Do you lock your doors? Leave your cars running? (Portland: spring break, apartment)

[Bydand]

Originally Posted by BacktoNE

Best friend in ME is a cop, so absolutely NO WAY would I ever leave my doors unlocked or my car running. He tells me the stuff that never makes the newspaper.

I have a couple of friends that are cops as well and they never lock their house either. Sometimes they do their vehicles, but only if they just picked up something expensive at the store.

[Elcarim]

i would hate to imagine that they keep things out of my local newspaper. it's bad enough.[/quote]

I second that! I know it happens here. If they reported every crime that occurs in Houston every day, there would be no room in the paper for the Arts section or classifieds or, heaven forbid, the business ads that pay for the paper's production! Anyway, they DO report enough to make me want to head for the hills on the next train!!

[Maine Writer]

Originally Posted by Bydand

LOL I don't even have house keys. Well I have them, just don't know where they are. I leave the vehicle running when I go in to get groceries not just the convenience store.

You know how you tell a tourist from a Mainer? They lock their car doors. Know how you tell a paranoid tourist from a Mainer? They lock their families in their cars. Honest. Saw that happen in Lincoln. A family in a van with Jersey plates stopped at a store. He locked his family in, pumped gas, paid, and set off the alarm. It was hard to not laugh but we were right beside them and didn't want to embarrass the man.

We own two houses. Both came with skeleton keys. We changed the other house over to regular lock and key for tenants.

As for news - good news isn't interesting. Rather than report the million things that went right today the 6 o'clock news will be full of what went wrong except for maybe a warm and fuzzy some where in between.

[BacktoNE]

Waterville.

[399083453]

I'm in Maine, and I'm a locker.

I lock windows, doors, cars, etc. It takes a split second to lock a door and most thiefs will skip you. Last year someone broke into every car on our entire street and just took whatever they could get thier hands on. Change, cd's, clothes, ipods, etc. Guess whos car they skipped? Yup.....mine. It was locked.

I also have family who are in law enforcement so I've heard plenty of stories as well.

"Kids" another good reason not to leave your motor running unattended.
LiveLeak.com - Little girl takes off on dads scooter

[msina]

I leave my car unlocked unless my dog is riding with me. I do lock it if he's in there for a few moments alone, he's old and never goes with me when the weather is bad, and I do bring one of his "blankies" for him to cuddle up on. I lock him in so some nut won't try to open the car to check on him and have him get lost or something.

[bucsgirl]

this topic reminded me that i just read within the last few weeks about a young man who got arrested for stealing and said that if people didn't lock their cars, they deserve to have their stuff stolen. that boy's been raise right!

[Zymer]

In Maine, I really don't worry about it much, with the possible exception of the highway fuel joints on 95.

Locks really aren't that much use except in the case of border-line kleptos. If somebody *really* wants something in your car or house they are going to get it.

When I worked in Boston/Lynn, it cost me more to replace locks and glass in my cars than the value of the stuff stolen. My house in MA, the locked doors didn't stop them, they broke a window and made off with some guns.

About the biggest reason I can see for locking the house in Maine is to prevent the friendy neighbors from walking in on us doing the "wild thing" on the livingroom couch or the kitchen table or something like that

[Bydand]

Good point Zymer, I guess I do lock the doors sometimes. Just not from the outside because then I would have to crawl my fat arse through one of the unlocked windows to get back in.

[Submariner]

I have never left my car running when I have gone into a store. However I see it all win-tah long. In front of the grocery stores, the post office, the hardware store; parking lots filled with empty cars idling.

Our house does have a door key. I built the house, and I installed the doors, so I know that a key exists. We only lock the doors, if we are leaving the state.

In fact on one trip down to Ct, I handed my DW a door key, as symbolic of the house that I had built for her. Though I do not think that she has ever used it.

I have never locked my car while in Maine.