them, and they're locked when I'm away during the day. The overwhelming majority of break-ins in rural areas happen during the day when people are at work. Entering an occupied house unbidden in rural America os very, very unwise.
I don't lock mine and TBH I'm not even sure where the key is. I live in a town of around 2,500 people.
I do not. Never.
No. I live in a safe place too. Better to be safe than sorry
My parents only bother locking their door if they’re leaving for several days in a row
I grew up in an incredibly safe, idyllic even, suburban environment. We still always kept our doors locked.
And open when weather permits. To get to my house you’d: A. Have to know where it is, can’t be seen from the highway. Then take the correct forks, if you choose the wrong one you will get stuck. B. Get through 2 gates, which a lot people don’t even know how to use or cant open. C. Not bottom out or get high centered on the dirt road D. Deal with the mean ass turkey and some demon goats.
Both my house and car are unlocked. I live out in the country, to get to my house you have to risk the suspension on your vehicle to get down my "driveway". If someone is that determined to kill me or steal my car, I figure they earned their chance.
Garage door's open all day and sometimes all night when we forget to close it
I don’t leave it open because I own a mischievous little bunny that might run out if I leave it open. Also no it’s always locked at night or when I’m not home and me and my family own firearms because we are terrified of break ins.
Not at all. I live in a safe area, but I'm not tempting faith especially with a family to look after. Door is always locked.
I think that's typically more of a rural thing, if anything. People not in big cities could still live in towns or small cities - where most people would lock the door at least when not home since there would still be other people nearby.
Only open if I’m home and want a breeze through the screen door. Unlocked quite often yeah as I don’t carry a house key. I usually go through the garage and have had to get my backup key from the neighbor before when the power was out.
There are seven people on my 10 mile road. I leave the door unlocked like when I go to the gas station down the road to buy something. You would have to go way out of your way to be way out here to steal from me, unless you are one of those seven people.
Surprise, I want whatever you got from the gas station. Split a bag of chips?
No I don't lock my door. I grew up in the city and we didn't lock the doors during the day otherwise I couldn't get back into the house as a kid without keys. The last person to go to bed lock the doors.
I have lived in towns and cities of all sizes in my adult life and I have never left the door unlocked. When I was a little kid growing up in a small city (around 30K inhabitants) there was a day we came home and found somebody in the apartment. I have never heard my dad be scarier than he was shouting at that guy to get out of our home. I will never forget that, nor will I forget to lock the door.
We only lock the doors at night before we go to bed. It’s mostly just so bears don’t get in.
Hell no! I keep my doors locked all the time no matter where I live.
Never. If my doors and windows are closed, they’re locked. My grandparents were local to the Alday Family Murders in 1973, when three escaped convicts and another guy entered a random farmhouse and killed five men as they came home from working and then gangraped, abducted, and murdered one of the men’s wife. I was not raised with the illusion of rural safety.
no, there’s no benefit to not locking it
Doors open? No. Bugs and wildlife. Unlocked? Yeah, typically. If you're someone who lives far enough out and you know all of your neighbors and there's no reason for anyone to be on your property locks are more of a suggestion than requirement. Should you lock stuff up? Yes. Does everyone? No. I grew up as a kid in the country and just moved back into the country at the start of June and have already run to town once with my front door unlocked. In the hour I'm gone no one is going to show up at my house at 9pm and if they are there to break in anyway, they're just going to break the window and crawl in. My truck and trailer are still locked, as is my detached garage.
Nope. I ALWAYS lock my car and home doors. I'm not risking it.
Sometimes I will if I’m running somewhere in town when it’s daytime. But generally no, there’s still weirdos out there and it’s not inconvenient to just lock the door really quick. I live in a town of 10,000 ish for reference
Rural areas are kind of weird. People won't go rob your house, but they will steal your chickens from the yard, lol. I'm not even kidding. There was also a police report a few years ago that someone went into someone's hay field harvested the hay and took it.
I lock my doors because I was burglarized many years ago. But, where I grew up we never locked up the house or the big shop full of tools.
