Do you leave your doors unlocked?

Arghus

Tell me how wrote: »

Do you and your partner sleep in shifts in case someone bypasses the window alarm sensor. You know, being pro-active.

You could do that, but it's a lot easier to just lock the door.

It does happen occasionally that people can have things knicked from their house even if they're in it at the time. Locking the door isn't extreme paranoia, it's just common sense.

I used to live in an apartment block when from time to time, usually late on a Saturday night, some totally pissed person would mistakenly try the door on the apartment because they weren't 100% sure where they were or what number apartment they were supposed to be looking for. Harmless enough really, but still annoying. You don't have to shepard them out of your front room and explain to them repeatedly that they've got the wrong flat if your door is locked in the first place.

meeeeh

Doors are unlocked when we are at home and locked when we are not. Sometimes we forget to lock at night. We live ruraly and while we have neighbours close by it's not neighbourhood that would be attractive to opportunistic break ins. If someone decides to get into our house they will come equipped and possibly do some damage. An odd druggie trying to get money for next hit is not what we beed to worry about.

The chan chan man

Nice try OP! I see what you’re up to... AND I DONT LIKE IT ONE BIT!

Tell me how

Arghus wrote: »

You could do that, but it's a lot easier to just lock the door.

It does happen occasionally that people can have things knicked from their house even if they're in it at the time. Locking the door isn't extreme paranoia, it's just common sense.

I used to live in an apartment block when from time to time, usually late on a Saturday night, some totally pissed person would mistakenly try the door on the apartment because they weren't 100% sure where they were or what number apartment they were supposed to be looking for. Harmless enough really, but still annoying. You don't have to shepard them out of your front room and explain to them repeatedly that they've got the wrong flat if your door is locked in the first place.

I already said that locking doors in apartments is understandable.

Tell me how wrote: »

I can understand people in flats (given the traffic and the difficulty often in identifying which flat is which), I can understand those in areas in which there is high crime but I do not like the idea that everyone should do so as a matter of extra caution.

Still disagree that it is common sense for the majority of people.

punisher5112

Tell me how wrote: »

They are on the same page as you (well, she is).

You can go through life being extremely paranoid or you can realise that for the vast majority of people, the vast majority of time, they will not have any such issues. I can understand people in flats (given the traffic and the difficulty often in identifying which flat is which), I can understand those in areas in which there is high crime but I do not like the idea that everyone should do so as a matter of extra caution.

Do you and your partner sleep in shifts in case someone bypasses the window alarm sensor. You know, being pro-active.

No not at all....

I've seen many things and unfortunately been the one that seems to have more sh1t thrown my way then others.

During the day if kid is out playing doors are open including windows but if everyone is in doors are locked.

Now with it hot everything is open but ground floor locked up at night.

Have a dog now but she will lick one to death and will do anything to lick your face or head....

Neighbours houses robbed while they're asleep etc so don't want that ...m

Ubbquittious

Some days I do some days I don't. There is almost nothing in the house worth taking.

Graces7

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

unless you were elderly why would you lock your front door if you were in the house?

Only one door here and yes locked in the day as one of the cats can open if unlocked and let wind and wet and midges in.

Just habit to lock if away for hours but if eg working at the church, stays unlocked. One of the blessings of a small island..

Reminds me of when I lived in Orkney and the police boasted there had never been a successful car theft in the islands,,, Only way off was the ferry..

PS not sure what age has to do with it..

threetrees

Housing estate here and house is always locked unless the kids are outside and the door is on the latch.

anacc

fineso.mom wrote: »

Its careless I know but my house is not really visible from the road so only my friends,family,neibhbours and postman know where I am.

That's exactly the kind of house that the nacks look for, out of the way from the road so they can't be seen. They'll scope it out first by pretending they want to sell you something, or asking if you've any scrap metal. I live in a rural area and that's happened countless times in the area. I live in an extremely visible and prominent house on a main road and they've never called to me, they only go to the houses down the laneways.

yourdeadwright

anacc wrote: »

That's exactly the kind of house that the nacks look for, out of the way from the road so they can't be seen. They'll scope it out first by pretending they want to sell you something, or asking if you've any scrap metal. I live in a rural area and that's happened countless times in the area. I live in an extremely visible and prominent house on a main road and they've never called to me, they only go to the houses down the laneways.

