Why don't people lock their car/home doors?

[jwk94]

I was browsing Facebook today and saw a post from my friend about someone who broke into their garage and car and stole some things. They also included a video that showed the thief going through other people's cars. The caption was "lock your doors" and sure enough, the dude didn't even have to do anything; he just opened the car, stole some things and left.

My ex never locked her doors when she lived with her parents or when we lived together either. One time, I came by unannounced, opened the door to their house and walked in. Nobody was home. I called them to let them know I was there and that the door was unlocked and they didn't care. Like wtf? How are people going to be surprised they're getting jacked by thieves if they don't bother to lock their door?

My ex and I constantly fought about locking the door to our house because I had thousands of dollars worth of equipment for work that I didn't want stolen. She told me that I was being paranoid and nobody wanted our stuff. Mind you, this was a few months after someone broke into my car and stole both our stuff while we were at a concert.

 

[tommyv2]

Well, it depends. You don't normally lock a convertible because if a junkie cuts your roof to look for change, that's a $1500 fix and leaving the doors open costs nothing. As for a house... definitely lock.

 

[RadzPrower]

Always lock my house and my car when it's in public. I have a garage, so I tend to not lock the car when I'm at home, but I've been known to do so anyhow out of habit.

 

[RoninChaos]

I love everything. Got robbed too many times as a kid. Alarms, guns, dogs, etc.

 

[CrankyJay]

I lock my doors. With the rising opioid epidemic, there's been a rash of people "breaking" into cars. Mostly it's just people looking for visible items or loose change in unlocked cars.

 

[Chopchop]

People don't lock their doors?

 

[kagete]

I would guess around 3 cars a year are stolen from my neighborhood. Folks just don't lock their cars and also leave the keys in there.

I frown upon victim blaming but whenever the HOA schedules a townhall meeting with the local PD, that's all the cops really talk about.

 

[Deleted member 1086]

they live in Canada

 

[Deleted member 15326]

Not locking your doors is not normal, at least in the US

 

[ghostemoji]

I know people that leave their cars unlocked to avoid people breaking the windows to get in. Just don't keep valuables in your car.

My parents live in the middle of nowhere and never lock their doors just because nobody ever comes by their house.

 

[Deleted member 33533]

I assumed everyone locked their doors. I couldn't sleep knowing my door was unlocked.

 

[jwk94]

I assumed everyone locked their doors. I couldn't sleep knowing my door was unlocked.

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They locked their house door when it was sleeping time, but that's really the only time.

 

[Deleted member 1086]

my first car i never locked and in fact left parked with the windows all the way down numerous times, because there was nothing in it but a tape deck and a couple zeppelin/santana cassettes. like go ahead, take my santana cassette if you are that desperate.

 

[Pau]

I just remember family who said they never locked their stuff... in Buffalo. I grew up thinking Buffalo was this super safe city. I don't know if it's just gotten a lot worse since then or if they just had a super skewed sense of crime coming from what used to be the most violent city in the world.

 

[0ptimusPayne]

Everytime I log onto the Next Door app( which is rarely) someone got their car "broken" into and its always because people are too comfortable in a decent neighborhood, so they dont' lock their doors. I always lock my shit up, even when I'm home. Had my radio out of my old college car stolen because I was too lazy to hit the keyless lock. Never again. I check my front door/patio back door/fence gate before I leave anywhere, even though there is a very small chance someone would try to get into my house. LOCK IT UP people

 

[Hollywood Duo]

You never think crime will happen to you until it does

 

[Fubar]

Small town Minnesota (26k people), sometimes forget to lock car or house doors and things work out fine. At home I have an 80+ pound German Shepherd so I really am not worried too much.

Super small town Minnesota (2k) where my wife is from, you could literally unlock your car doors and leave them open with an Xbox and TV sitting in the backseat overnight and you would have far more worries about animals getting in and staying overnight instead of someone stealing something. It just doesnt happen.

 

[LiK]

Everyone locks their doors. The only people who don't probably live in a safe place or they're too ignorant of the dangers.

 

[shnurgleton]

I lock my everything all the time

My brother leaves his everything unlocked all the time. He has had his car stolen twice and loses things all the time

 

[Powdered Egg]

Friend got their car stolen like that. He had his car unlocked, with keys for the other car in the unlocked one.

 

[turbobrick]

I don't lock my car doors if its parked in my closed garage. If they're going to go through the trouble of breaking into the garage, they're going to break into the car as well.

I also don't lock my cars that are parked in my back yard. Though those have nothing of value in them and they also don't even run anyway.

 

[Futureman]

"My ex and I constantly fought about locking the door to our house because I had thousands of dollars worth of equipment for work that I didn't want stolen. She told me that I was being paranoid and nobody wanted our stuff. Mind you, this was a few months after someone broke into my car and stole both our stuff while we were at a concert."

LOL this is just crazy. People force their way into homes to steal shit... like what reality does your ex live in?

where are you from OP? Even well off, "nice" neighborhoods get robbed.

 

[SonicXtreme]

when i had a beater i'd leave it unlocked a lot bc it cost me alot of money to replace a shattered window, more than the cost of anything i kept in the car

 

[808s & Villainy]

My roommates don't lock our door sometimes just because we live in an apartment and the building door is locked. I have to remind them all the time. I annoys me a lot

 

[One Eyed Willy]

I live in a very safe area, and don't need to. I go out of my way however to lock the house doors, and my truck doors and garage doors etc. I check them all every night like routine before bed. However, its not really needed where I live and I probably "forget" to lock stuff every couple of weeks or so. Right after we bought I left my garage door (large one) open once for an entire weekend while we were away, and nothing was taken. I had several expensive bikes sitting in plain view, law mowers, Craftsmen tool sets and all sorts of stuff. Since then my neighbors would just call me if they saw it open for too long or overnight.