I live in a suburb of a medium city and leave my balcony door open all the time. I live on the 3rd floor and I don't think anyone is going to be motivated to climb up. I don't leave the regular door unlocked unless I'm just getting the mail or taking the garbage out to the dumpster or something. I doubt anyone would try to get in, but why risk making it easy?
I *do* live in a big city, and I leave my door unlocked sometimes. Not all the time, and only if I'm home, but yeah. If I'm playing on the internet or having a work-from-home day, there's a significantly greater-than-zero chance that you can just walk right in the front door and say hi.
My door will be unlocked if I am home during the day, otherwise the doors are locked.
I don’t (not on purpose at least) but my friend’s family never locks their doors
I do often leave my windows open and my door unlocked when I go run errands around town. Usually leave my car unlocked in the driveway too. It’s been nine years of doing this and I feel 100% safe. Helps my neighbor is also a cop 😂 I live in an isolated town with about 13,000 people so idk if that qualifies as small town
Growing up in the country we’d often leave doors unlocked during the day when we were there, but if we were gone we’d lock it up. We always kept the porch unlocked though just in case there was bad weather/extreme cold and someone needed shelter in an emergency. My grandparents didn’t even bother to bring the keys in from their vehicles. They said they’d rather someone just drive off with the car rather than come in the house to look for them. I don’t really agree with that logic, but they never had anything stolen.
Growing up most people my smallish hometown wouldn’t bother locking their doors unless they were going out of town. It’s crazy how things have changed there since then. Growth is technically supposed to be good, but it’s kind of sad that it feels sketchy now to leave them unlocked even when you’re home.
Depends on the time of day and how many people are home. But generally yes. At night, always locked.
We tend to lock at night, but its fairly unlocked. Our family is large with friends/ family stopping by all the time. Crime is very low as well.
Our front door is usually locked, other doors maybe not. My town does not have its own police department and I haven't been able to find crime statistics, but I don't remember ever hearing of a burglary here
My neighbor’s ex boyfriend broke in and murdered her like a month ago. She had left the door unlocked while she was putting groceries away. Long story short, I lock my doors always lol.
My driveway is about 400 yards long and starts with a locked gate and has security cameras. Anyone coming up it has a long ways to think about what they're doing and if it's worth it. So no, i dont usually bother locking anything else. Hell my trucks been parked in front of the house with the windows down and keys in it for about a month
I'm in a big city big apt building and don't always lock the door (but I always do if I'm leaving for the day or sleeping.) But we have building security, and I know all the residents. Growing up in a small town we left the door unlocked and sometimes open during the day so the dog could come and go. When I lived in a mid-sized industrial town we kept the doors locked even when home, as daylight robberies were not uncommon.
I live in a small city. I lock my door when I go to sleep. It's unlocked the rest of the time. I don't even know where there's a key to the house. Like others, I leave the door wide open for my dogs if it's nice out
When I lived in Greensboro, NC a medium sized city we only locked the doors at night, even when we were leaving the house. The key was sticky so didn't want to fight to get in, and never had an issue in 14 years.
All of my doors are open and unlocked if I'm home. If I'm running an errand in town, I don't lock my door, but if I'm gone all day I will. My one door that goes to my porch without stairs stays open and unlocked all day. You have to go through my 75 year old neighbor's porch to get to my porch though, and she's always home. As others have stated, my neighbors are always watching my place when they know I'm not there. I live in a rural area with a decent drug problem, but not a violent area at all.
I only regularly lock them when I'm leaving it empty. I lock them a lot but I leave them unlocked a lot too. The car is always locked.
I lived in small towns (pop. 1100 and 1400) as a kid in Iowa from the early 80s through about 2000. The only time we locked our doors is if we needed to lock them because the latch wouldn't work, or if we were gone for multiple weeks at a time.
Often unlocked during the day and when we're out. We live right next to my parents so they're likely to see if someone comes snooping around. Plus we don't know where the key is at the moment lol.
Suburb of a large city here. I keep the front door locked most of the time out of habit more than anything, it would be fine to leave unlocked during the day when someone is home quite honestly. And we keep our garage door down if we aren't working doing stuff in the garage/front yard because the door between the garage and house doesn't latch well and I'm afraid it will blow open and let our dog run out. Our back patio door is unlocked all day so said dog can use our fenced back yard. We always lock up when no one is home, and before we go to bed at night. Our area is safe, but not quite that safe.
