MemberWow… Its never crossed my mine to leave the keys in the ignition, not even in my own garage. When I parked on the street, I always lock. Now in the garage, I leave it unlocked but take the keys out.
MemberI always remove my keys and lock my car, now. However, I completely understand why some people don’t. I grew up in a very rural area. We lived far off the road (a road with VERY light traffic, maybe 10 cars per day), and only had 2 neighbors (one was my grandmother). We never locked the back door to our home and once I started driving I rarely removed the keys from my ignition. All of my friends’ families were the same, not locking their cars or homes. We never had any problems with theft and my mom still lives there and the area still has never dealt with theft.
I know it’s different than most people are used to, but that’s just the way it was.
MemberDouble Post
MemberMy car is keyless so once in awhile I leave my keys in the car just because I have 0 idea where they are
MemberAgreed!
MemberI live in the suburbs of Minneapolis/St. Paul. My husband and I both park in our attached garage and we both take our keys out of the ignition and bring them into the house. I very rarely lock my car doors when I’m in the garage, but my husband always does.
But! I grew up in a small town and I know a lot of people that still live there and STILL leave their keys in the ignition all the time. Most of them live far outside of town on a lot of land and they just aren’t concerned about anyone stealing their car. It isn’t stupid; as a few others have mentioned life is different in rural areas.
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MemberI always do, even though there have been times where I’ve forgotten and have left my keys in the ignigtion all night. Usually that only happens when all of us are in the car and have a lot of stuff to carry in. Mr. Tattoo will open the house door with his keys, so I don’t even take mine out. One morning I tore up my house looking for my keys and I took his instead. When I got to the car, mine were in the ignition. lol I’ve done it like 3 times.
I don’t want to say we live in a super safe area, but we do live right next to a school so there are always cops driving around which make people behave.
I wouldn’t do it on purpose though.
MemberWe probably should leave our things locked, no matter where we live. But some of us feel comfortable enough to leave it open.
Not all cops are bad.. you guys do protect us 🙂
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MemberI grew up on a farm so if you decided to drive up our half mile driveway, we would hear you coming anyway. My parents have a garage that connects to the house, so they always left their keys in their car because the garage door would always be closed. The door going from the garage into the house was also always unlocked as was our back door. We would lock everything up at night but never locked our back door during the day.
When I got my car, I always left the key in the car and left it unlocked in the driveway, that was just the norm where I am from. We have *knock on wood* never been robbed or anything like that.
Now that I live in a little development about 10 minutes away and I also leave my car unlocked and keys in the ignition in my garage but I make sure to close the garage door as soon as I pull in.
MemberI think it depends on where you grew up and what you are accustomed to. I grew up in the city. We locked everything. We closed all shades and curtains every evening. Having lived in the burbs for the last 20 years and having woods in my backyard has changed things up a bit. I take the key out of the ignition still but I don’t lock my door only because my car is in our attached garage with the garage door closed. I close the front curtains because they face the street, but not the back because people don’t walk along the back of our house since the woods are back there. DH having lived in the city all his childhood and adult life until recently, still locks everything. I’m sure it is out of habit. My dad loses his mind every time he comes over and I don’t close my back curtains. It’s still habit for him to close everything. When I visit my relatives in a rural area, they don’t lock anything.
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MemberMisvoted no when it should be yes. I lock up here in the city always (and have been broken into before). When I lived in AK as a kid we didn’t lock our cars because they could only be stolen for parts – needed to make a reservation on the Ferry months in advance to get a car out of Juneau. Had to adjust back state-side to locking again.
MemberThe idea of ever leaving my keys in the ignition is completely foreign to me. I mean – WHAT!? My car beeps like crazy if I open the door with the keys in the ignition because it’s saying “WAIT! STOP! DON’T LEAVE THOSE THERE!!” Haha.
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