Locking the doors.

Faye - posted on 05/17/2011

I grew up in a town in the 70's which had a murderer running around. It did not matter if the victim was male or female (first ones killed were a family home sick that day), he would sweet talk his way into the home as he had a security company badge. All thought they could trust him. Because of this, I learned to lock to doors at an early age even while inside the house while watching TV.

When the murderer resurfaced by tauting the police with letters in about 2004, I trained my kids to keep the doors locked. They could not figure out why I insisted until I allowed them to watch the documentry that was made after the guys arrest in Feb 2005.

Jessica - posted on 03/22/2011

I lock all doors when i'm inside in broad daylight and at night, and obviously when we're out. I do also lock the dorr when I go to the bathroom when home alone. I'm just weird like that or paranoid.

Samantha - posted on 03/22/2011

I lock all of my doors all the time. Im not sure why i do its just habit to lock the door when i shut it. The only time i dont lock the bathroom door is after the kids are asleep and im going to take a shower. just in case they wake up.

Cathy - posted on 03/22/2011

How much crime can you get in a town with a population of less than 9000 people?

Toni - posted on 03/22/2011

Burglary is involving theft from the home (things like break in and enter) and Robbery is theft from the person I believe (things like muggings).

Wow Cathy now I really want to live by you those figures are really low :-)

Cathy - posted on 03/22/2011

Ok found mine now...

Burglary: 5
Anti-social behaviour : 36
Robbery : 0
Vehicle crime : 11
Violent crime : 18
Other crime : 41

What's the difference between burglary and robbery?

Sarah - posted on 03/22/2011

I googled "crime statistics" and then went on "Police-UK" :)

Cathy - posted on 03/22/2011

Where did you find the figures for your town in the UK?

I know the local police officers by their first names and have their direct number at the local police station .... not sure if that's a good or bad sign!

Sarah - posted on 03/22/2011

Mine is :
Burglary: 21
Anti-social behaviour : 152
Robbery : 1
Vehicle crime : 15
Violent crime : 45
Other crime : 126

Same as Toni, it's for January 2011.

Sarah - posted on 03/22/2011

Townsville's crime stats as of november 2009
Murder 3
Attempted murder 10
driving causing death 3
Assault 2039
Sexual offences 425
Drug Offences 3169
Liquor offences 2506
procuring prostitution 2
weapons offences 331
traffic offenses 3897

basically we're a bunch of druggos who don't know the road rules

Toni - posted on 03/22/2011

I don't think we need to lock our doors here it is just a habit I have developed - I thought I'd have a look at the crime rates for my area on the database in January 2011 there were:

Burglary - 26 (includes intention to burgle)
Anti-social behaviour - 65 (most likely drunks and kids)
Robbery - 3 (includes where force or threat of force was used to steal)
Vehicle crime - 11
Violent crime - 16 (includes common assault, harrassment and GBH)
Other crime - 53 (includes criminal damage, shoplifting and drug offenses)

Total number of incidents - 174 (in Dec there were 149 and 53 were anti-social behaviour)

Looking back through the data it seems the vast majority of problems in my area are due to anti-social behaviour, which is more often than not kids being a little rowdy and drunks after kick out of the bars in the village, so I am over zealous with my locking habits as I thought :-)

Sarah - posted on 03/21/2011

Emily - ever since i lived in sydney for two months im paranoid about locking car doors and driving i remember we were at traffic lights a few cars back and this guy just reached over opened the car door beside him and stole this woman's hand bag...and if you've ever been to sydney you'd know that the cars are so close you can wind down the window and hi five the person in the car beside you

Audrey - posted on 03/21/2011

we live out in the country so we never lock the door. if there is an intruder and we are home, we have a couple guns and if my husband isnt there to use it i will.

Jane - posted on 03/21/2011

I lock the house up like Fort Knox at night and I live in an extremely safe area. However, I grew up in NY and LA, California which weren't so safe and so it's become a habit of mine to just lock everything, all the time.

With regards to the bathroom, I'm not sure I've ever locked the door...sometimes, I don't even shut it (LOL)!

Emily - posted on 03/21/2011

Toni - Yeah, that's how we have to be too. My parents were pretty strict about it too... but only about doors. Windows were left open. But we don't leave any windows open at all. We air the house out whenever possible, but 90% of the time, they have to stay closed. We lock the car doors while driving too. To risky to stop at a red light without it. :P To me, the world sucks. But it appears that nobody else has this problem. Weird! I had NO idea that so many people could leave their doors and windows unlocked.