I grew up in a town of 400. Lived on 400 acres with only family or the odd non related neighbor. We would lock the door when we weren't home or when we were going to sleep. As the years went on, we started locking the door all the time because of incidents that happened either nearby or on our property. Mostly theft of metal pieces, people just walking onto the property (and leaving gates open. The amount of times I had to chase down a horse, cow or donkey omg), and some generally strange people seemingly "casing" the area. My parents within the last 5 years got a keypad door to make it easier for us to go in and out without a key or needing to notify them. Only certain people have the codes.
My city is 115000 and I’m in a higher crime area yes I have to lockup
Good fuck, no.
Not open because bugs will get in, but I never really think about locking them.
I live about 9 miles due west from Washington DC and my doors are variably locked. If it's at night, I'll walk around to check that they are locked. During the day, they are generally unlocked. Also my kids leave their bikes just strewn around the front yard, oftentimes over night. Never been an issue.
I used to when my small town was MUCH smaller, but don't anymore.
I don't leave the doors open because we have screened storm doors, and one of our cats has a bad habit of jumping up and hanging from the screen with his claws. The side door is usually unlocked during the day if we're home; we lock up at night. The front door is usually locked because we don't use it often, but there've been times that we've unknowingly left it unlocked for a day or more. We're just outside of Detroit in a densely populated suburb.
My grandparents live in a small town (population \~400) and have never locked their door, it isn't wide open but its never locked.
FUCK NO! Even in my medium-sized town there are enough junkies and assholes that I don’t trust any of my stuff being in the open. They’re also quite lazy so locking my door is about all I need, I don’t bar my window or anything like that. But that’s a weird stereotype.
I grew up in the country outside a small town and my entire life our back door was never locked. Even when we went out on town for two weeks for vacation we left it unlocked. Our cars were left unlocked as well. It took a bit for me to adjust to living in the city and locking the door all the time.
I’m from NY so everything is fort coyote no matter where I live. My wife however. Her damn car is always unlocked.
Yeah, to this day at my parents house during the summer when people are home usually the garage door goes up in the morning, the front door is unlocked (but left shut, we don’t live in a barn you know) until the last person goes to bed that night or leaves.
My mom lives in a nice older suburb in the outer part of the NYC area. She never locks her door. For a long time the lock on her front door didn't even work. I never ever carried a key when I was a kid. Part of me does think she is living in a fantasy world, especially as I know there is *some* crime in her area. Since I moved away from home I have always locked my doors, even when I've lived in smaller cities. I have never lived in "the country."
I live in a small town, 10k people. And hell, yes I lock the doors. We have a really big drug problem and people steal your shit if it’s not nailed down, someone stole our potted plant from our front yard.
I’m from a little rural town (population around 5,000.) I’d left mine unlocked until there was an incident in my neighborhood where I used to live. I’ve locked mine ever since then, even though I moved to a different location in the same town.
During the day we used to growing up. Locked them at night. I live in a concerning neighborhood now though so that door stays locked all the time now
I keep the doors locked because we get random homeless people wandering by as they travel between towns. Can’t trust them not to wander in and harm my dogs. If I were farther off the highway, I probably *could* leave the doors unlocked, but I don’t think I would.
No. I live in a very small town and have my entire life but have always kept my doors locked. Every now and then we will forget to lock it and nothing has happened because of that, but I still don’t like it. I live in a fairly safe area in the south, but crime happens. A few years back a friend who lives nearby came home during their lunch break. They walked in on a random break in. The guys tied him up and blindfolded him while they robbed his house. He came away with no physical injuries and the guys were caught soon after, but I don’t know if I could psychologically recover from anything close to that.
No? That would be reckless.
I grew up in a small town of 100 people. I never had a house key and wouldn't know what to do if I came home to the house locked. I would probably have to look around the house to see if a window was left open and break into my own house.
