We used to leave the keys in the main door

Many part of my country, the United States, are very unsafe. Parents don't control their children, there are no values, mothers work and children come home to empty houses and get into trouble. A lot of kids behave in those circumstances, but many don't. That said, I moved back home last year to my home state of Ohio. I live in a lower middle class neighborhood just on the edge of lower-class status. None of us make much money but about half of us own our houses. There have been times when I accidentally left the keys in the front door overnight when I brought groceries in or in the back door for the same reason. Nobody ever entered and one time someone rang the bell and told me about it! (When my mom is here 5 months a year, I have to use the front door so she can navigate better, then take my car around back to the garage. That's why the keys are in the front door) I can answer my door and the person on the other side will not open the screen--you don't do that here. I have a lock on it, anyway. I can put things in my front yard, decorations or whatever, and they stay there! I moved here from an "upscale" community in Arizona and believe me, if I had anything in my front yard that wasn't nailed down, it disappeared overnight! It's safe where I live, people respect others and are good. There are many places that aren't safe here in my country.

This is the UK so NO definitely NOT! It is a very precarious place now and crime is on the up and there are no deterrants in place so even if criminals are caught they are let off and given an easy ride so you couldn't leave your keys in your door not even for a minute. I would love to be able to live in a place where I felt safe in doing this, although back in the 50s and 60s and certainly the early 70s you could do this in my country but certainly NOT now, it is a very bad and unsafe place now sadly and I don't think it will ever change.

I always lock my door. I live in an appartment building in the city and woudl not want just anyone walking into my house adn walking off with what they wanted cause I forgot to lock the door but when I was a kid we lived in the country and noone would lock there doors there cause they had no worry about people stealing from them cause they all knew each other and the houses were farther apart from each other.

I guess after reading the comments here, I feel really lucky as I hardly ever lock the doors. If we are going to leave for an extended time I do but not if we are gonna be gone only a few hours. I do lock the doors at night thou.

I live in Malta and can confirm ronaldinu's affirmation. Some elderly Gozitan's still leave their keys in the keyhole! The real question is why? 1. Elderly persons could perhaps feel bad or faint and neighbours could help as soon as possible? 2. Not to waist time going to open the door? who knows?

In the town were I grew up, people didn't lock their doors. I have since moved to the City and I wouldn't consider doing that.

In Romania if you leave your keys in the shop front door, if somebody notices it and has criminal thoughts, it will take as much as he, his friends, and whoever offers to help can carry!

It is safe in the area we live in and sounds very much like it was when you said your neighbours woudl watch out for each other . Very few think of ever locking their doors , myself include , and nothing has ever happened as a result . Although I say this but was robbed of money and food on differnt occasions because of so called friends that would come in and steal from us and we even lost all our money for our honeymoon when we got married and my cousins wife stole all our money and we never did get it back !!

Even in our neighborhood where we forget to lock the door, we do not leave the key in the main door or have the door wide open. It would be stupid. There might be someone coming down the street who is not from our area and might decide to walk in, call his friends who will come with a semi and two hefty guys and remove our Tv, computers, furniture, etc.

about several years before, I'm not sure, maybe about 40 year ago. In our country, people don't lock their door, just leave the door open whenever they are at home or leave home. That's really a safe time. But now, things is almost not like that. We should lock our door carefull whenever we are at home or not. I see some robber on the street myself, so I don't like to wear some thing which is with high value to go out. And I put my high value things in home in very secret place, haha......

I've only done that accidently. We don't live in a great neigborhood, but we don't have too many problems here. I accidently left mine in the door one day and then went and took a nap. When I woke up I had to go somewhere and had to look all over for the keys. I don't know what finally made me open the door, but once I did there were the keys hanging from the lock! lol I was lucky I guess that no one robbed us. But our apartment building is pretty quiet and the neighbors seem ok as well.

no we never left the keys on the door. im frm malaysia by the way. often burglars/housebreakin happens in kitchen doors as it the easiest way to get in (window) and get the exist (kitchen's door). i suggest that everyones put an extra safety by putting another padlock on the door.

i think we should not leave key in door because if you want secourity you should care and try to keep safe your key. ones time my i was leave the key in the door and when next time i did chequ key i didnt find the key and then i have to face lots of problem that day i could not go outside and i have to stay at home that day i spend all day for get new key so i think we should care

Not today mate. In my place even you put bold and chain around the door somehow they can still manage to break in. With lots of this 'addict' around nobody's feel safe anymore. But however I once heard that in Bali you just can leave the door open and nobody stealing anything.

I'm so sorry for coming in so late.I live in India and hare we can't think of any such thing. However, I have heard about this kind of customs prevailing in some parts of this country many years ago, but not anymore. Today, we put as many locks as we can on our installations and still remain worried till we come back.

Hi ronaldinu, I grew up in a small community where everyone knew each other and no one locked their doors. It isn't like that where I live now, but it is still considered a safe place to live. Blessings.

When I was a child my parents never ever locked the doors of our house or their car. Back then, in the 60's and 70's people didn't break into other peoples homes, at least not very often. One night my mom was in bed and the front door opens to her bedroom and since it was hot out she only had the screen door closed so she could get a breeze. My dad wasn't home, he was out drinking, as usual. So when the screen door opened and a man walked in and got undressed and got into bed she just naturally assumed it was my dad as she was half asleep. But then about 15 minutes later my mom heard the screen door open again so she looked up thinking that my dad was going out when she realized it was my dad walking in and the man beside her asleep wasn't my dad. Thank goodness my dad was too drunk to realize there was a man in my mom's bed and just continued on his way to the bathroom. My mom woke the guy up and got him out of the house before my dad knew what was going on. My mom would have gotten a beating from my dad if he saw it, and my mom being innocent would have gotten a beating for nothing. She always locked the doors after that but we kids didn't know why till we were adults and she told us about it.

Well, we live in a flats. So we have a security guards all the time. It's safe at my place even if I sleep with the door open. I can be sure that nothing will go missing because the security is kinda tight and they do not let people in. But if my home were not in a flat, then I would surely not keep it open with the keys to the door. It's too risky in India and someone or the other might steal all the stuff. bourne

My Country is one of the safest place regarding about this matter their will be no theft to try to do such things in here because if they will do like any other Muslim Country Kuwait will take off those fingers that you have if they will catch the person after being in jailed and be deported directly in their Country after serving the time of imprisonment.....so for that reason nobody would try to theft any place.

generally,it is relatively safe,i really hate the criminal or the thief that don't get what they want by the hardworkig but the bad deed,they have the ability to feed themselves,they should be shameful.i also dare not to leave my keys in the main door.