do you live in an apartment/dorm/other housing complex sort of thing? if so...

carlita · Feb 26, 2005

i've got a question for you folks.

over the last week or so i've heard more than one person comment on people leaving their door unlocked (or even open) while they either go to the laundry room, check the mailbox, take the trash out, etc.

first my professor in my criminal profiling class mentioned it... in fact he even said something specifically about females doing this. right now, i'm watching the people's court on TV and this particular plaintiff went to take the trash out and left his door unlocked while doing so. apparently during that time his computer was stolen. he's pissed cause his landlord never got the front door to the building fixed so he's arguing that it was their fault that someone got into his apartment... when he could have just locked his door to his apartment and he wouldn't even have to be there in court. :roll:

so what i'm wondering is, how many of you who live in a housing complex leave your door unlocked when you take your trash out, or check your mail, or one of the other dozen things you might leave your apartment for no more than a few minutes for?

cause, sure, i live in a prison town (which seems to make my sister think it's dangerous here :scratch: ) but our crime rate is so low it's almost laughable. at least compared to big cities like where i grew up. so maybe i only lock my door whenever i step out because i learned at a very early age that it was an important thing to do (even though the actual neighborhood i grew up in was also pretty safe).

but is it really that uncommon for people to do so? :???:

i hope you guys lock your doors. and if not i hope you start doing so. cause i want you all to be safe. :hug::

it must be the criminal justice major in me talking. :razz:

Artemis · Feb 26, 2005

In this film I saw (Bowling for collumbine) Micheal More went to all the different houses...and most had their doors unlocked...

andycarnall · Feb 26, 2005

Artemis said:
In this film I saw (Bowling for collumbine) Micheal More went to all the different houses...and most had their doors unlocked...

That was in Canada though and the ones he showed they were in - I've read reports of people in the US getting shot on sight for doing that.

lots of people at College did that sort of thing, every once in a while a few rooms would get turned over adn everyone would lock their doors for a few weeks again.

I did once come back from a week long trip away to find I'd left my front door open

Aoide · Feb 26, 2005

I live in an apartment and I always lock my doors when I leave to take out the trash, check the mail, etc. The only time I may leave it open is if I'm going to my car because I can see the breezeway to my apartment door from the parking lot. It is a totally ingrained habit that I have developed since living in the big city.

I went to visit my mom and I was locking everything behind her. She lives in a small town and she left her car unlocked and the front door unlocked. She locks the stuff up at night, but didn't see a need to lock during the day.

aggiezach · Feb 26, 2005

Well first of all, the crime rate where I live is almost non existent as well. We have 5 guys living in a house that is in a fairly nice neighborhood and I don't think I've ever locked the front door. When we're all going to be gone for an extended period of time, then yeah sure, we'll lock it up, but normally I'd have to say that our door is unlocked 80% of the time. When I do move into a real place in a real city, I'll definitely lock the door, but its just not a problem here.

Zach

Artemis · Feb 26, 2005

aggiezach said:
Well first of all, the crime rate where I live is almost non existent as well. We have 5 guys living in a house that is in a fairly nice neighborhood and I don't think I've ever locked the front door. When we're all going to be gone for an extended period of time, then yeah sure, we'll lock it up, but normally I'd have to say that our door is unlocked 80% of the time. When I do move into a real place in a real city, I'll definitely lock the door, but its just not a problem here.

Zach

*Takes note of this, gets stealing kit ready*

Nikon Fan · Feb 26, 2005

Many people in the small town I live in leave their doors unlocked all the time. My family doesn't though...Also a lot of people leave their keys in their cars with the doors unlocked...crazy IMO but people are really trusting around here...

mentos_007 · Feb 26, 2005

as far as I got my trash 3 metres from my front door I leave them open. Next to the trash there's mailbox so the same

Xmetal · Feb 27, 2005

I live in a house...

And yeah I still live at home with my parents.

I live in a really quiet suburb but the doors are always locked and all the windows have locks aswell.

Scurra · Feb 28, 2005

I live on the outskirts of London in a series of 4 flats, when I empty my rubbish I leave the door wide open. I left a large window open by mistake for a week before I moved in, all of my new kitchen appliances were sitting in the room with the window open boxed up ready for fitting and nothing happened. I guess I'm lucky.

Also back at home in Kent (where the rest of my family lives) we rarely lock our doors except at night.. U can be sure to get access any time during the day. Equally we have 3 cars on our driveway all unlocked all day, occassionally with the windows down depending on the weather... It just makes for ease of use.. I can run straight out of my house and jump in the car and dissappear in no time should I have the desire to do so

fadingaway1986 · Feb 28, 2005

A couple of weeks ago, we went to my aunt's house, to find her brand new car sitting in the front yard, doors unlocked, windows wound down and her purse sitting on the front seat...

... At our old house we didn't really do much security-wise... Our front door was always unlocked... But we lived on a backlot and no one really knew our house was there except our neighbours... Do you realise how many people we caught walking down our drive way cause they thought it was an alleyway to get to the street behind us... We only had fly screens on the windows - and i never locked my window - so when we locked the keys in the house - we just lifted the fly screen & climbed in the window...

But then - we moved to our new house... This house is some odd security-conscious technology house... All windows fitted with security screens... As are the doors. Fitted with a monitored security system (which we dont get monitored anymore)... Garage doors can be opened from a mobile phone (but we don't know what the number is)... Our aircon can be turned on with a mobile.. But likewise with the garage doors.

This house is strange... Then we found out the old people were running a sweatshop out of the garage, which explains the mysterious cable connection and phone lines in the garage...

Uhh thats my nice long story... (We live in a house by the way!)

and Carlita - my dad made a good point about prisons the other day.. When they escape - they aren't gonna go and hide next door - they're gonna go far, far away.

molested_cow · Feb 28, 2005

In Taiwan this is what they do. They will buzz you pretend to be a postman, so you go downstairs to get your mail. When you get to the lobby, you see no one, so you go back to your apartment, then find your TV and DVD players and a whole bunch of stuffs missing.

PreludeX · Feb 28, 2005

I live in school housing.... its an apartment complex with studios and 1 bdrms and 2 bdrms.... first off, to enter the building you have to have a key card... then to enter someones room you have to have a keycard... but everyone in my building including me leaves their doors unlocked... why? well... there hasnt been any theft throughout the building so we all feel were safe with each other... which i guess is a good thing....

carlita · Feb 28, 2005

my roomate and i used to leave our door to our dorm open as long as we were actually IN the room, but not when we left. and those doors shut themselves unless you put something in the way to prop the door open. and when they shut they lock automatically.

but people would prop the door to the building open sometimes as well, so i just wasn't willing to chance it.

they just recently switched over to the key card thing here as well. i don't live in the dorms anymore though.

carlita · Feb 28, 2005

fadingaway1986 said:
and Carlita - my dad made a good point about prisons the other day.. When they escape - they aren't gonna go and hide next door - they're gonna go far, far away.

yep, that's the very same thing i always tell people. :razz:

and it's especially true in a small town like this. if it were a big city it'd be easier to hide, but they'd stick out like a sore thumb here.