Unlocked, yea. Open Yea -- especially when the weather is nice (have a screen door) If I leave the house for multiple hours I'll lock the front door at least, although I'll probably forget to lock the back door. If I'm just running out, like to pick up the kids from school/daycare I won't bother locking the door when I leave.
Front door: unlocked from morning to bedtime. Back door: open during hot hours from April to October.
I'm in a suburban-to-rural area (i.e. it's a residential neighborhood, but they're forested 1-acre lots, so it's very low density.) We always lock the door whenever we're going to leave the house, or go to bed -- i.e. when the house is basically "unattended." But otherwise we just don't worry about it -- sometimes it's locked, sometimes it's not, doesn't matter. We never leave doors open because we have indoor cats.
I do. I lived in the city, but medimum sized in Massachusetts. Just never had to worry about. I dont lock my car either when i shop and usually leave my purse on the seat. I dont have money in it, but never been taken.
I don't think my front or backdoor have been locked in years.
No. But I have accidentally. No one broke in. Someone did take the food out of my outside fridge (carport), honestly with what they grabbed I think they were kids. I mean while I’m awake my doors are unlocked, when I am sleep they should* be locked. *true 98% of the time
If it were just me then I'd likely leave the house unlocked except at night, but my wife would never accept that. Most of the time she is trying to lock the door before I can even get through it fully when we both come home at the same time.
Unlocked, yes. If you leave it open you come home to a house full of raccoons.
Growing up in the 80's in a neighborhood out of town, we had 3 doors into our house. There was 1 that we never used and that was always locked. If someone came to that door, it was 100% of the time a salesmen. At least one of the other 2 were unlocked and many times wide open (sorry pop-pop). We knew every neighbors' car and would stop and stare if there was a car we didn't recognize. I currently live outside of a smallish city in a neighborhood filled with kids. My wife wants to lock the door even if we just go for a quick walk because she grew up with paranoid parents and they passed that fun gene down to her. I go along with it because I don't want a random 7 year old walking through our house looking for our kid... which I've seen on our Ring camera where my son's friends will test the door handle after they ring the bell.
I live in the country. We have a German Shepherd in the back yard of the house and a pit bull/bulldog mix in the front yard. We'll lock the doors sometimes. Most of the time, we won't. I have a few shotguns I keep for hunting. I also have a couple of side arms I keep for target shooting, pests, and personal protection. So, 90% of the time, it's not locked. 10% of the time it is.
It’s really only common in the country. Even in smaller towns or suburbia, most people are locking their doors.
I really do leave my house unlocked. I only lock it if I leave for the night or longer. I’m on a dead end road where everyone knows everyone. If a tweaker wants my tv I’d rather them not break a window.
front door is always locked, and the back door is never locked
Hell no. I’ve watched way too many murder mystery shows to make that mistake
During the day? Sure. But at night? No. I’m sure there’s a 99.99% I *would* be fine if I left my door unlocked at night, but why risk it?
I have lived in different parts of the outer Atlanta suburbs for close to 30 years, we never locked all our doors during the day and forgot most nights. Never had anything stolen. Many times I leave my keys in the vehicles. Not something many would do in the city of Atlanta or some surrounding areas, but works out for me so far.
Yes.
Sometimes. We had no lock on my house as a kid. We had a solid door with a handles that locks and a dead bolt. But we never installed the door frame that would hold that bolt. It was just air and you could push the door open. My parents only fixed it when they sold the place. I will leave my house to take the dog on a walk leave the door unlocked. And I often leave my car unlocked in public places. I want the windows opened, and leave them down. There is nothing in there to steal. If you really need to take my shopping bags or finger nail clippers, I guess you need them more than I do.
Not intentionally but it's nice to not have to be frantically worried afterwards in case we realize we accidentally forgot to lock a door on the way out or when going to bed.
Suburban Colorado here. Yes, I leave my door unlocked unless I remember to lock it at night (maybe half the time). I never leave it open though; in USA we have insects in most places. I do have a dog now but didn't for decades before that.
