How busy is your area?

I was married to a cop, and I watch too much Forensic Files. My door is always locked.

I think leaving your doors unlocked is like not wearing a seatbelt in the car.

You may feel like you don’t need it because there’s not much traffic or you aren’t going far or it’s still light outside or whatever, but it’s just kind of stupid not to.

Our doors are only unlocked if someone is using the door. Otherwise it is always locked. We live off of a busy street near a popular tourist area in our city, there’s lots of foot traffic and random cars parking on our street. But even if I lived in a rural area with lots of acreage I would still lock my doors and windows, why make it easy for someone to just let themselves in to your home?

Suburb to Dallas, but our street is used as a cut through to a grocery store.
DH often left the garage door open as he did xyz. One day a patrol officer stopped to tell him it was not a good idea to leave the door open. DH locks the front door almost 100% of the time. However, about the 5th time he locked me out when I was gardening in the back yard I ripped him a good one and made a huge threat to him if he.ever.locked.me.out.again.

I can't remember when our immediate neighborhood last had a crime incident.

For over 20 years I got up at 6 AM and walked 2 miles before going to work. Normally there was only 1 other person walking at that hour. A patrol officer scared the heck out of me one morning when he came around the corner with his lights out. He came up behind me....We had a chat and both went on our way.

I lived in a major city and had cars broken into, apartment broken into and I was used to police helicopters overhead. It was a decent part of the city, too. Now I live in a smaller city and it's relatively safe, but I always lock my doors. You can live in the safest place in the universe, but that doesn't mean that you won't have any crime.

Have you heard of the serial killer who only killed people who left their doors unlocked? He said an unlocked door was an invitation to come into the house -


en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Chase

I grew up in a small town in the Bay area in the 60's and even then my Dad taught us to always keep the doors locked. Well actually the screen door was always locked. It became a habit for me through the years. Still keep doors locked as well as keeping cars in garage with nothing of value in them.

I live in NYC, have never been robed. I always lock my front door. My back door is usually open in the summer to let air in when we are around. I get more spooked when there are less people around so being in a rural area would not inspire me to leave my doors unlocked. So many times a crime is really a matter of opportunity.

I grew up in Los Angeles, in the city not a suburb. Keeping doors locked is second nature to me. I also make sure I leave nothing visible in my car when I park it somewhere. Where we live now is fairly quiet. It is a gated community, so cars can’t use our streets as a short-cut, unless they follow someone in. Depending on the time of day, I can walk the entire community without a car driving by. I still keep my doors locked. When we are in the backyard, all the front and garage doors are locked. Front windows closed too. Like I mentioned, cars can still follow other cars into our community, so there is a false sense of security here. Thankfully not much has happened, but it can.

we live in the country on  a private gravel road... we're about 1/3 of the way in along the road, so the only 'busyness' in front of our property is other people who live farther along the road.  Early morning and late afternoon, maybe 2-4 cars total in an hour, maybe 2-3 in a half hour is a lot.  

The gate is always locked unless one of us got home and knows the other one will be along in an hour or so, in which case we will leave it open...  I wouldn't lock the actual door to the house unless I was going to be in the shower or out in the backyard.  My DH locks the door pretty much all the time.  We don't have a spare house key anywhere outside, but we should-- I got locked out of our previous house twice and had to call a locksmith- from the neighbor's house- because I was wearing my pajamas & bathrobe and did NOT have my phone.  ugh. 

eta:  I grew up in a small town where the front door to the house was never locked except when we went to bed at night.  Even then, if the front door was locked, the back door typically wasn't, lol.  

Our screen doors are always locked. Only time the back door isn't is if someone is out there, but even that hasn't stopped hubby from locking me out a couple times.  I know a locked screen door isn't going to stop someone from entering if they want, but it's just an extra security step when I have the front door open when it's nice out. If I'm leaving the LR for an extended amt of time, both doors get closed and locked.  Yet, when I go to my moms 4 miles away, they have no problem leaving just the screen door locked with the other door open and they are in the backyard.  Nope, couldn't do it.

Not busy at all. It could be an hour or more between people going down my street. I've been on the highway before, going 100 km away, and thought I could have countrd the number of vechiles I saw. I lock my door when I'm out and when I go to bed. I know people who don't ever lock their doors. There has been one murder that I know of here, happened 25 years ago. Probably was the first one ever. It's a safe place here. People will occasional steal things from vehicles- unlocked vehicles.

I live in a very busy area, but my street is not a through street so I don't have too much traffic coming through. I'm also far enough away from the major street, so I don't typically have issues with the "door checkers" like the streets do a couple blocks from me.
I never leave my car on the street, nor do I leave my doors unlocked. You would be a complete idiot to do that here.