Azrael00023 opened this issue on Feb 04, 2005 ยท 80 posts
XENOPHONZ posted Sat, 05 February 2005 at 3:19 PM
Locks slow them down. Locks might give you the time that you need to prepare to receive your "guests".
Also, if the lock is tough enough, it'll discourage amateurs.
We've had a gang of teenaged boys in our local news lately. They were robbing unlocked cars. But if a car was locked, then they left it alone.
Of course, locking things doesn't stop all of them. But it does stop some of them. And it slows the rest of them down. In a critcal situation, slowing them down might make the difference between a desirable outcome.......or not.
The other part to this is that I would prefer to have someone steal my belongings than the life of someone in the house.
Unfortunately, you can't read an intruder's mind. There is simply no way to know exactly what their actual intentions are. They might say "I won't hurt you" just to put you off of your guard. Your life -- not to mention the lives of your family members -- are not things to gamble with. Especially not in favor of an unwelcome invader's well-being.
BTW -- the "Irish Rovers" that were operating in my area a couple of years ago would sometimes approach home owners with offers of performing work -- things like paving driveways, doing yard work, etc........
Once they had convinced the people in the house to open the door, a group of them would rush in and subdue the occupants. They would then proceed to tie them up and viciously beat and rob them.
In a couple of cases, they killed people. In at least one case, they kidnapped someone.
I would strongly advise against taking any unnecessary chances. Like leaving doors unlocked.
Of course, it's all up to the individual........