Rant: Lock the door

[Kaizy]

So, this has become a prevalent thing since we got our new roommate for this school year. Whenever the new roommate leaves the apartment, there's a 70% chance they won't lock the door. This may not sound like that much of an issue, but we don't live in an upstanding rich part of the state. If anything our area is a fairly low income area, even though we live near the college campus. There's also the fact that there have been multiple in-house thefts/break-ins that have been the result of unlocked or opened doors in our area, most of them fairly close by. My other roommate has also noticed that the new roommate isn't locking the door and it's become an annoyance. Hell, in some cases, they've even left the door to the garage wide-fucking-open, and it astounds me.

Like yeah we are probably gonna sit them down and tell them "hey LOCK THE FUCKING DOOR YOU IDIOT" but I mean we really shouldn't have to, that should be common fucking sense. I didn't grow up in a slum or anything, but I knew to lock the fucking door if I was leaving in case someone wandering by just happened to check the door and wander in. In a lot of places, leaving the door unlocked is practically asking for home invasions and robberies or worse. I'm almost certain the new roommate is from some nice neighborhood or suburb where they've never had to worry about this kind of thing, and/or they just don't pay attention to the regular emails from the campus police AND campus housing department warning people about the break-ins and informing students to keep their doors locked to prevent this sort of incident.

I dunno, they've already been getting on my nerves since the year started.

/ramble

[Zaraphayx]

Yeah that shit wouldn't fly with me.

I live in the "hood" and there are thousands of dollars of consumer electronics in my house and half a dozen firearms.

Front door and gate are always locked and thankfully my roommates aren't morons.

[Ginpanther]

So, this has become a prevalent thing since we got our new roommate for this school year. Whenever the new roommate leaves the apartment, there's a 70% chance they won't lock the door. My other roommate has also noticed that the new roommate isn't locking the door and it's become an annoyance. Hell, in some cases, they've even left the door to the garage wide-fucking-open, and it astounds me.

Like yeah we are probably gonna sit them down and tell them "hey LOCK THE FUCKING DOOR YOU IDIOT" but I mean we really shouldn't have to, that should be common fucking sense. 

I dunno, they've already been getting on my nerves since the year started.

/ramble

I was "lucky" enough to be in student housing for the first two years of college. My old, chill roommates all graduated or dropped out at the end of my first year, and I was stuck with a crew of 3 new roommates who all knew one another and came from the same area. One couldn't work the washer or the dryer without six separate lessons on "turn the dial, push the button." The other ruined my microwave by prepping heating up a fresh bowl of soup in it... using my cast-iron skillet. I cannot fathom how the fuck you hit 18 years of age and go to college without understanding "do not put metal in the microwave." The third was an underage drunk who had a fit of rage one night and, at 3 in the morning, trashed the stairwell, trashed the apartment, had a violent physical confrontation with the other roommates and ended up getting escorted out of the complex by polite. That's when I started making arrangements to move into my own apartment.

So yeah, Kaizy, I feel your pain. My advice, for what little it is worth, is that it is better to have the intervention now and start documenting things in case you need to boot their ass.

[Zerig]

I was taught to always lock the door when I leave

I think I learned too well because I'll go run outside for a few seconds, to put something int the trash or whatever, and end up locking myself out.

it sucks

[Jerry]

I live in an area where some people never lock their doors. Burglaries and home invasions practically never happen here, but I still lock all the things I can lock. House, car, school locker, everything.

There's no excuses for leaving things unlocked. That's pretty irresponsible, especially when you share a living space with others.

[Wolflich]

I don't even close the door half the time. Except for cars. Maybe I'm used to them also being in other places.

[Onnes]

Every day in my area, if you look at the posted crime reports, there's at least one residential burglary listed with either an open window or an unlocked door. Was pretty similar where I was an undergraduate, too. Thieves know that college students have valuables, are often away during the day, and aren't particularly smart about securing their stuff.

You're probably going to have to start yelling at them every time it happens until they pick up the right habits. 

[Kaizy]

Yeah my problem is I'm not much of a confrontational person, so I'm prone to bitching, just not in person. Chances are I'll make an off comment about it, and if it keeps happening, I'll get my other roommate involved and we'll both tell them off for it.

[Eggdodger]

Well, if you absolutely don't want to confront them (and I strongly suggest you do that instead of what I'm about to say), you might want to put up a note on the door reminding them to lock it. Put a smiley face on it so it doesn't come across as passive-aggressive (which it definitely is).

[Wolflich]

"Please lock the door
so we don't come back to find someone has broken in
and get MURDERED"

[Ginpanther]

"Please lock the door
so we don't come back to find someone has broken in
and get MURDERED"

Fuck the note, write this in marker on their face. Just make sure to do it all backward so they can read it in the mirror the next morning.

[Kinare]

When I used to live with my parents, we rarely locked the door unless we were all leaving for a few hours, but that was quite rare so the door was rarely locked. They live out in the country with very few neighbors for miles, though two of them within a mile are shady imo. Recently some peeps came back to our house late at night (we're about half a mile off the road surrounded by trees and a swamp behind us), got out of their car and walked around (took about 10 mins), then got back in and left. We didn't find out until the next morning when my bro wandered in that it was his friends looking for possible dirt bike trails. Was kinda scary at the time though, so since then they've been locking the doors at night because it's usually just my mom at home since my dad works nights, especially now that I'm not there anymore (I work nights though too so was not there very often with her).

I now live in the city and have many neighbors and I still remember lock the door despite all those years of never worrying. I've already locked myself out once because of it... I have two doors in fact, one below and another above the stairs, and I often lock both of them, depending on how long I plan to be gone and at what time. The outside one at least is always locked though, regardless of if I'm home or not. I have one downstairs neighbor and the neighborhood isn't bad or anything, but I have many delicious electronics and two derpy and broken cats aren't good at intimidating away people who mean to do harm.

[shiy0]

i always lock'd the door behind me out of reflex but now that it became kinda unecessary cuz it locks on its own as soon as you close it i always get confused and check back if its rly locked or not. strange swedish security doors... maybe you should order some of those to kaizy. well of course that only works if they shut the door then but atleast it would be locked if they do so. .-.

[Clove Darkwave]

Start locking them out, maybe they'll get the point? I don't have any real advice for you other to obsessively lock everything, and maybe have your bedroom have its own deadbolt and keep everything well secured so when you DO get broken into you'll be the one in better straits.

[Alexxx-Returns]

Apparently in our dorms that we're currently living in, if you have stuff on the window ledges in the ground floor rooms, because of the way the windows open (from the bottom), if you leave the windows open with shit on the ledges, the shit will get nicked. It doesn't affect our group at all because we're not on the ground floor but it's still really shitty.

Within the dorm though I doubt anyone locks their own doors, and I think it's cool that we have that level of trust. Usually I just keep my key IN the door and forget it's there all day.

[Kaedal]

That's not the kind of thread that I was expecting when I read the title.

 

But yes, locking them is common-fucking-sense. Even if you live in an upscale neighbourhood. I live in what can be called a student neighbourhood. There are plenty of students here, including internationals. Pretty good area, no violence, nothing bad or run down. I still lock my apartment when I leave, because if I'm leaving my castle, I'm not going to leave the drawbridge down! Hell, I even keep the door locked when I'm at home. Just because i prefer being able to deny people entry.

[Azure]

i lock inner and outer doors

paranoia is king

 

[Guest]

Wow what a moron. What kind of idiot leaves their house's door open anyway