Hi Starrs, I have USAA also and they are great. My late husband had his golf bag with all the clubs along with his three buddies golf bags and clubs stolen from his friends vehicle some years ago. Broken windows..the fellows were at the 19th hole having lunch and so forth.

USAA took excellant care of our claim. The other three..one friends insurance company was slow but did not hassle him. The other two fellows had more problems and stress than any insured should ever have to have. But the same old story, four golfers golf equipment in full view in the back of our friends SUV. Parked in a parking lot at a very beautiful and well located golf course. But fortunatly our friend had carefully locked all the doors so there was no problem about that.

Hi JJ5, having had a father who was the Safety Supervisor for a large oil refinery, and having been in the insurance business for decades I am well trained in being cautious, lol.
Not always of course, but a great majority of times victims of crime could have avoided the problem by being more cautious. Does that make the victim responsible for the crime. Of course not! But with all the problems out there, gangs, drugs, crazies and sicko's it is prudent to try to protect oneself as much as possible. But for sure I cringe when I talk to someone who is "afraid of life"..that is so sad and not the way I would want to live. I have friends that think I am crazy to go to SF by myself. I do not want to live like that. But maybe spending a lot of time in Oakland made me a lot street smarter than many of my friends.

Hope it is cooling down and that you are feeling better. Take good care.

Mrs Kravitz one left her keys in the front door. One of the neighbors opened the door to toss them in and was met by a kabookie in pink slippers and a frying pan!

LoveItaly...., do you own pink slippers...?

LOL bear, I don't even wear slippers, I go barefoot (a California prunepicker is what my Australian father always said). And black is my color. Pink? No, no and no!!!

BTW, my neighbor who is normally a darling woman grumbles, complains and groans because a neighbor keeps the outside deck light on all night every night. She cares why? I will have to start thinking of her as Mrs Kravitz!

my truck is in the driveway with the keys in the ignition. my 2 cars are in the garage with a sidedoor that has no lock and the keys are in both. i don't even take the keys out of the car when you go to the store.
i lock my house if i leave for overnight.
this is one of the reasons i live where i do.

Virginia, I can relate. I was thinking the same thing with this thread. I never take the key out of my car, either. I don't even have it on a ring since it just stays in the ignition all the time. Not only do many people here leave their car running when they go into the store quickly, but many also leave their purse on the front seat with the windows down and don't think a thing about it.

a barefooted kabookie wearing a frying pan...now that's a scare!

Kinda like "Scout" from To Kill a Mockingbird. You Ham ya....

...tossing the keys and runnin'....

My brothers live in a college town of around 100,000 and, up until fairly recently, they never, ever locked their doors.

A year ago last December, one brother woke to find a strange pair of shoes near his couch, his front door open and one of his beloved cats gone. It took him, his girlfriend and the other brother two days of intense searching to find that cat (who, of course, had wandered out when the door was open rather than being abducted). They never did find out who had left the shoes. And I believe both brothers now keep their doors locked.

In answer to Starrsville's original question, yes, I'd be freaked. In the summer, when it's cool enough to have the a/c off, I almost always leave one of our sliding glass doors in the back open well in to the evening. But our backyard is fenced and the gate is always locked.

Not at all. One of our neighbors is an insomniac and several times a week has "dinner" delivered to her at 2 to 4am - and then the deliveryman is free to wander the building.

If I get home and see any of my neighbors' door ajar or key in the lock I always ring and tell them - even if it's late - I know I would want them to do it for me. (It happens relatively frequently with the insomniac - who I think is also a dipsomaniac.)

jeez~I've done this a few times since we have lived in the "homocide capital" of the USA. Nothing has happened. I long to live someplace where I can leave the door unlocked and the baby in the yard.

A friend of mine was best man at a friend's wedding and was entrusted with the job of taking all the wedding gifts home from the reception for safe keeping until the newlyweds came home from the honeymoon. He and his wife had consumed their share of Champagne at the reception and when they got home they opened the trunk of the car and carried in a few gifts. Apparently influenced by the romantic event and liquor they became "distracted." They woke up at 6am to find the trunk still open, front door still open and all the gifts right where they left them! And they lived in a sketchy So Cal! neighborhood!

It would mystify my DH because he has never carried a key to any house we've ever owned. "Where did that come from," he would muse.

Yikes.

Well guess I am the only Fodorite that lives where one does not leave the vehicle unlocked, keys in the vehicle, house exterior doors unlocked etc. And we have earthquakes too!

OK - since we are all friends here and it seems few of us leave our houses unlocked and since we know where and when we all travel --- we now have quite a few homes in many places we know will be unlocked --- the ultimate in a free hotel network.

My doors are double locked, my windows are locked, my car is locked. My dog will attack you if you come in without me being here..or if I scream.

LOL

In Florida, we were routinely forgetting to lock the back door, once we forgot to close the garage door, car was unlocked and so were the house doors..we are safer with doormen to watch over us

One former neighborhood in a very nice suburb of Dallas, Plano, seemed so safe when we first moved there before its boom years, when the population was a mere 60,000. It was small town friendly and we thought nothing of sleeping with our windows open throughout the house...until the night someone came in through an open window in the kitchen, took the money from my wallet, our loose change piggy bank, very full and on a shelf in a bookcase (!) and the good liquor from the liquor cabinet, leaving the cheap stuff!! We never heard them, although I'm a light sleeper, and didn't know we'd been broken into until I went to pay for something at the store that day and had no cash, not a penny. I called my DH to grumble as he'd been known to clean me out and forget to tell me...but he was innocent. Then...I saw the trail of coins going out our patio door...evidently the too full piggy bank had spilled on the way out...as we slept blissfully. We didn't lose much but our sense of security, replaced by relief that we never woke up in the midst of this and confronted them, and a realization that what appears perfectly safe, is not necessarily so.

Years ago we had a series of burglaries at an apartment complex. A couple of teens were breaking in, stealing petty cash, etc. They would take the time to play with model boats, eat slices of cake, etc. The funny (sad?) part of it was that they went through my music collection and found absolutely nothing they wanted to steal. They also dumped the contents of my medicine cabinet in the sink and found nothing of interest. They were kids living in the complex.

Many of us slept through the break-ins in upstairs bedrooms while they took their time investigating our stuff downstairs. Shortly thereafter I got a dog

Leaving the key in the front door or not locking it all wouldn't and doesn't bother me. I have a rather large german sheperd who snarls at everybody!

Different story at my parent's house. Seems like I am always locking their doors for them. They are too trusting and vaunerable.

Some years ago I was on a business trip. I was flying out of O Hare. Honest to God, when I left I left, I forgot and left the keys on the ROOF of the car. When I came back several days later they were still there.