<p>I’m curious if you have an attached garage, do you lock the door from the garage that leads into the house. </p>
<p>We know a family who is always getting locked out of their house. I found out that they have an attached garage and the door that leads into the house from the garage is always locked. They have garage door openers and a keypad to get into the garage but the door to the house is locked. So you can get into the garage and still be locked out (and they always are). They lost all of their keys to the front door so this is the only way into the house. </p>
<p>It never occurred to me to lock that door. I have never once locked the door from the garage into the house. I also have the keys for the front door lol! </p>
<p>Dr. William Petit immediately comes to mind when I read your post. I’m sure he never imagined leaving the garage door unlocked would ever lead to such tragic events.</p>
<p>We have a keypad on the front door and on the door from garage to house (as well as regular keyed locks). We don’t lock the garage to house door except at night. We’re pretty careful about closing the garage doors almost all the time even though I feel our neighborhood is safe. There is some construction going on, and we have a lot of expensive bicycles and tools. We got some things stolen in a matter of minutes in Dallas so we are a little paranoid.</p>
<p>We always lock the doors from the garages to the house. Over the years I’ve been cautioned by LEOs and security people to do so. It’s too easy for someone to gain access to a garage and then into your home. Of course, I always arm our security system, too, even when I’m at home (except for when we have guests and are going in and out to the patio.)</p>
<p>Your friends could easily get new keys made by a locksmith. They could also replace the current lock with a keypad lock (Amazon sells Schlage brand keypad entry locks for a very reasonable price.) </p>
<p>No, we leave it unlocked. We have a keypad and garage remotes. </p>
<p>We never enter our home through the front door. We always leave through the laundry room side door or the garage. No idea where the keys are to the front door.</p>
<p>Your friend could leave a key to the garage door somewhere in the garage that only they know where it is hidden.</p>
<p>I grew up in Brooklyn, so I lock all my doors. The door from the garage to the house has a deadbolt (as do all our exterior doors) and we lock it whenever we go out and also at night. We always close the garage door when we are out with the car or inside (leave it open when working in the yard, etc.) I do have a key for that door hidden in the garage in case I get locked out.</p>
<p>We leave cars in the driveway overnight. It is easy for someone to break into the cars or for someone to forget to lock the car and then gain access to the house using the garage door opener.</p>
<p>We bolt lock that door at night when we are at home and sleeping.</p>
<p>We don’t ever lock that door and we only lock the other doors when we go to bed. My house is always unlocked during the day - even when no one is home. My windows are never locked either, except in the winter. My kid, who is going to be a Sr. in college has never even had a house key. If we go to bed before he is home the doors are unlocked. </p>
<p>None of my neighbors lock their doors either. </p>
<p>Our garage is detached and the door to it (not the garage door) is always open. But the doors to the house – and there are too many of them; four, to be exact – are always locked unless we are home. We always lock when we leave and when we go to bed.</p>
<p>One thing I worry about is our doggie door. I can get through it, which is nothing to speak of (I’m only 5’ tall), but so can my older son and so could any small man. We’ve installed security cameras above it but I am still very nervous about it.</p>
<p>ETA: My dogs would bark like crazy if someone came in through the doggie door, but then they’d lick the thief to death.</p>
<p>Ours is locked at night - sometimes during the day - but always when we leave the house. I don’t have a key to my front door either, I never have. We never use it except when someone is coming over - otherwise entry is through the garage, where the cars go.</p>
<p>We live in the boonies and have for decades, we rarely lock our doors. At our prior place we left our keys in our cars (acreage). Now that we are in a smaller neighborhood, but still quite rural, we do keep car keys in the house.</p>
<p>We only lock our back door & door to the garage if we are traveling and away for a long time, otherwise never, not even if we leave for the evening. The back doors are really tough to lock (sliders that hook to each other) & we live in a pretty safe quiet place. My mother lives with us and she is constantly locking the doors, it amazes me how annoyed we get when we walk up to our house and are locked out (we don’t carry keys!)</p>
<p>My Dd who has lived in larger cities and had numerous thefts over the last 10 years always locks her doors. It’s all about location.</p>
<p>This is so interesting. When we had a detached garage, the back door was locked. But now that we have an attached garage it never occurred to me to lock the back door. I never even thought about it. We will lock the other doors. </p>
<p>Interesting that other people don’t have keys for the front door either. We use the back door 99% of the time but I think if we lost the keys I would put one of those locks that has a keypad. My MIL has one and it’s really handy. They don’t have to have a key keeper that way. Which reminds me, our nearest neighbors moved, I need to get a key to another neighbor. </p>
<p>When the kids were little, a young man in a suburb very close to us decided he wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone. He got dresses up like a maintenance man, and knocked on the door of a house. When the mother got out of the shower, she found both her children shot to death. He was caught and sent to jail, and I taught my children NEVER to answer the door and to keep the door locked at all times. Sad but true.</p>
<p>Nope. We have a garage door opener and a keypad. The garage door is always closed. Especially since our subdivision asks that garage doors be closed if they face the street. But the door to the house from the garage is never locked. Have no idea where the key is. Front door is only locked at night. Except when one of the kids leaves late and forgets to. Never during the day. It’s the first thing I do when I come down in the morning. Don’t even lock it when I leave the house unless going away for the entire day or days. Sliding glass door in the walkout basement is locked though. Because I’m too lazy to walk down there at night and lock it. Patio door is locked too mostly unless we’re going in and out. Lived here 28 years. Nobody in our subdivision has ever been broken into that I know of. </p>