Do you keep your doors locked at home?

[Boma]

My doors are always locked. I also have burglar bars on all doors and windows. They also remain locked at all times.

The doors only get unlocked when we go through them and that's it.

[Jfreeman]

I always keep the doors locked, it is just a habit to close the door and take the time to lock it behind me.

[MrDrummy]

I lock the doors everytime I go through them.

It is honestly more of an effort to remember NOT to lock them. It's gotten to be such a habit, that I even lock the handle on the way OUT the door to get the mail, and have locked myself out of the house a few times.

Got to remember to carry those darn keys!!

[jimlongley]

Had an interesting experience just yesterday.

Usually I keep all the doors locked unless I am working outside (I have a little trouble instilling the same level of guardedness in my wife and forget the kid) except maybe the one immediately adjacent to where I am working.

I don't know what happened, my brain just slipped a gear I guess, but yesterday I went out through the garage, after unlocking the back door so I could get in and close the garage, took the ladder and paint out into the (fenced so you can't see the garage) yard, and never went back in to close the garage.

A little while later something kind of tickled the back of my mind and I went to see if I had closed the garage, and there was one of the neighbor's kids coming out leading their dog.

Now this is a little kid, I don't suspect that he was trying to steal anything, but it would be awfully easy for him to get hurt on some of the stuff out there, so it worries me that I slipped up like that. Maybe it's time to add an outside device to open and close the garage.

[seamusTX]

I go out to check the garage every morning, since someone broke into it shortly after we built it. One morning, I found the main door open and everything of value except the cars was gone. There was no evidence of a break-in. The windows were shut and the side door was locked. It seems "someone" had a mental lapse and forgot to shut the main door.

After that, I installed a motion detector alarm. Eventually the humidity got to it. I need to replace it before history repeats itself.

- Jim

[Rich]

I keep the doors locked. When working out in the yard, I keep the doors locked.

[Originalist]

I live on Lackland AFB and I am sure that if I am going more then out to the front yard I lock my doors. Safe is a state of mind soon shattered when something bad happens - Deployed to Iraq--I take no chances

[Madsmiley]

Most of the time the doors are locked and at least a couple of guns loaded..Im not paranoid,Im prepared..

[robert_de_niro]

My doors are always locked unless I am going in or out of them.

[seadawg221]

If I lock the doors how the heck am I supposed to get in? Nope, they are only locked at night when I go to bed.

As long as I am awake the garage doors are also wide open, keys to all three vehicles are in the ignition...take whatever you want.....IF you can get away from my little doggy

[stevie_d_64]

I could admit that I do...And keep them unlocked when appropriate...

But I figure that for the most part a locked door is there to slow someone down who shouldn't be trying to get in the first place...After they negotiate that obstacle, the results will be one of two things...And those two things are rather obvious and dependent on if we are inside or not...

If we are not, the two spoted alarm systems will definitly show them where the "good" stuff is...(for a bribe) traitors!

The crime in our area is about average to above average for burglaries of a residence...But since our particular home is on a corner lot and is right beside a main drag street...And that I have nosy nieghbors (you guys got to get some of those!!! I am serious!!!)...

Our house has never to my knowledge ever been broken into or been occupied by someone we didn't know was going to be there anyway...

"So Steve, why are you rubbing our noses in it?"

"Well, lemme tell you..."

You see...Its like this...We don't have anything worth stealing, and worth losing your life over in the process...What is, is locked up in something you ain't getting in anyway, not even on a good day...

So I recommend for what its worth...

Lock yer doors, and lock and load...Just make sure you put the safety on, and sleep tight...Odds are that you will...

Everything else is gravy...

BTW, it is a good idea that a shotgun is the best home defense weapon of choice...And if it is strategically placed, safely, and with plenty of forethought for all of the risks to others in the house (who should be there), and a risk to those who should not...

My handgun on the nightstand is for making sure I can get to it in a timely manner, and as a backup...