Madly google maps have helped them pick out houses that can't be seen by neighbours

kikilarue2

I live in quite a safe area. I often leave my back door open because I regularly lose or forget my keys. Also, there is absolutely damn all worth stealing in my place.

yourdeadwright

For me we always lock up when we leave the house,

I don't care what they would take but I'd hate the feeling of knowing some scrote was in our family home,

It's where my Missus and kids feel safest and there sanctuary from the world ( as over the top as that sounds ) its your home not just a house,

yourdeadwright

yourdeadwright wrote: »

For me we always lock up when we leave the house,

I don't care what they would take but I'd hate the feeling of knowing some scrote was in our family home,

It's where my Missus and kids feel safest and there sanctuary from the world ( as over the top as that sounds ) its your home not just a house,

That's really true. There is enormous value in being able to shut your door on the world and have your own refuge inside where you feel safe - it's almost animalistic. It must be inbuilt to us. We as humans are really just moderately sophisticated badgers.

That's why the crime of burglary can be so upsetting. I know a couple of older people in my home town who were burgled, and they either had to leave their homes or, if they stayed, never had any peace after it. It can be devastating.

Badly Drunk Boy

I live in a housing estate, and often don't lock my door. I'm more likely to do it if I know I'm not going out again that evening but if the possibility is there, I'd leave it unlocked and it might stay unlocked until I go to work the next morning.

As for leaving the house with the door unlocked, I do that the odd time, usually if I'm nipping out the local shop (for local people) which would take no more than 15 minutes. I've a nosy neighbour who keeps track of everything that happens, and I surprised he hasn't said to me "I didn't hear your door locking as you left". :pac:

Once I was in a hurry for work, did my 8-hour shift, called in to see my ex for a couple of hours, and when I got home, the front door was wide open so I assumed I'd been burgled. In my rush out that morning, I had 'locked' the door without closing it fully so during the ensuing blustery day, the door blew open. Everything was fine, though.

noubliezjamais

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

That's really true. There is enormous value in being able to shut your door on the world and have your own refuge inside where you feel safe - it's almost animalistic. It must be inbuilt to us. We as humans are really just moderately sophisticated badgers.

That's why the crime of burglary can be so upsetting. I know a couple of older people in my home town who were burgled, and they either had to leave their homes or, if they stayed, never had any peace after it. It can be devastating.

Wasn't Niall Boylan burgled as well? He said that nothing of value was actually taken (it was just some scrote abusing him in the classic hits texts saying he'll find out where he lives) but the devastation of being burgled sucked.

yourdeadwright

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

That's really true. There is enormous value in being able to shut your door on the world and have your own refuge inside where you feel safe - it's almost animalistic. It must be inbuilt to us. We as humans are really just moderately sophisticated badgers.

That's why the crime of burglary can be so upsetting. I know a couple of older people in my home town who were burgled, and they either had to leave their homes or, if they stayed, never had any peace after it. It can be devastating.

You've hit the nail on the head its primal thing,

I have an uncle who is in his 70's and lives alone who was robbed ,
They took f*ck all but now he locks his front door and wedges a chair under the handle,

Its so so sad that these little scrotes don't understand that they effect a person's quality of life, he spends his late afternoon/evening worrying if people are watching the house or going to break in , he couldn't give a toss what they took its just worrying about his own safety now ,

punisher5112

I don't know of a single person that purposely leaves their front door open.... Why would you ???

I don't do it out of fear but I do do it to help prevent and issues such as unwanted guests....

Gregor Samsa

I grew up in Dublin, live in a quiet housing estate in a large mid west town now. If me or my wife is in the house, the door is unlocked. One of us locks it on the way up to bed, and last person out locks it. But if we’re in the house, there’s no point. 3 kids and their friends running in and out all day. When friends or family call, they ring the bell and walk straight in. I’m perfectly glad I don’t have to get up to answer the door to them.

