I mean, I watched your movies and figured they were just for fun. But then, I saw some videos of folks breaking into houses through the front door, and it was kind of funny.

36 comments

  2. Some areas pride themselves on being so small-town and “Everyone knows eachother” that they leave their doors unlocked.

    The sad cases are when the door IS locked, but the lock is really not up to the job.

  4. It depends upon where you live, it’s a big country. I doubt many people who live in big cities leave doors unlocked. I live in a small town of 4000 people and lots of people leave their doors unlocked during the day, and some even at night. In 33 years I’ve had one thing stolen, a 5 gallon can of gas from a garage with the door left open overnight. It’s hard to remain anonymous and a thief in a small town, people talk. Most people that I know have a personal weapon(aka a gun) in their home and you would have to be nuts to just randomly enter someone else’s home. When I lived in Indianapolis or Phoenix we most certainly kept our doors locked.

  5. It depends on whether they do or not. In areas(especially in small towns) where there isn’t much of a crime problem, a lot of people will leave them open because there’s no fear of something happening. In big cities or other areas where there’s a lot of property crime, people do lock their doors. YMMV.

  7. Very region dependent.

    I lived in a very small town (only about 40-60 people total, had farms, a post office, and a pub, and that was about it), and no one really locked doors there. It was about 30 minutes away from any other interesting/bigger town, you could count the number of cars driving through town (that didn’t live there) on any given day on a single hand – there wasn’t really any risk of theft there.

    Contrasted with when I lived in my state capitol city; and it was very much a “Lock the doors, always, even if you’re home.” kind of thing, cuz you never knew when some thugs might roll through and try.

  8. This is only something you see in *some* small communities.

    I have never lived anywhere where it was generally acceptable to leave the house unlocked. Same with any close friends.

    It’s not a safety issue, per say. It’s more of a privacy issue.

    In movies, I imagine it’s because it’s boring to film a character fumble with the keys for an extra 10 seconds. And if it happened, it would feel like foreshadowing.

  9. In some rural/suburban settings, there’s no reason to. My family’s lived in our house for 20 years and have almost never locked it. It’s never been an issue.

  10. I *don’t* leave my doors unlocked, and neither do a lot of other Americans. The only times I’ve come home and found an unlocked door are because someone else who was in my house (a relative or contractor) neglected to lock the door when they left.

  11. My sister does this but she lives in the middle of nowhere and if you didn’t know her house was there kind of a deal going on.

  12. Hold on, Michael Moore said that it’s Canadians who leave their doors unlocked 🤥

  13. When I’m home during the day I’m often going in and out of my front door to do yard work, check the mail, water plants, look around etc and I def don’t lock it each time I come inside when I know I’ll be going out again shortly. I live in a suburban neighborhood and it’s pretty safe with no break-ins in several years that I know of and no violent crime at all. I definitely lock the doors at night but I don’t think about too much during the day, it would be beyond bizarre for a stranger to just walk in my front door. Most burglars who don’t want to get caught are looking for houses with no one home not houses with cars in the driveway and people clearly home.

  14. Many of us live in areas where robbery is extremely unusual, contrary to popular belief. I’d also add that a locked door is more about a social contract than home defense. If someone wants to get in, they’re getting in.

  16. It’s only common in some less-populated communities and even then, it’s only _certain_ ones. I’ve never lived somewhere it is. It’s rare overall.

    It’s apparently more common in some areas of Europe because part of our onboarding for European employees who moved to the US includes a note about making sure to lock your doors and we’ve still had issues with them being robbed.

    I’m pretty good about remembering to lock mine. I’m slightly paranoid about it though and to ease my worries, I setup a timer that will automatically try to lock the smart lock on my front door once an hour.

  17. Only my roommates girlfriend leaves the door unlocked and that’s because she doesn’t have a key. I don’t know of anybody that leaves their own doors unlocked.

  18. In semi-rural western North Carolina my parents only locked their doors at night, sometimes not even then. My dad now lives in a senior living apartment and rarely locks his apartment door, but his building has a security guard at the main entrance and all other entrances are locked/code accessed only.