Have fun folks!

[jbirds1210]

IBTW, it is a good idea that a shotgun is the best home defense weapon of choice...And if it is strategically placed, safely, and with plenty of forethought for all of the risks to others in the house (who should be there), and a risk to those who should not.

My handgun on the nightstand is for making sure I can get to it in a timely manner, and as a backup...

I completely agree....I have a Mossberg with a pistol grip (I realize that is not a popular choice among many here) that I am rather fond of! I trust that she will keep someone out of my bedroom long enough for me to:
1. Wake up
2. Decide if the intruder or our little dog is making me more nuts!

[RPBrown]

Always (almost) locked. The almost is when my kids come by (they all have keys, for now) and they don't lock up when they leave. I have come home several times and found the door unlocked. It has gotten better since I had a family meeting and told all of them that they would pay for anything missing due to them not locking up.

On a side note, 2 of my neighbors have keys to my house and we have keys to theirs. When we are out of town one of them will feed our dogs (now). The first time we went out of town, the neighbor that was going to feed called us and said the dogs would not let them in the house. We had to call our daughter to go let them in (at that time she lived across town).
Now we have gotten the dogs used to the neighbors, but I am sure they would fight to keep anyone they don't know out.

[Witness P]

Everything is always locked including padlocks on both fence doors and a signal-lock-out on the garage door when were home. Plus a security system but I dont rely on that as much as locked doors.

[KBCraig]

Here's a family who learned to lock their doors:

http://www.texarkanagazette.com/article ... news05.txt


Oh, yes, they call him the streak
Thursday, September 21, 2006 8:36 AM CDT

Stranger reportedly enters home, strips

By TERRI RICHARDSON
Texarkana Gazette

A man who entered the unlocked door of a Texarkana, Ark., home Wednesday morning was arrested by police after exhibiting bizarre behavior, police said.

By the time police arrived on the scene, the suspect was running nude through a nearby pasture, said officer Chris Rankin, Texarkana, Ark., Police Department spokesman.

Tim Smith, 19, of Texarkana, was arrested and booked into the Bi-State Justice Building jail on charges of residential burglary, third-degree assault, fleeing, disorderly conduct and refusal to submit to arrest. Police said he is being held for mental evaluation, and no bail has been set.

According to police reports, Smith entered a home in the 3400 block of Creekside Drive through an unlocked front door and immediately was confronted by the female occupant.

The resident, Linda Smith, no relation to the suspect, said the man who came to the house just before noon seemed to have been on a strange mission.

“He knocked on my bedroom door, and when I opened it he told me he was sent here to have sex with me,� she said. “I told him, ‘I didn’t think so,’ and that he needed to leave.�

Police say the suspect then picked up the woman’s 2-year-old grandchild, who was in the bedroom at the time. After talking Smith into putting down the child, the homeowner moved her family into a bathroom, locked the door and called the police.

She reported to police that the man, who was clad in a gray T-shirt, blue jeans, tennis shoes and cap, was behaving strangely.

“I started to pushing him back up the hallway from my bedroom and told him I was calling the police and he told me to go ahead,� the woman said.

“I started to pushing him back up the hallway from my bedroom and told him I was calling the police and he told me to go ahead,� the woman said.

She said she then called for her daughter’s fiance, who, unknown to her, had just left minutes earlier to go to the store.

“I was calling for Chad, but he wasn’t in, so my daughter ... came into the living room, and we both told him he needed to leave,� she said.

As she and her daughter started calling 911 emergency dispatcher, the man stripped naked in the living room and fled after stealing a pair of shoes.

When officers arrived on the scene, they found Smith running naked through a nearby pasture.

“He started to chase some of the horses and grab at their tails,� she said.

The suspect resisted arrest and fled from the officers, who used pepper spray to subdue him.

By this time, her daughter’s fiance returned from the store.

“Chad tackled him while the officers put the handcuffs on him,� she said.

“We’ll keep our doors locked from now on.