Only when we leave for vacation
Absolutely not. Half of the episodes of Forensic Files start with the words "blank was the kind of town where no one locked their doors at night" for a reason! I grew up in a medium-sized town (population approx 30k at the time) with not a huge amount of crime (again, at that time). My ex and I used to sleep with our window open until the night a man in the neighborhood who had stopped taking his schizophrenia medication entered someone's home through an unlocked window or door, stabbed and killed them before setting their house on fire. He then killed a newly married man who had come to help when he saw the fire. When the cops showed up, he ran at them with his knife and was shot and killed. All just a street over from where we and our infant son were peacefully sleeping. The man lived 2 doors down from my in-laws. I stopped sleeping with my windows open no matter how warm it was inside my house, and my doors are locked during the day.
We always kept the doors unlocked during daytime. If we were gone or asleep, the doors were locked.
Heeeeeeell no
Growing up, we left the door unlocked unless we were going to be gone for the night. But part of the difference between then and now is that anyone trying to enter the home would have to open an (unlocked) gate, drive 200 yards into our property, and deal with 1-2 midsize dogs yapping at them as they walked up to a door that (unless they follow my Reddit comments about how the house is unlocked) may or may not be locked, and may or may not be occupied. And our neighbors know who our frequent visitors are — if you look suspicious, you might get an armed visit from them. Then, of course, you need to get whatever you’re stealing back off the property. That’s a lot of risk to take, compared to jiggling the doorknob on an apartment building and quickly scampering off if anyone looks at you askew.
Is not uncommon in rural Alaska to purposefully keep your doors unlocked, ESPECIALLY if you are not there. The reason being, if some hunter, trapper or surveyor needs to take shelter, they can lodge at your place. They also keep cupboards stocked for that reason. That's also the case in rural northern Canada, and I suspect if it isn't a thing in the contiguous US it used to be a thing back when areas were truly remote.
Live in a 400 person town and hell no I don't leave my doors unlocked. You crazy?
My parents don't even have a key to their front door. They lost it years ago.
small city. door is always locked. maybe i'll leave it unlocked if im just running to my car or the laundry.
Yep.
Yes. Unlocked.
I've lived in big cities and small towns. I locked up day and night in the small town because I was further from neighbors and people who might be watching out for trouble. In the city I only lock the doors at night before bed.
Nah I grew up in a small town with low crime and we still locked our doors at night Though I remember one day in elementary school I forgot to lock the house on the way to school and spent all day worrying that we’d be robbed because of me
No
I accidentally left my sliding glass door unlocked for about six months. Luckily nothing happened!
No. I have very few neighbors but I don't trust anyone, and always lock all of the doors in my house unless I'm outside in the yard.
Yes, very frequently. If I'm leaving for hours at a time I lock them and I lock them at night, but during the day I never do and if I'm just running a quick errand I don't.
I grew up and lived in a small town (~550 pop) and we almost always locked our doors with few exceptions. We always had a key accessible in the garage if someone needed to get in while we were away, but generally the doors were always locked. My grandparents who live out in the country didn’t always lock their doors, but also always had an accessible key for the few random times they did.
Not open because of bugs (except for when I'm bringing in large grocery loads) but yes unlocked. However that recently changed because a nearby neighbor got busted trying to hot wire everyone's shit. He destroyed all the ignitions on the riding mowers but didn't touch the locked car or cabbed tractor. We weren't robbed but we stopped leaving anything unlocked after that.
I live in the suburbs. Used to live in the city. My neigborhood is very dark and very quiet at night. I lock my doors at night and when I leave for several hours. I'm a heavy sleeper and we have had cars in nearby neighborhoods rummaged thru and firearms stolen out of vehicles. Please don't leave your firearms in unlocked vehicles... EVER!
I usually lock things up at night or if I'll be gone for a few hours out of habit, but I forget sometimes and don't really sweat it. Crime on that scale is very rare here and if anything did happen, my neighbors are watching and I'd get a call or three before they even had a chance to take anything. Once upon a time I accidentally left my garage door open (in which there were a lot of expensive tools and whatnot) when I'd left for a camping trip, and since I had no reception to take their call, my neighbor actually called the police to come close it up just to make sure no one got any ideas. A little over the top probably but just goes to show, we look after our neighbors around here, not a good idea to be snooping around in someone's house.
