SilentStrikerIs it safe to leave front door unlocked at night in the US?
CrocodilloBombardinothe US is a gigantic country, so there are different practices in different places. I have never left my door unlocked, but maybe others have.
makingStuffForFunIt’s not that big mate
It is nearly as big as Texas….so quite big.
ERM
Texas is larger than Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), but smaller than all other Australian states.
If Texas were a state in Australia, it would rank as the sixth. Behind New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, and South Australia.
Erm… Not that big
Boomer Humor DoomergodAlaska has entered the chat
Antarctica becons
Australia isn’t on the same continent as Antarctica. But New Zealand is.
Maps without nz
That jokes gone over your head.
eatham 🇦🇺First, the USA is a giant country. It takes about four hours to drive from New York to Philadelphia and two weeks to drive from New York to Los Angeles.
Second, crime can vary wildly in the same city.
I believe Trumptopia is about the same size physically as Australia.
Same thing.
Big city. Lock.
Small town. Maybe lock.
Rural area. Never lock.
I believe Trumptopia is about the same size physically as Australia.
You know, you could get a ‘search engine’ like AskJeeves or Bing and then you’d know for sure.
USA 9.83 square km
Aus 7.69 square km.
Pretty close then. Interesting. Thanks for the stats.
leojWe’re kind of getting away from the point that how long it takes to drive somewhere has zero to do with whether you lock your door.
the drive time was to illustrate scale.
While it doesn’t matter how big a whale is vs a microbe, you can’t put a whale under a normal microscope, thus the distinction is relevant.
oh I might disagree believe leaving doors unlocked is more common when the nearest neighbor is a mile and a half away but maybe I’m wrong
Yeah nah cunt. You don’t include Alaska in that as it’s pulling a lot of weight.
Contiguous US is 8.08. Still slightly larger than Australia but only byy a dick hair.
This is the most Australian argument I’ve read, I even read it in my best Australian accent.
Some of my inspiration for my internal Australian accent include:
“Fosters, Australian for beer!”
“That’s not a knife, THIS is knife!”
“I’m dry as a dead dingo’s donger”
Fun fact: if by some miracle you find Fosters anywhere Australia, if you actually buy it and drink it, you get instantly deported to Manus Island because you’re clearly not from around here. Or worse, a pome.
The US is significantly larger than Australia and has ten times the population.
It’s not significantly larger. Lots of people though.
20% larger is significant.
Is it though?
Significantly?
Hhmmmm
theneverfoxBeing leisurely sure. But RI to CA can be done in a weekend if you’re in a hurry
The Velour Fog Like others have said, it depends on where you are in the US. I live in a suburban area and we always lock our doors, whereas my cousins live in a rural region of the state and rarely lock their doors.
It’s up to you, but I’d always err on the side of caution and lock the door.
I personally have never lived somewhere where I don’t lock the doors, even if I’m home. It just makes me feel safer.
Conversely, my dad, who lives about 15 minutes from me, has never locked the front door of the house in the 45 years I’ve been alive. When he goes away somewhere, he leaves the garage door unlocked so neighbors can borrow tools and the kids in the neighborhood can grab a ball if they need one. Nothing has ever gone missing.
Yeah, I lock my door at night, but i don’t think I have to. I’ll usually leave my house unlocked and unattended if we take a neighborhood walk, or even go to the park for a couple hours. The only person who has ever ever “broken in” to this house in almost 50 years is a family member with an addiction looking for something to pawn, and even that was only once. Never a stranger. I live in a city, not rural at all.
EntheoNautWhere I live front door locked, back door unlocked.
It’s safer to lock, how much safer varies. Why do you ask?
_haha_oh_wow_Totally depends on where.
RebekahWSDThat really depends on where. My mother grew up in Montana and they never locked their doors. Whereas my ass in NJ has never not locked the doors.
Growing up on a small town in Iowa, I would leave my car unlocked and windows down during the day. I lived rural and we never locked our door. Now there’s been more development near my mother’s house and she locks the door at night and when she’s not home. Someone down the street about a mile away had someone break into their house. Unfortunately for the perp, the home owner heard, grabbed a golf club and gave the dude a shiner and a titlists face tattoo.
