Back door warning

It is also worth paying as much attention to the locks on your back door as the ones at the front. A neighbour came home just after dusk and couldn't open her front door. After a few tries she went round the back, to find her back door wide open. It had been broken into by someone who had broken the window beside it and reached in to turn the key that she had locked but left in the door. They had then jammed the front door to give them time to run out the back when they heard her arrive home.

I keep the back door locked when DH is not here. When he is here we lock it when we go onto the living room. It's just so annoying to have to keep unlocking it just to pop out to the bin or whatever. Guess it's probably good advice though.

We always take the key out of the back door. For one thing, if one of us was here alone and had an accident the other one wouldn't be able to use their key to get in (if there was a key already in the lock)

I do lock the back door usually but it is annoying to have to keep unlocking it to pop outside. There was a time when I would go up and have a shower with the patio doors left open in the Summer time but I guess times have changed..
We do have 6' fences around our garden and the garden gate is padlocked shut so its not easy to get into but I once found the window cleaner cleaning the back windows even though I'd forgotten to unlock the gate for him, when I asked him how he got in, he said I just climbed up the ladder onto the garage roof and down the other side... since then I've always locked the back door unless I'm in the garden.

I've had that happen to me and didn't even realise at the time. I couldnt find my purse one morning and knew I'd popped out to the shop the previous afternoon so thought it must be in the car or I'd left it on the counter of the wee shop but there was no sign of it anywhere.

When I reported the loss to my bank I was told to get a police report number so off I trotted to the station still thinking I'd lost the purse.

The officer asked me to tell him exactly what I had done when I came home from the shop and at that moment I remembered that I'd dropped my purse in the kitchen and as it wasn't properly closed I had to pick up coins from the floor and then put my purse on the kitchen table. Bingo!
Apparently this is exactly what the majority of women do, come in through the back door, put keys/bag/purse on table/breakfast bar, head upstairs or into another room. Opportunistic thief is in and out before you can blink.

I locked the door after me for quite a long time after that but I have got a bit lax of late.

What you need is a guard dog - like mine!

He's great at tripping people up as he often likes to sleep on the back door mat.

What a ravening scary beast Anya!

I would steal him and leave your purse where it was!

Our back door is always propped open enough to let the stupid cat in and out as she refuses to use a cat flap.
I do lock it when alone and I need to be upstairs. We also take the keys out the lock and put them in a safe place when we do lock it.

Very cute Anya, couldn't be less guard dog like than the one I had at the time though!

A friend came to the front door the other day, and after I let him in he locked the door behind him. Never had someone else lock my door. Living out of the village we do tend to be a bit casual especially as our three big dogs are usually running round the garden.

He's gorgeous Anya, and clearly in charge of the household ?

Anya, that's a great photograph and made me lol. I have 3 similar looking dogs here currently - they'd sort any burglar out, they'd be so delighted to have another human in the house they might just knock him over in their joy, thus rendering him unconscious.

I often forget to lock one of my doors when I go shopping but we're pretty rural so less risky than when I lived in a city in the UK.

Please don't leave your key in a locked door when you go to bed or are home alone.
Hang it up on a hook higher up on the door, if you want it nearby for emergencies.
My mum was living in warden assisted sheltered accommodation and left her key in the locked door. Unfortunately, she had a stroke and the warden tried getting in with her key but couldn't and precious time was wasted in getting to her.

tanith our window cleaner does exactly the same!

And mine!

When I was a GP I visited a Mum and daughter who both suffer from schizophrenia. They unlocked the door, let me in, locked the door and put the key in her handbag around her neck. I was rather unnerved to put it mildly, agreed to a script for antibiotics which weren't really necessary and was greatly relieved when they let me out!!! Didn't visit that house again alone!

Mine too....

roses and chelseababy

I have two friends in their 80s who seem to have one set of keys. If one is at home and the other goes out , the one going out doesn't take keys. I am always baffled that they can't imagine one being ill and not being able to open the door.

mumoftwoboys at least you weren't dragged into the room by a large man with an enormous carving knife telling you 'I am Jesus Christ, come to save the world. Sit there and listen to me!'
I did, until his wife managed to slip out and dial 999.
One of the more frightening episodes of general practice in the Blackcountry in the 1970s!

There's a scam in which two thieves are involved: one coming to the front door who engages you in conversation while the other slips round to the back door, pops in and takes anything he can lay hands on.

We`re always being told by our kids to lock the back door, but just can`t be bothered until 10pm. The summer before last, daughter and I were sitting in here when a man walked in through the back door. We assumed it was a family member till he walked through, looked at us, said "Scusey" in a foreighn accent and walked out again. Well, staggered really, he`d obviously had a few. A few days later, our daughter and her hubby were visiting, we were sitting in here chatting, when a strange (drunken) woman came in through the open door, SIL said "Wrong house mate", she didn`t say anything, just turned and made her way out again! I know we should keep the door locked, but in the daylight hours it seems so unnecessary when we`re in the house. If I needed to go upstairs and there was nobody else down then I`d lock it.