Julianne - posted on 03/21/2011

I live in a shady building. I lock my doors all the time. Plus gabby could open the door if not locked since she was a year. Don't want her falling down the stairs..

Jocelyn - posted on 03/21/2011

I was curious, so I tried to find out my towns crime rate, but apparently it doesn't exist.
I live in a town or 26000 just south of Calgary, and I can count on one hand the number of murders we've had here in the past 13 years (how long I've lived here). When we lived in the getto-area, our car got broken into by an idiot (didn't check the trunk which had $1000 worth of tattoo equipment) but took one cd, a t-shirt, an a nintendo ds.
Our towns nickname is Smoke-a-tokes (Okotoks) so maybe that's why our crime is so low :P Everybody's stoned LOL

Toni - posted on 03/21/2011

I am amazed how many of you don't lock your doors. I guess I am just really anal about locking my doors as my parents were really strict about it.

My doors are locked all the time, except when we are outside then the closest door is open. In the summer I have the second floor windows open and the windows at the back of my house open, but on the front of my house I only open the window in the room I am in and if I leave the room for an extended period I shut it.

My car doors are locked all the time as well even when I am driving.

I only shut the bathroom door when we have guests over and I never lock it in my house, when I am in others homes I do though.

Emily - posted on 03/21/2011

They still give the "per 100,000" stats for tiny towns. It should be on there. Sometimes you have to search by zip code.

My city has a sex offender ratio of about 178 to 1. Most of those are child molesters. :( I've looked up the registry, and recognized a number of people I see all the time, right near my house.

Holly - posted on 03/21/2011

Also, thinking about it more, my hometown only has around 6,000 people living there... like I said before, it's small... So the "per 10,000 people" wouldn't work for that area.

It might be per 10,000 people for the place I live now though since I am in a big city with over 200,000 people...

Holly - posted on 03/21/2011

See, I went on that site and I can't find the crime stats. I found the number of sex offenders, but not the stats listed above... hmmm...

Emily - posted on 03/21/2011

Holly - I got my crime stats from "city-data.com". I'd love to know where others got theirs so I could compare too.

Sarah - posted on 03/21/2011

I lock the door when im inside and its always locked at night as for the bathrom considering its me and my 16 month old the bathroom door is never closed...unless my son decides to close it while we're both in there

Georgia - posted on 03/20/2011

Desiree, I wished that for you too. I loved SA and would have emigrated there instead of Australia if it weren't for the safety issues. Beautiful country and it makes me so sad that so many have had to leave that beautiful place to be safe.

Holly - posted on 03/20/2011

Honestly, I don't know... I *think* it's total because I got the top one form the 2009 annual report and I got the bottom one from a website with all those stats for people looking to move to the area... Is the site you got your stats from national? If it is, could you pot a link and I could see if my areas' numbers match with that?

Emily - posted on 03/20/2011

Holly, is that per 100,000 people, or total?

Holly - posted on 03/20/2011

Let's see... The area I live in now (2009 report):

Homicide: 30
Rape: 179
Robbery: 1,606
Aggravated Assault: 2,352
Burglary: 5,135
Larceny: 11,720
Motor Vehicle Theft: 4,146
Yearly Total: 25,168

Where I was born and raised (2000 report – this is the latest I could find):

Murder: 1
Rape: 0
Robbery: 8
Aggravated Assault: 61
Burglary: 172
Larceny: 568
Motor Vehicle Theft: 61
Yearly Total: 871

Yeah... Plus the schools in my old hometown are great. I miss living there, but this is where my hubby can get work, so here we are.

Emily - posted on 03/20/2011

I guess the reason we're still here, when it's so dangerous, is that we grew up here. It grew worse and worse over the years, but gradually.

Hmmm crime stats per 100,000 are, as of 2009:

Murder: 23.4
Rape: 53.7
Robbery: 722
Assault: 1049.9
Burglary: 1179.4
Theft: 3112.4
Auto Theft: 710.9
Arson: 11

I guess you could call that a high crime area. A couple of stats that aren't on here, are that we have one of the very highest concentrations of registered sex offenders (child molesters) in the entire country, and that drug gangs are currently flooding into the area in droves. I want to move so desperately. If only I could convince my husband. :(

Krista - posted on 03/20/2011

I live in the country, and a lot of people here don't lock their doors, but I'm definitely the exception. At night, I lock them. If I'm going to go take a shower and my husband isn't home, I lock the doors. And if I'm going out, I absolutely lock the doors. I don't bother locking my car door if it's in my driveway, though. Our driveway is super-long (more of a lane than a driveway), so it's not like some random person is going to walk by and see that my car is unlocked.