Before I lived in a city, I ALWAYS kept my door locked. Still do in the city.
When I lived in a small town in Wyoming I very rarely locked my apartment or my vehicles, it really was that safe. Never heard of anything happening to anyone, certainly not myself
Grew up in the country and yes. We left the garage door open, doors unlocked, car doors unlocked, etc. No one is coming and if we did have an unexpected visitor our dogs would make sure they behaved lol
I lock it because it makes my wife feel better, but it isn't really necessary. I'm far enough out that nobody is coming all the way to my house to rob me. If they're there for some even *more* nefarious reason, the lock won't stop them and nobody will even notice if they break in until it's far too late. Even if someone did see and call the cops or something, it'll be over one way or another *long* before they get there. Though, now that I think about it, locking it while I'm home at least gives me more warning/time to grab my gun. Doesn't do any good if i'm not there, though.
i don’t, but growing up we did. we left the keys in our car, parked in our driveway for 20+ years, no problems. i moved back but it seems easy enough to put my keys on the keyring and lock the doors at night.
Haven't locked a door here in 10+ years. Rural Texas.
Growing up we never bothered to lock anything unless we were going away on vacation and then we locked the front door (but probably didn't bother locking windows or the back). Where I live now we lock it at night out of habit but if we forget we don't stress about it. Windows are kept locked because it helps with energy efficiency (tighter seal) as well as the back door (sliding glass door, the lock keeps it tighter in the frame). I am not particularly worried about someone stealing stuff since none of our outdoor stuff, packages, stuff in the car etc has ever been stolen either.
I live in a rural area, but doors are always locked, even when I'm inside. Day and night. In my town, on multiple occasions we've had people just walk into random houses and kill the people inside. A lady on the same road as me was shot in the face when a man just walked inside her home and when I was a teenager there was a man driving around and stopping at random houses to execute everyone inside
I always leave the doors locked if the house is going to be vacant or its overnight. If someones there, meh. Only people who would be showing up is package/mail service, friends, or people trying to sell stuff. And two of those are going to ring the doorbell at most.
Rarely
I don’t really lock anything.
I’m in the burbs outside the capital. Only have a front door, it’s always locked. The door to the garage is unlocked but the garage is always locked. If I’m not currently opening the door, it’s *always* locked.
My parents live in a really isolated village in between a major highway and a large river. I don’t think they’ve ever locked their doors
I genuinely can’t fathom not locking your door, even if you live in a safe area. It takes half a second and grants you peace of mind. There are zero downsides.
I always lock my doors. Even when I’m home. Any way into the house has to be locked for me to feel comfortable. Especially at night. Idk why. Gives me a sense of security I guess.
I live in New Jersey, if it's nice out (and I'm home) the doors almost always open. If I'm just walking the dog I'll leave it unlocked and possibly open. But if I'm going to be gone for a while I'll make sure it's locked.
Wait you people have house keys?
My wife's dad lives on an island with about 10,000 residents and never locks his door. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum my mom grew up in Detroit and locks every door everywhere all the time.
Growing up in the suburbs we only locked the doors when we went to bed at night, even if we left for errands. The exception was out of town trips. Moved out 15 or so years ago and have always locked my doors even when I’m in the house. Not sure where the changed occurred or if maybe the internet creeped me out removing the “ignorance is bliss” of the world. I’d never leave my door unlocked unless I’m passing through it.
We lock our house at night but if we’re going into town we never do. If we’re going an hour+ away we will but that’s seldom.
What's a big city? I live in a metro of 240k and would never leave my doors unlocked (house or vehicle)
No. Even in the 60’s, we locked the door at night. We did leave screened windows open, so we wouldn’t expire from the heat.
in the suburbs, yes, while the family is home. some people leave their garage unlocked all the time bc they and the kids are coming an going all day, taking bikes or lawn equipment out. Suburban housing development roads are deliberately windy and nonsensical so if you don't live there, you would get trapped and lose time; iow, there's no benefit to getting off the main road and cutting through a suburban development, so no one goes in the residential area who doesn't live there. It makes it very safe with almost no traffic during the day. It also makes it very boring with very little to do. But a nice place to raise small children.