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.