    I live in a mid sized bedroom community for Atlanta, Ga. We keep our doors locked all the time, even when we are home in the daytime. My GF even locks the back door when she lets the dog out in the backyard and unlocks it a few minutes later to let him back in.

  19. I leave my doors unlocked unless I’m gone for multiple days in a row. There’s basically zero chance of a break-in and if the tweakers want my TV, I’d rather they not break the window or door frame on their way to it. On the other hand, if my neighbor needs something, he’s welcome to it and I have the same permission.

  20. my grandmas house was always like this, but i think thats an older sort of thing anyways. she lives up in rural west virginia, so she knew all the neighbors really well and the poeple of the town. the neighbors had implicit permission to just walk in and pay a visit anytime, not even necessarily needed to knock. break ins werent really a concern, for one becuase she lives in a trailer home/mobile home, but also becuase just about everybody there owns guns, so if you try and break in anywhere your almost certainly getting shot. after she passed though, we were worried that junkies might try and steal things like the castiron woodstove.

    again, this is an older mindset, my doors are always locked, and i personally hate it when friends show up unannounced without at least sending a text before they arrive

  21. Small and rural areas sometimes but even then it’s rare.

    Or do you mean when we are at home during the day?

  22. I don’t, and none of my close family and friends do. I couldn’t answer for anyone else.

  23. Highly depends on the area. I’ve lived in areas you could do this without fear. Most of my years, I have not lived in a place like this. I certainly don’t do it now and I don’t currently know anyone that still does this. However I can see some places, you could do it and not be afraid.

  24. You are taking you chances breaking into a house in the US.

    If you break into someone’s home and they shoot you, prosecution is unlikely unless you shoot them more than once or in the back.

  25. Movies are not real life. The vast majority would not do this unless they live in the country or a very VERY low crime rate area.

    >But then, I saw some videos of folks breaking into houses through the front door, and it was kind of funny.

    They broke in, they didn’t just walk into their home.

  26. I live on a farm. House is often left unlocked, keys are left in the cars, trucks, and tractors. We do lock the barn.

  27. I mostly lock my door at night to make sure my young child doesn’t wake up and decide to wander out rather than an outside security concern.

  29. This is something only some people do. The rest of us lock our doors. I guess those who don’t feel their community is safe enough to not lock their door.

    I live in a small town and it would probably be fine not to lock my door but I did not grow up here so don’t feel comfortable with that. I keep my door locked.

  30. I grew up in between cornfields, far away from the nearest neighbor. There was almost no chance that a thief would work that hard to get to our house to break in. I never heard of a break-in in that area.

    I lived in the dorms in college. It still didn’t occur to me to lock my door. The hall itself was locked, and the only other people inside were my friends. But one night a guy was sleepwalking and he came in my unlocked door, then left again. I started locking it after that.

    Now I live in half of a duplex on a cul-de-sac in a working class neighborhood in a big city. I lock my doors most of the time. I’ve forgotten a few times but nothing ever happened. I also have a doorbell camera, so I know that no one has ever approached my house to even try to get in, I would have seen them. This is all despite that there are unhoused people who sometimes stay in the woods behind my property, and a high-crime low-income apartment complex nearby. They’ve never bothered me at all.

    Most crime in the US happens to people who the criminal knows. Even burglaries.

  31. I grew up on Long Island, about an hour or so from NYC.

    Up until the late 90s my parents’ house was only locked at night or if we were all going somewhere together for hours.

    One day a neighbor who grew up friends with my brothers robbed the house. So sad.

    Now my parents lock their doors and have an alarm.

  34. My kids seem to be completely incapable of locking the door when they come in. One is about 50-50 when leaving.

  35. This American does *not.*

    You have to make things as difficult as possible for burglars- the more things they have to get past the more likely they are to move on to another less well-secured home.
    I lock everything (even my gates).

    My community is small, rural, and I’m guessing that I could get by with it 90% of the time. But that 10% risk is not worth it when my home and everything in it is at stake.

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