In my Dad’s house in Dublin (which is in an alright neighbourhood) it’s a different story. Any time I stay there, the front door is locked all the time. And it’s not because of my Dad, because he doesn’t live there.

It’s weird how your instincts kick in based on your location. I wouldn’t even think of locking the door in my own house during the day. But In my dad’s, I feel guilty and nervous if I leave it open for even a few seconds while I run in and grab something from the kitchen.

fmpisces

noubliezjamais wrote: »

Despite being told by statisticians that the world is safer in 2019 than it was 30-40yrs ago, less people leave their doors unlocked today. There are also more burglaries.

So I wonder, what's the truth? Do you leave your doors unlocked when going to Tesco or for work? Even in good areas?

My doors are always locked.
Especially the back door :P:P

Greentopia

I never lock front or back door if I'm in, except when I go to bed. I live in a small town that's pretty safe and no-one would be able to gain entry anyway without me or a neighbour noticing. I will always lock all doors and windows when I go out though.

BuboBubo

Whoever is last going to bed locks the doors here, if we are away from the house the doors are locked too.

The car locks itself, which is handy.

jaxxx

Geez, I can't even leave the doors unlocked when taking the bins out!

punisher5112

Hattrck patrick wrote: »

consolidated reply, again, bear with me, I'm alone and unafraid and want to answer the questions, but only have so much time.

Have you ever arrested someone who has gone on to receive the death penalty or life without parole (or any other long sentence) and how did it make you feel when you heard the ruling?

Not that I recall, that level of offense is usually handled by the detectives or SWAT. I’m not a proponent of the death penalty FWIW.

Being based in TX means you see your fair share of severe weather i.e. super-cells. As such, what type of relationship do you have with storm chasers? When you see a convoy going full tilt towards a storm producing a deadly tornado, do you flag them down and give them a ticket or acknowledge that the work they so provides valuable insight into better understanding these storms and plays a large role in saving multiple lives annually... or is it a case of "man there's an F3 or 4 barreling down on me, I'm not dealing with this sh*t now"?

We don’t see many storm chasers where I am, that's more in very north TX. Just because they are chasing a storm doesn’t give them the right to imperil other members of the public by speeding or otherwise ignoring the laws. Yes, we are VERY busy during storms too.

You mentioned an obscure law about selling cars at the weekend. Have you ever heard of anyone enforcing this or any other bizarre law and what was the result?

Not really, these laws are artifacts or have some sort of historical or political baggage in their origin. We’re mostly involved with the penal code, traffic code, family code sort of thing.

You’ve been doing this job for about a quarter of a century now so I’m presuming you have a good bit of foresight about how things may go. What is the one particular day or event where you know you’re going to be busy e.g. Fourth of July, big game or particular weather pattern?

Just like in Ireland, bank holidays, big matches, festivals, pretty much any large gatherings of humans & alcohol have a fairly predictable outcome.

What has been the toughest day/ shift you have put down and how did it affect you in the aftermath?

Seeing a friend shot & killed, it was 20 years ago and still dealing with it. It wasn’t fun then and isn’t now either.

Do you watch The First 48? Love that show.

Seen bits & pieces, I sense it has a degree of being hand-picked/curated but it does show some of the day to day stuff.

Have you ever seen Bosch? LAPD programme.
No, never seen it

Have you ever had to deal with an Irish person in a professional capacity? And if so, did they mortify the life out of you?

Met a few, met a gang of lads acting the maggot, but then they were from Leitrim 😊

I have many friends both serving cops and retired cops who work in various industries e.g. security and consulting. Trust when making friends, is something that they have found to be very difficult once retired. Is this something that you personally have found to be the case? Are most of your friends’ cops?

I probably wouldn’t want to be friends with people who don’t like cops, not so much lack of trust, more just awareness of what the human race is like. I’d say about 50% of my friends are cops (or fire/EMS/military), but the rest are just random friends.

