12.17.2010

Public Service Announcement


Ok - so here's the thing:

I am a crazy, do it right now, check-three-times-before-I-go-to-bed door locker.  I lock every door behind me right after I come in the house.  And I double check it to make sure.

You are all going to think that I'm completely paranoid and/or crazy, but I don't care.  And you may also think I'm telling you something that you already know but I'm going to say it anyway:

Lock your damn doors.

I'll say it again:  Lock your damn doors!

I'm talking about your back doors, your storm doors and your basement doors.  And I'm talking about locking them all the time.  And I mean go do it right now.  And if you're not sure if it's locked, go check it.  And if you have a lock and a deadbolt, lock both of them. 

Did you know that last year the president of the student body at UNC Chapel Hill was brutally murdered by two psychopaths?  Well, she was.  They came into her home in the middle of the night and then they murdered her after they took her out and made her withdraw the money from her bank account.  They pushed her out of the car in the middle of an intersection and blew her head off with a shotgun.

They walked in through an unlocked door.

Have you been following the murder trial in Connecticut involving the Petit family?  Those monsters walked into their house through an unlocked basement door.

A few years ago a young woman in Clemson, South Carolina was raped and murdered in her apartment.   The guy followed her home from jogging and just followed her into her home.  She didn't lock the door behind her.

And the anchorwoman in Little Rock who was raped and beaten to death in her bed - the guy walked in through a door she left open for her dogs.  

So if you're home,  lock your doors.  Lock them now.  Lock all of them.  And your windows, too.  Lock them behind you when you walk in the house.  Don't wait and do it later.  Don't think it won't matter. 

Don't make it easy for anyone to come in and hurt you.

Unfortunately, those people are out there, even in the safest neighborhoods.

Dr. Petit was on Oprah last week.  I have never seen a more pitiful, absolutely broken person.  He told her he ran through all the 'what ifs' in his head.  When she asked him what the 'what ifs' were, he said "What if someone had just slid that latch shut (on the basement door)".

So take care of yourselves.  Please.  Lock your doors. 
Image:  Doorknob by Jennopolis.

4 comments:

  1. We always locked doors growing up - house, car, crawl space - you name it - we always locked. I grew up in Northern Virginia mostly. It is amazing to me how many grew up NOT doing this -- including my husband! who was an hour and one half outside of NY city in a very rural area - so it's not just a southern thing (not that you said it is, but i thought it must have been as i moved to NC and witnessed this - but its not).

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  2. I do the same thing, but I AM bad about locking the back door when I take Gibson out for a walk. I really should just keep a keep on his leash or something...

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  3. People make fun of me sometimes for locking the dead bolt the moment I walk into the house. It's just second nature to me for some reason. And they "oh gosh, I just trie to run out to my car and you've already locked us in!". But I can't help it. Seeing all of these instances listed out together in this post tells me I'm not crazy :) Clearly I need to forward to this post to THEM.

    Thank you for the reminder!

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  4. Yes! Please forward this! I get the same thing from my friends because as soon as I let them in, I lock the door behind them. I hate that it has to be this way but it is what it is.

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