In short, I don't need to.

edit. I live in the US

 

[AlsoZ]

OP doesn't seem to know what a high trust society looks like. Most cities aren't. Some suburbs are. Many rural places are.

 

[TheMadTitan]

If it's in the garage, I leave the car unlocked with the keys in the car. If someone manages to get into the house, they already have access to everything anyway.

If the car is outside, everything is locked up and nothing is visible.

 

[Transistor]

I have nothing of value on the inside of my car. However, the thief doesn't know that. I'd rather them open the door, rummage through shit, and then just leave than break a window

 

[jwk94]

"My ex and I constantly fought about locking the door to our house because I had thousands of dollars worth of equipment for work that I didn't want stolen. She told me that I was being paranoid and nobody wanted our stuff. Mind you, this was a few months after someone broke into my car and stole both our stuff while we were at a concert."

LOL this is just crazy. People force their way into homes to steal shit... like what reality does your ex live in?

where are you from OP? Even well off, "nice" neighborhoods get robbed.

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Good ole' USA.

 

[Rotkehle]

I don't lock my house because there is nearly no crime here.

 

[Deleted member 36054]

I've kept my car doors unlocked because I've had my window smashed anyways. I'd rather just deal with the missing buck or two than with broken glass.

 

[____]

I had a friend that told me he leaves his shit unlocked so that he can just have stuff stolen, and not have stuff stolen + replacing a broken window.

Fuck that. I feel a thief is probably lazy and when he sees my shit is locked, will simply go to the next car.

My plan has worked solidly.

 

[Pagusas]

It does suck that we live in a world with shit human beings, thus having to lock our doors.

 

[Daysean]

Peaceful Neighborhood/Trusting/Have never felt the pain of a crime/Bad Memory (car)
Take your pick

 

[Woolley]

Don't all cars have automatic locking at this point? If I forget to lock my doors they lock after a couple of minutes.

 

[Ukraine]

How difficult is it to get into somebody's house when it's locked? This always seemed pointless to me... I do tend to lock doors, but I don't feel strongly about it either way.

 

[Roven]

I find it funny when in American movies/shows neighbours or even strangers enter the house and they act like it's the most normal thing in the world.
In Germany (I guess most of Europe) basically all doors lock automatically. You just don't need to lock them.

 

[SliceSabre]

The idea of leaving the door to my apartment unlocked for any amount of time that doesn't involve me going in and out blows me mind.

I mean I called off from work once because the lock to my apartment door broke and it couldn't get fixed for several hours.

 

[Saganator]

Well, it depends. You don't normally lock a convertible because if a junkie cuts your roof to look for change, that's a $1500 fix and leaving the doors open costs nothing. As for a house... definitely lock.

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Haha. This reminds me of when I drove a '89 Accord a while back. It got broken into so many times I started to just leave it unlocked because that was better than getting my window replaced

 

[CopperPuppy]

They never lived somewhere they had to

 

[turbobrick]

Don't all cars have automatic locking at this point? If I forget to lock my doors they lock after a couple of minutes.

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No, that's not really that common. Some cars will lock if the key is not in proximity of the vehicle, but from my experience, I'd say less than half of all new cars have that.

And of course not everyone drives new cars.


There are aftermarket alarms that lock the doors on a timer no matter if the keys are in it or not. Which having worked at a dealership in service, this was the most annoying thing ever. So many times a car would be locked with the keys in it, and of course it would be parked in an inconvenient spot.

 

[Deleted member 15326]

some of these answers make me realize just how sheltered/lucky people here are

 

[Wraith]

Don't all cars have automatic locking at this point? If I forget to lock my doors they lock after a couple of minutes.

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I don't think that's a common feature yet. My car's three years old, mid-priced sedan, and nothing auto-locks. I always just use the fob.

I've been in cars where the doors lock automatically once the car's in motion, but I don't think they locked after the keys were removed from the ignition.

 

[RadzPrower]

I had a friend that told me he leaves his shit unlocked so that he can just have stuff stolen, and not have stuff stolen + replacing a broken window.

Fuck that. I feel a thief is probably lazy and when he sees my shit is locked, will simply go to the next car.

My plan has worked solidly.

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There really is a line there somewhere though.

Yeah, a casual thief is gonna just go through a parking lot and pull door handles...I've seen it happen at places...but certain thieves, especially on private property, have probably already singled you out and are gonna break stuff in order to get your stuff.

 

[Tagyhag]

I never had anything stolen from me and I still lock everything. There is no country out there that doesn't have thieves, why take a chance?

 

[Vilix]

My father never locked his cars and doors to the house. He had two cars stolen and had several break ins. Because of that my family and I lock everything.

 

[Patrick Bateman]

Chase later told detectives that he took locked doors as a sign that he was not welcome, but unlocked doors were an invitation to come inside.

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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Chase

Yeah, I lock my shit..

 

[BanditoMac]

the neighborhood i live in allows me to not worry about it, but i do lock them if i'm out in public/parking garage obviously.

 

[NeonBlack]

Always lock your doors. There's no downside.

 

[Deleted member 17092]

This is really only a thing in very small towns and wealthy suburbs with virtually no robberies ever occur, and generally where there are like old/retired people around all day kind of keeping an eye on things. So no need to lock during the day and not really at night either if you're home and are a relatively light sleeper in case someone was gonna try anything. Also might be more common in houses that have dogs and guns.