Do you lock your doors? Leave your cars running? (Portland: low crime, how much)

[TheCaptain]

I was just wondering if a lot of you feel safe enough in Maine to leave your cars running if you stop into a convenience store, or your doors unlocked at night? Is there a safe feel to many parts of the state?

I realize not all parts of Maine are like that - how about Portland? Bangor? I'd like to relocate to Maine within the next 7 months. I grew up in a town where we could do that (and people still do), and currently live in a city where leaving your car running or your door unlocked is not only dangerous, it's unthinkable. Was hoping to get your insight. Thanks!

[Elcarim]

Yeah, about 12 years ago, I left my car running on a cold, rainy night in Houston to run in a convenience store for 2 minutes. A week later, they found it 100 miles away stripped. I learned my lesson!

However, I have read that in Maine, it's common to leave the car running and go into the store in the winter months and not have a problem. I've also read that people can sleep with the windows open in the house and leave the cars unlocked with little problem ever reported. I'm sure others here will be able to confirm that.

[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.

[elston]

I remember about 38 years ago I bought an old farm house in a small NH town. While we were at the bank and "passed papers" I asked when I would get the key to the house. The answer was, "Oh, there isn't a key to that house. I guess there used to be a skeleton key to the door but we don't have it, you could probably get one at the hardware store." I lived there for at least 20 years and never locked the house up tight. If I could buy a key to the house at the hardware store, I guess everyone else could to. Also many of the windows didnt have those thumb latches, at least not that worked. At night I would slide a dead bolt on the inside, but even when I went away for vacation--the house stood unlocked. I still get an uneasy feeling when I lock my door. The question from Robert Frosts poem, Mending Wall disturbs my peace! "....before I built a wall I would want to know what I was walling in or walling out" I sometimes do lock my house these days where I live--and it is probably foolish that sometimes when I go out on a short errand I don't--there is a fair amount of crime here.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

When an old Mainer is going to say something important he takes his hat off. When I bought my house the seller took off his hat and said, "Misuh, I'm sorry I don't have a key to give ya. I didn't get one when I bought the place." He had owned it for 42 years. The Crocker family owned it before that and I asked a Crocker about it and for two earlier generations it had not been locked either.

We lock our vehicles though in town during August. If you don't, when you come back out you'll find your back seat full of zucchini.

You see vehicles running all the time in winter with nobody in them.

[dramamama6685]

Never leave anything unlocked 'round here. It's not that bad in my immediate area, but there was a rape in the graveyard a block over this summer and in the spring, the campground had a body discovered. On a side note some idiot was walking by the historic church next to me carrying a TV. Folks pulled up for a showing on the opposite side (the church is on the market). This idiot had put down the TV to take a pi#@ on the tree. I CANNOT wait to get to Maine!

[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.

[dramamama6685]

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.

Back to NE, can I ask which town? Or do you think it is a kind of standard to have police news left out of the paper?

[bucsgirl]

i wonder that myself. how much is left of newspapers, just to maintain the "safe" illusion? i don't mean maine in particular, but anywhere that wants to keep their low crime reputation. it's a scary thought.

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

[mollysmiles]

lol....I have best friends at the PD who say the same thing. But honestly, they see the worst every day, and they HAVE to lock up their stuff on the slim chance some dummy knows where they live and is seeking revenge. But in reality they don't even see one break-in a week, or car theft....and usually when it does happen, it's personal revenge. Most of us don't live that way though. I have no idea where my house key is and leave my Jeeps running at the stores. I never think to lock the windows at the house.....we have good neighbors (except for one lady who is a basket case) and we all look out for each other.

A couple of years ago when I was single I met someone in Boston who lives in a suburb outside of Dallas. We called each other a lot, and one particular time while we were talking he went to go out into his backyard at night, to see if he could see the stars (he could). Over the phone I heard this beeping sound, and I asked him what it was. He said "it's my security". I just started laughing....I couldn't help myself. I would no more live in a place where I had to lock myself in my own home to be safe than I would shoot myself in the foot!