When you were in training did ye have politeness classes? It's probably just a stereotype but a lot of cops on TV sound the same when dealing with the public, sir/madam etc.

Not specifically as such, but we are encouraged to always start encounters politely. Being polite & decent gets you a long way in life, not just as a cop.

How fast can you run? Is there a requirement to maintain a basic level of fitness?

I can still clock a 7.30 mile but it’s getting harder (I’m 54), but I’m more of a distance runner. In TX all police agencies are required to have a “fitness assessment” which is not actually defined. We use a run/obstacle course or rowing test. It’s required twice a year.

Have you ever left someone go (for a minor crime) just because they made you laugh?

See above from Leitrim, they were just acting the maggot (or being from Leitrim…😊

Do local forces tend to turn a blind eye (as best they can) to well ran instances of street racing? The kind of thing you'd see on 1320videos YouTube channel. 1/8-mile hits from a standstill in very quiet locations during the night, that sort of thing.
Or is there a blanket zero tolerance policy like there is here in Ireland.

We have a zero tolerance for street racing, its too dangerous & endangers the kids doing it and the general public.

When the officers turned up, I had to come out at gunpoint at first to show I wasn't a threat. Once that was established, one was sound and was asking me about the Irish music I was listening to and where I was from/travelling to etc. while the other was like a pit-bull barking questions at me. Would this have been a tactic taught in training used to throw someone off, like good cop bad cop?? Or just a tired and grumpy cop?? It was all sorted in about 5 minutes.

The good cop/bad cop is more of an interrogation technique, not really taught as a patrol technique. Sounds like he was a grumpy/tired or just rude. I hate when those guys show up on my calls, they pssi everyone off.

over your career do you feel like you have developed or diminished any prejudices? not looking for any specifics or anything but i just would have presumed it would have been the case as no matter how much we all want to be moral citizens we all have our prejudices be they justified or not!

I don’t feel especially prejudiced, I try to be balanced, but then it’s hard to be objective about yourself. Although I do have a friend who is ginger! I’m probably more jaded than anything else, you pretty quickly develop a “most people aren’t that bright” attitude, its very hard not to.

why are American police so aggressive and eager to shoot?
So far this year, other than the range, I have yet to draw my gun and have only drawn my taser once but did not need to use it. Baton hasn’t come out in years. Used pepper spray four years ago on an aggressive dog. Draw your own conclusions.
See post about deadly force.

Considering your life choice, if you had the opportunity to restart and do it all over again, would you go down the same route or choose a different career?

Probably, I have no regrets, I generally don’t look back and say “man I shoulda done xxxx”

Do you feel that this is because of your role (i.e. all incidents where guns are likely to be involved are handled by swat units?), your location or is my expectation for gun crime just too high.

If we get a call of “shots fired” were going, it’s our job, that’s why were armed. Likewise, with any other gun related call. SWAT will get called out for a barricaded subject, hostages, felony warrant service, etc. But most of the time patrol officers a by BBB

Again wrong thread
... Is boards on drugs or something this is two days running...

twowheelsonly

Never lock the doors, whether we're at home or not. Live in an ok area, even though it would be generally known as a rough area. We just never have locked the doors as there's always people coming and going including carers who call to our daughter at around 7 to 7.30 each morning.

We have a dog though and 99 times out of 100 she'll lick the face off visitors. She has gone mad once or twice though and alerted us to incidents outside at night, and during the day if someone she doesn't know or doesn't like knocks she'll go nuts as well.

I have 4 external CCTV cameras though !!

Rubberchikken

our front door bas a yale lock so locked if we want nut i like it open on nice days.
our back door is unlocked all day.
quiet, good area s and im not expecting imminent invasion so all is grand.

did go off one night for a few hours and for some unknown reason forgot to lock front door.
all was well.
car is often unlocked on road outside gate.
if someone takes that theyre welcome to it!

punisher5112

I'm coming to a house near you...... Oh I'm going to be so busy thanks op and boards for giving me a platform to work with.....

15 houses on my road out of say about 155 so a lot were when the person was actually home and through an open door....