I only lock the bathroom doors if we have company over, so that nobody inadvertently walks in on me. If I'm by myself, I don't bother.

And if my son is up and about, I definitely don't close or lock the doors. He'd have a fit if I did, because he loves coming into the bathroom while Mommy is on the crapper and blowing raspberries on her legs, or sticking his fingers in between the rolls on her belly.

It's fucking soothing, let me tell you.

Holly - posted on 03/20/2011

When I was growing up (in a small town) we used to never lock our doors - even the cars. In fact, most people who know my family (and that's a lot of people since my dad is a pastor) often just walk into the house without even knocking. I now have a hard time with this when I visit my parents since I am contantly trying to lock up after myself!

Holly - posted on 03/20/2011

My bathroom dorrs don't have locks anymore... My kids kept locking themselves inside (ages 2 and 3) and getting stuck, so we replaced the doorknobs with non-locking ones.

Holly - posted on 03/20/2011

I lock the dorrs all the time. it's just habit now - I close the door behind me and I lock it, whether I'm inside or outside. BUT, I do live in a fairly large city, so that plays a big role in that behavior... If we lived in a smaller town I would still lock up when we're not home and at night, but probably not when I am home during the day...

Brandi - posted on 03/20/2011

I am terrible. I lock my doors when I am in my bed sleeping. I leave them unlocked any other time... yes even when I am not home. I live in a city that it is rare for any kind of crime. I know it is stupid, but I do it. Sometimes I do it on purpose, sometimes I just completely forget to do it.

Jenny - posted on 03/20/2011

I would never live in a place where I felt unsafe. If I felt the need for huge fences, alarms and deadbolts everywhere I would move. I live right downtown in my city. I walk alone at night. I don't think about locking doors, although we have more lately to keep the toddler in the house who wants to go ride his bike in the front yard in his jammies. I refuse to live in fear of other people.

I also rarely shut the bathroom lol. We only have 1 bathroom with 4 people so we all have to share.

Desiree - posted on 03/20/2011

I wish I live in a place where I don't have to lock doors.

Sarah - posted on 03/20/2011

I can't believe how many of you don't shut the door when you go to the bathroom! LOL!

Maybe I'm weird for always shutting and locking it!

~Jennifer - posted on 03/19/2011

Year: 2009
Murder, Man-Slaughter : 0
Forcible Rape : 0
Robbery : 0
Aggravated Assault : 1
Burglary : 4
Larceny, Theft : 27
Motor Vehicle Theft : 0

(2009 is the last year that I could find reports for my town)


....yeah....not locking the doors in Fair Haven.

Kelly - posted on 03/19/2011

Jodi brings up a good point. I consider my area to be a "low-crime area" and when we purchased our home, the area was boasted to have lower crime rates than other areas, yet most people here do have alarms in their homes and cars, whereas, on this board, it seems very few people do. So I decided to look up the crime stats for my area. Turns out, we are not really "low-crime" as compared to national levels, we are actually pretty close to average (except for robbery and vehicle theft, but that's probably b/c we all use alarm systems because our police force is crap and does nothing but write speeding tickets all the time). For my actual state, we are low crime, but our state crime rates surpass the national averages on almost all fronts--pathetic IMO, but it may explain why I feel the need for so much more security than you all do.

That, and I grew up living in a shack without windows or doors, people wandered in and took things all the time, among doing other things. I've grown to be a very protective and private person.


Latest 2006 Crimes per 100,000 People:
Simpsonville, SC / National
Murder: 0 / 7
Forcible Rape: 39.04 / 32.2
Robbery: 45.5 / 205.8
Aggravated Assault: 527 / 336.5
Larceny Theft: 3519.8 / 2601.7
Vehicle Theft: 260.2 / 501.5

Shana - posted on 03/19/2011

I close all doors and lock up even when I am home. Actually I am paranoid about some weird stuff so yes. I cannot stand to have open doors around me, and everything has to be locked. I don't know why. But it certainly keeps my daughter from wrecking more than one room. Lol.

