Would you go to sleep with your doors unlocked?

[tokugawa]

This thread makes me feel good about where I live. Every week I have customer call and say this needs fixed doors are unlocked if we are not home show up when you can.

 I feel good about where I live too.
 But like I said, if an invasion happens, you will never forget it. Some stuff burns into memory like a brand. It does not matter where you go, the memory goes with you.

[Jim147]

Locks only keep honest people honest. Crooks can blow right past them.

[MechAg94]

Locks only keep honest people honest. Crooks can blow right past them.

True, but the purpose is to slow them down and/or make some noise.  Same thing applies to my gun safe.  Make it a little more difficult.  I imagine there is also reducing the temptation of an easy crime like stealing packages at front doors.

As a kid, we got robbed at least once in Houston.  Even later when we moved out near a small town, my parents were still careful about locking doors at night.

[cordex]

Locks only keep honest people honest. Crooks can blow right past them.

For every “I will blow right past your locks” dedicated criminal there are dozens of “hey, if the door is unlocked and no one is looking I’ll see what I can take” criminals.

[griz]

I'm of the "slow 'em down and make noise" school so lock my doors.  I've slept (soundly) in friends houses that didn't.  I used to leave my keys in cars at home (middle of nowhere) but came to believe it was a bad habit to get into.

[Ben]

Locks only keep honest people honest. Crooks can blow right past them.

As others said, it's kinda like parking your car downtown with unlocked doors and a laptop in plain view on the seat, vs putting it in the trunk.

It's true they can blow by locks, but stuff like locks plus EZ-Armor create a time and noise buffer and can make all the difference.

[Fly320s]

As others said, it's kinda like parking your car downtown with unlocked doors and a laptop in plain view on the seat, vs putting it in the trunk.

It's true they can blow by locks, but stuff like locks plus EZ-Armor create a time and noise buffer and can make all the difference.

Did you install EZ-armor on your door frames?  It looks like a good product.

[Ben]

Did you install EZ-armor on your door frames?  It looks like a good product.

I did. Embarrassingly, and I never mentioned this here before, but two days after I moved, I locked myself out of the house here at like 2200. The previous owners never locked anything and only had one key for the front door, and all the other doors took a different key. I was still in California mode and locking everything out of habit.

Anyway, there is an outside access door to my office, and doing a walkaround after finding I was locked out, the lock seemed the easiest for me to get through without damaging anything. It actually wasn't, and I lost my temper and took my shoulder to the door. After one wimpy test hit, I put a hard, but not that hard, shoulder into it and blew right through the door frame. Now there is EZ-Armor on all the doors. Though my little stunt also verified what you see in all the youtube home security videos: Long screws everywhere. The strike plate had teeny short screws that were the main reason I could break the door frame at that location so easily.

With the EZ-Armor and long screws, someone will still get in, but it's going to take more than a couple of kicks. Also it really is "EZ" to install. It's also made for stuff like easily repairing a door frame when a dumbass breaks it.

Besides the EZ-Armor, I also put in a keypad lock on one door so I don't have to worry as much about my stupidity.

[MillCreek]

^^^I have a residential key lock box shackled to one of the propane tanks outside.  I keep a spare house key in that box.

[brimic]

I rarely lock my doors, unless I leave my house.
Crime in my community is virtually nil.
I also live outside of town and have a fairly long driveway- the dog will give me ample warning if anyone comes to my door.

[Ron]

I'm bumbling through day to day life in condition white.

This discussion has helped remind me to lock up
at night.

Black Swans do happen.

[grampster]

I got in the habit of locking my car doors all the time and house doors in the evening many years ago.  Dead bolts on all the doors.  I have a key hidden outside if I accidentally lock myself out.  My garage door has a code box to lift one door.

[Ben]

My garage door has a code box to lift one door.

That's my other way into the house now. The former owners forgot their code and never reset it, and I put off resetting because I was busy my first couple of days here, so didn't have it when I locked myself out. Now I actually have a piece of tape over the door knob lock for the man door to the garage from the house so I don't accidentally lock it, and use the garage door as my backup way into the house if I screw up.

[HeroHog]

^^^I have a residential key lock box shackled to one of the propane tanks outside.  I keep a spare house key in that box.

Search for that model/make on the LockPickingLawyer's site (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm9K6rby98W8JigLoZOh6FQ) and also on BosnianBill's site (https://www.youtube.com/user/bosnianbill) on YouTube.

MANY of those key lock boxes are APPALLINGLY easy to open!

[Jim147]

But they need to find it first.