<p>
</p>
<p>Our ADT sign in the front yard did not deter someone from breaking in our back patio door during the middle of the night a month ago while we were home. So we called ADT and got another sign for the back door, too. They also sent us decals to put on the doors, which I will (as soon as we get our new door installed). And we arm our alarm every night now, as well as lock the door between the house and garage (which we didn’t used to do).</p>
<p>cobrat, I was referring to the fact that you lived in a college dorm at age 6. Were you a prodigy? </p>
<p>We rarely are all locked up. We have always lived in low crime areas and most folks around us don’t lock up anything. We can leave UPS pkgs on our porches for a week…no problem. Altho sometimes a neighbor will set them inside their home if the weather gets yucky.</p>
<p>I have vacation rentals and people are aways asking, “is the area safe”? Uh yes. I have left my cell phone, my purse, and all sorts of valuable in plain view outside the door…and have returned to find everything ok. </p>
<p>we once thought one of our cars was stolen from a parking lot. when we called the police, they didn’t believe our car was stolen since that sort of thing rarely happens here. Sure enough, the car had not been stolen. Son had parked it in the wrong place and the business had had it towed (note to son: read signs)</p>
<p>Veryhappy, you are baaaaaaaad.</p>
<p>@VeryHappy He didn’t say he was living in a college dorm at the age of 6. He said he had locked up at every residence he has lived in. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Most likely he missed a comma. ;)</p>
<p>But, @cobrat, if you are in fact a prodigy, please forgive me. :)</p>
<p>Seriously, I thought he meant that he was walking from school to his college dorm, from the tender age of 6. Seriously. </p>
<p>To answer the OP, I always lock the door to the attached garage before I go to bed, and I make sure the other 4 doors are locked also. During the day the inside door to the garage is not locked. Here is a secret: We have a key to the house hidden inside the garage. Our garage is such a mess with wall to wall plastic shelves covered with junk I challenge a burglar to find that key. We also have a key to our next door neighbor’s house, and their kids occasionally come over for the key when they get locked out. We always make sure they give it back. </p>
<p>We rarely lock our doors at all. Hardly anyone in this town does.</p>
<p>But I grew up in NYC also and my key was on a string around my neck from around age 6 also, worn inside my shirt so no one could see I had one. My complex had security guards and my building had two locks before the intercom and lobby. Our apartment door locked automatically.</p>
<p>I grew up in East NY and Crowns Heights in the 1970s and 1980s. I couldn’t help maintaining a level of paranoia. I took the subway alone since 8 and was a latchkey kid. The doors were always locked, we had window gates at the fire escapes, and we had a police lock with the metal pole to the floor.</p>
<p>I remember those poles. We were on the 10th floor of a 20+ story building so the window bars were unnecessary, except for the relative low risk of a Turned-Bad Spiderman.</p>
<p>I really appreciate where I live now, in many ways.</p>