Now I live in a larger metro area and keep my doors locked all day. I truly wouldn’t need to because we have a pretty safe community, but my wife grew up in a worse place so it’s more habit than anything. We also have dogs they could potentially pop a door open and get out, so extra piece of mind.
It isn’t safe to leave your doors unlocked anywhere in the world. It’s not just a crime thing you wanna block your door to keep animals out, To stop it from drifting open and weather event that can damage your house, To seal the house to keep vermin and pestilence out.
Being safe is such a broad term.
Idk what kind of animals or weather you are dealing with that know how to open doors.
mesaGrowing up, we had a front door that we never used, so we left it locked, and the side door was always unlocked unless we were going on vacation or something.
My friends parents locked their door when they werent home, but they always left the windows next to the door unlocked, so they or I or anyone could just climb in if we needed to.
I dont know if people locked doors at night, but we didn’t. Definitely no one ever locked the door during the day when they were home. The first time I experienced someone doing that, I was so confused. If a thief is willing to go into an occupied house, they’ll be willing to break a window.
I would never leave keys in a car, partly because of where I live now, but also because cars are deadly weapons, and you shouldn’t leave those around where kids could get hurt.
procapraIt is highly dependent on where you live. And it’s not density-specific, either. Some cities are sketchier than others. Some rural areas are sketchier than others.
ScrubblesIn most cities a block really does make a difference. Where I am I wouldn’t feel afraid if I forgot to lock the door one night. I think it’s weird not to now (having a woman in the house opened my eyes to a lot of new horrors I never once had to worry about).
However, if I went 15 blocks in one direction or another, damn right I’d be sure to turn the car around to make sure I locked the door.
cctv is not as much of a thing in the us. Largely dependent on bussinesses and not much so far with public cameras. Few places are going to have rates that low but they exist and ones with higher rates still have people that by and large keep the door unlocked. Its mostly a perceived thing really though. Im not sure I would call it safe just because its uncommon. I always thought it was foolish to not utilze something like it but I do tend to use the bolt as its easier to not lock myself out because I have to use a key to lock the door.
Couldn’t tell you. It’s just a habit for me to lock my shit up when I leave/not using it (car, house, etc.).
I don’t know how people are fine with leaving their house/car unlocked just because. I also don’t trust people because I’ve had way, way too many experiences with complete and total dumbass idiots who don’t know what they’re doing with themselves to be able to leave anything to chance.
BoxOfFeetIn my parent’s area, where it’s like 40 people per square mile, yeah it’s perfectly safe. It’s a hard mindset to get out of for me, I live in metro Detroit now. My neighborhood is nice, low crime. Good school district. We leave our house unlocked for short periods, like going g to pick up our kid from daycare or taking a walk to the park. Sometimes it gets left unlocked accidentally overnight. Nothing has ever happened.
I also am in the habit of never locking my car. There’s nothing in it, except my daughter’s carseat and some quarters for the Aldi carts. Only once has anything been taken, and that was in a mall parking lot. They stole two throw pillows, and a warm coat. I can only assume it was a homeless person, so I’m not even mad. At least with unlocked doors I don’t worry about my windows being broken.
When I lived in LA and Atlanta, motherfuckers would steal the milk out of your coffee. I kept everything completely locked up, put away and hidden. I now live in northern Wisconsin and I dont lock anything. I dont think anyone around here does. This is the safest community I’ve ever been a part of and I love it.
Captain AggravatedI live in Suburban North Carolina, I haven’t locked my house in years.
Wouldn’t advise leaving things unlocked overnight in general, but it’ll depend where in the US. Here out in the exurbs I have neighbors who haven’t locked their houses or cars in years, but I just personally wouldn’t fall asleep without locking my doors.
Appoxo
JackbyDevI’m more worried about my door blowing open and my pets getting out. Locking the door takes like 1 second and I do it out of habit. Whether it’s safe or not to not leave it unlocked isn’t even a thought that enters my mind. Everyone that needs to be inside is inside. If someone else comes they can knock. Why would I leave it unlocked? Like, for real, it’s one second of effort.