People who don’t live in big cities, do you really leave the doors of your home open or unlocked?

39 comments

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. Nope. My doors are only unlocked when I am going through that door.

5. 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

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.).

10. I have a friend who lives in a small town in Montana, and she doesn’t lock the doors.

11. I live in the DC metro and leave my doors unlocked during the day (and sometimes at night accidentally) if I’m home.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. Two people were carjacked and murdered down the road from me the other day, so no.

16. 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.

17. No. I’ve never done that in my life.

18. 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.

19. 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. 

20. 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.

21. 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?

22. 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.

23. 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

24. 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!

25. 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.

26. No. I live in a safe place too. Better to be safe than sorry

27. My door will be unlocked if I am home during the day, otherwise the doors are locked.

28. 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.

29. 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.

30. 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.

31. 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.

32. My parents only bother
    locking their door if they’re leaving for several days in a row

33. 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.

34. 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.

35. 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.

36. Garage door’s open all day and sometimes all night when we forget to close it

37. 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.

38. I do not. Never.

39. 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.