Double-cylinder deadbolt on every door, including the entrance door from garage to house. That door swings out, so they ain't kicking it in.

That being said, I saw a commercial burglary being reported on the news. The dirt-bags knocked a hole in a block wall, entered during the evening and waited for the store clerk to arrive in the morning. So...concrete block walls are no longer a deterrent. Gotta have re-bar now!

Oh yeah.

Yes- if you get stranded in one it's exceedingly easy to 'find' cheap transportation.

I think i read somewhere recently that the #1 cause of stolen cars in the US is people leaving them unlocked with the keys in them.

Now that's a spooky story.

Thank god that dude wasn't in the mood to commit double homicide.

Using a gun really takes away a lot of the satisfaction of beating an intruder senseless with your bare hands/feet/elbows/knees or a blunt object.

Of course you never know if they are carrying a knife or gun...

I never locked a door even at night until the 1990s.

The nice thing about a locked door is that if somebody does get in, it obviously cannot be argued that they went to wrong house and just walked in accidentally. That gives you a lot more latitude to blow their ass to hell.

Yes Steve I do work in Charlottesville..........................we had 3 fatal shootings last week. I had 2 fellows (who don't speak english ) come after me 2 weeks ago because I objected to then cutting me off........................Big Mistake, their Saturn VS My full size Dodge 4X4, and their knife VS my .45.

And Randy, I use a gun instead of beating them to a pulp cause I am too old to fight and too tired to run.

Front door locked only, and sometimes not even that.
Two 90lb dogs, one 38, one 357, one 44, one 12gauge. No children, no child safety locks.
The dogs wake you and you shoot their dinner.

We welcome the intruder.

80 y/o MIL lives with us. Not a good watch dog. Do have three dogs, two are useful, one too old. 25 house gated community, a plus, 200 feet of I-5 not so good. Neighbors too self absorbed to notice if robbers put my entire house on a truck and drove off with it. Hey, I'm in Socal, but at least a good, sort of, area.

Oh, usually lock the front, but not the back (two useful dogs in back).

I've been bating. The $100 didn't work last night.

Answer.

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We are in a pretty nice area but by habit we always keep the doors locked when home or not home.

I did it last November, oh wait Ya'll knew I was commig to get the car.:cool: I did however have to deal with alot of being checked out when I stopped right down the road. Good thing Beth parked her Porsche right behind me. I think thay figured it out.

I grew up in a place called Paterson. We locked and sometimes double locked everything. Paterson is why I learned to shoot. When I got married I moved to the deep 'burbs for the sake of my children. It took awhile but my house is now generally unlocked. I have accidentally left my keys or my wallet in my unlocked truck overnight. Never an issue. There is of course the chance of an exception but in 30 years here no problems at all. Not even a street fight.

I used to work in NW Philly, like 12 years ago. I'll tell ya, anyone living there voluntarily is much tougher than me.

Ever read "In Cold Blood"? The Clutter family lived in a quiet area of a rural state.

Always lock the house, pay attention when I get home too, home invasion type robberies are becoming popular around here. Always lock the cars, don't leave valuables in them.

If you were a criminal, would you go to the crappy areas to steal, or the nice neighborhoods?

We went away for the weekend a few weeks ago, and my father in law checked in on the house while we were away.

When we got home, he had the place all locked up. We never lock the house, and I don't even have keys. I had to go in through a window.

I don't have keys for my Suzuki either... lost them 2 years ago. I had to break the steering lock and put in a hidden switch. Funny thing is that someone tried to steal it last year by hammering a screwdriver into the ignition switch... which isn't even hooked up anymore.

We live in a very safe neighborhood, but I still lock the house. Also keep a 1911 in the nightstand.

As Daley has torn down much of Chicago's public housing and quietly encouraged the thugs to relocate to "greener pastures" (small towns without large police forces), Bloomington has seen a decided increase in crime. Like in Chicago, it's mostly thug on thug, but I also know they don't have much regard for who else is around them when they start shooting.

BTW, my neighbor across the street has a 19-year-old goth/emo son (he had been living with his mother, but recently moved in). Seems the son has adopted a thug who is now living there too. In my experience, there's only one reason hippies or goth kids talk to gangbangers.

Every night. Spending several years in ghetto rentals made that a firm habit. I spent quite a few evenings with the 1911 on the nightstand back then. Now live in a very nice, safe neighborhood, it makes a loop so there's no thru traffic. Everyone knows everyone and their cars, I think someone would most likely notice suspicious activity. Still, I lock the doors every night.

My wife is from a town of 800 in central KS, I don't think her parents even carry house keys. I've never seen their house locked, and their cars always have the keys in them. They also have a lab and a small arsenal:D, so that never hurts.

Were I worried about crime at my home, the FIRST thing I would buy is a dog. No question.

Electric driveway gate locked.
Steel security doors locked (double locks).
House doors locked, and double bolted.
Bedroom door locked.
Car locked in garage.
House alarm armed.
Surveylance cameras on alert.
6-wire electric fence (on top of 8' wall) energised.
9mm para within easy reach.

Welcome to Africa!

That would be scary.

A family friend's brother & sister in law had an 80 acre farm in Zimbabwe, built it up over 25 years and employed ~60 locals. When things started to get spooky, they were assured by their employees that they were well liked and not in jeopardy. But some out-of-town agitators got folks stirred up one weekend, and they barely made it out with their lives. A handful of their loyal employees helped get them out.

Outcome:
-25 years of hard work and investment down the drain
-farm overgrown and non-productive
-60 people unemployed

I used to live in Passaic, NJ, which is a pretty rough inner-city in North NJ. We lived in the parsonage that was attached to the church -- my dad is a minister. We had two guard dogs - one outside and one inside the house. Still, the church compound was broken into several times.

Now, I live in Wayne, NJ, which according to a 2005 CNN/Money article, is the 2nd safest place to live in the USA. Link to article. It helps that the Sheriff of Passaic County lives in Wayne, and has the Sheriff's HQ in Wayne. I live within earshot of the Police station.

I never had a break in, although I had a rock thrown through my window -- we suspect it was a contractor that we wound up taking to court. But that's a different story...

That said, we do lock our doors at night. I guess living in Passaic all those years, I can't help it. However, if someone breaks into our house, we really don't have anything of value to steal. I mean, we still have a 27-inch TV for cryin' out loud! No real expensive jewlery or other stuff that would have any worth. I fear that if someone broke in, they would mess up the place in sheer frustration of not finding anything to take...

-Z-man.