Shhhhh dont tell anyone more open doors the better as no tools required....

BohsCeltic

Always lock the doors. I live in a kind of rough area.
I don't have a house alarm though.

But i have a 40kg dog and a 6kg Jack Russel, the jacker is the alarm

unkel

It wrecks my head that almost all houses in Ireland (including my own) have alarms. Totally useless. Alarms are going off all the time, 99.9% because of faults like people putting them on with windows open, insects or pets triggering motion sensors etc. Invention of the devil. I try and get away with as little security as I can, without invalidating insurance. Cars are mostly unlocked (with keys in plain vision in the hall) etc.

If someone wants to break in and steal my car keys, be my guest. As long as you don't wake any of us up. I believe in karma though. Do a bad thing to me or my family and you might be in for a nasty surprise. I've never hit anyone in my life, but I have never been pushed. It's interesting that in this country you are allowed to murder an intruder. Even one that's already injured and trying to run away. I think that is unique here compared to anywhere else in Europe, isn't it? That case still baffles me. Linky Any intruder like that, come, come on in to my house and see what happens if you do wake me up.

BohsCeltic

ars*hole. Pardon my french.

punisher5112

BohsCeltic wrote: »

ars*hole. Pardon my french.

Exsquezze me

worded

I over heard a girl say her dad leaves the keys in the front door all the time

Anyone who walks uninvited into the house won’t be leaving she said.

Her dad must be one tough fcuker

Black Swan

To lock, or not to lock, that is the question...

punisher5112

I pitty the fooker that lets themselves into my house....

CSI won't even find a trace...

the dark phantom

I left my car unlocked the other night, dumb move as the streetlights are not working and the council and house builders are passing the buck back and forth to each other, the result was my toll change was fecked. luckily my license insurance docs spare glasses cd's etc were untouched.

worded

A lock that can be opened by many keys is a bad lock

A key that can open many locks is a good key

LirW

I would lock when I'm home alone but usually it's unlocked in the afternoon because the big kid is in and out all afternoon playing with his friends.

jim o doom

I only leave the backdoor unlocked, and generally only when I'm in the kitchen and I can see it. Otherwise all doors and windows are securely locked all the time.

My neighbours all generally look out for each other as well, but no official "neighbourhood watch" so to speak.

noubliezjamais

unkel wrote: »

It wrecks my head that almost all houses in Ireland (including my own) have alarms. Totally useless. Alarms are going off all the time, 99.9% because of faults like people putting them on with windows open, insects or pets triggering motion sensors etc. Invention of the devil.

Is that the worst thing about home security.

The other aspect you're forgetting is that when the alarm alerts the company/gardai, you might as well have dealt with the buglar yourself. The time it takes for da gards to come is ridiculous.

One of my French/Russian/Austrian piano teachers said he called the police for someone assaulted in Ireland and in France. It took about 10 minutes for the gendermarine to come in the latter and about 35-40 minutes for the gardai. Also said his house was burgled and same story.

Tell me how

noubliezjamais wrote: »

Is that the worst thing about home security.

The other aspect you're forgetting is that when the alarm alerts the company/gardai, you might as well have dealt with the buglar yourself. The time it takes for da gards to come is ridiculous.

One of my French/Russian/Austrian piano teachers said he called the police for someone assaulted in Ireland and in France. It took about 10 minutes for the gendermarine to come in the latter and about 35-40 minutes for the gardai. Also said his house was burgled and same story.

Not all alarms are connected to monitoring services.
In fact, none of the alarms of the houses I'm aware of (own, siblings, family home, friends) do so.
Some of the above send a text to the homeowner but by and large they are only local indicators.

Leg End Reject

Badly Drunk Boy wrote: »

Once I was in a hurry for work, did my 8-hour shift, called in to see my ex for a couple of hours, and when I got home, the front door was wide open so I assumed I'd been burgle.

Booty call?ðŸ˜

dhaughton99

I’m in a small Dublin council estate and I haven’t locked my front door in 13 years unless I’m going to be gone away overnight. A lot of older neighbors. Never had an issue.