Johnny - posted on 03/19/2011

We lock the doors at night and when we are out. We generally leave our back door open, and our front patio open most of the day, but still have the front door which goes to the street locked. No one in our co-op has been broken into since we've moved in. A few cars have been stolen around here, but I've never heard of anyone in the neighborhood getting burgled. For a while last summer, there was a teenager looking in people's back windows and masturbating. That was rather concerning, but a lock isn't going to help with that unless he escalates. An area nearby had a problem with a fire bug, but he never came into where we live. Our area is very confusing and almost a hidden part of the city. I think criminals often stay away because they don't know if they could escape quickly. The crime stats for our area are strikingly low, so I just figure that must be why.

Charlie - posted on 03/19/2011

I only lock the doors if we are going away for the weekend , I don't lock the bathroom door , I rarely shut it LOL. .

Jodi - posted on 03/19/2011

Wow, you live in a low crime area but feel the need for that much security?

Kelly - posted on 03/19/2011

I lock the house and set the alarm every night before bed.

I lock the house anytime we go out, but I only remember to set the alarm about half the time.

If we are home and awake, the back door is usually open along with all the windows (I like the fresh air), but we live in a securely gated neighborhood, and my yard is fenced, so it's pretty safe. We also have a large dog--he's harmless, but scary.

I also lock up and set the alarm if I need to shower or take a nap during the day, but I usually shower before we disarm in the morning.

I live in a very low crime area, but we had three burglary attempts in our neighborhood last summer--the police think they are coming in under the stream that lets into our lake. I think they could have been kids who live within our gates, or their friends. They didn't get into the houses, just tripped the alarms. Cameras were installed, but we've had no more alarms tripped.

I don't lock the door when I go to the bathroom unless we have company. I close it, but no need to lock it :)

Sarah - posted on 03/19/2011

We always lock up now whether we're in or out since someone walked in and burgled our house while I was upstairs putting the children to bed.

Becky - posted on 03/19/2011

Dh locks our front door when he leaves for work in the morning and it stays locked unless I go outside for something. If I unlock it to go out, it'll usually be left unlocked. In the summer, I open the door and just leave the storm door closed. I usually leave it unlocked, unless we're going to be out in the backyard or something where I wouldn't hear someone come in.

If we go out in the car, we go out through the garage, so I don't have to worry about remembering the front door. But we always lock it when we go out. And we lock it at night, unless we forget. Usually the door between the garage and the house is left unlocked though.

Editted to add: I only lock the bathroom door when we have people over and I don't want the kids to open it on me! I only ever shut it if the front door is open -because you can see into our main floor bath from the front door.

Bonnie - posted on 03/19/2011

I always keep the door locked unless I know what time I am expecting my husband then I will keep it unlocked so he doesn't have to use his key or ring the bell. When we go to bed we lock the top lock as well. When I use the bathroom, I don't lock the door. When i'm home alone, I don't even close the door.

Teresa - posted on 03/19/2011

I lock the door at night and some of the time that we leave the house. We almost never even shut the bathroom door though. My son does lock our bedroom door at night, but I leave it unlocked after I get up to pee the first time.

Jocelyn - posted on 03/19/2011

I always lock the doors at night. During the day, when we're home, they are unlocked. If we go to the park or something, then they get locked.
But if I forget to lock the door, it's ok because our big suck of a pit bull scares away everyone lol.
The bathroom door always gets locked :P

Lady Heather - posted on 03/19/2011

Our doors are almost always locked. I don't trust the weirdos that wander into my neighbourhood. Even the nice neighbourhoods here have had problems with home invasions because people didn't lock up. One of my neighbours was saying that one time he was just sitting in his living room during the day and some guy just walked right into his house. He then claimed that he thought it was his house. Funny perhaps, but not something I really want to deal with when I'm home alone with my kid.

Bathroom doors, no. Most of the time the door is open. Not when there are other people around, but when it is just me and the little one I prefer to be able to hear what she's up to.

Emily - posted on 03/19/2011

LOL... We keep our doors locked 100% of the time, unless we are outside, and then the nearest door is unlocked, and the rest remain locked. We kinda live in a bad place. The neighbors are some really scary people. I'm not prejudiced. But when the neighbors own an AK47, and they post pics on the internet of them holding it, with YOUR house in the background, it's worrisome. With that, gang tats, the SWAT teams, and the drive-bys... You keep your head low around here, and beg your hubby to move. (So far, it isn't happening. He doesn't mind the risk.)

We keep the doors blocked with 4x4s too, during the night. Partly because we aren't sure the locks would keep the neighbors out, and to keep our sleepwalkers from escaping, which they have. It's really scary to have to go outside at 2 AM to find your sleep-walking 4 year old - wherever he might have wandered to.