We think we are protecting ourselves from burglars with this gesture, but it is quite the opposite that happens.
When coming home, most people instinctively close their front door behind them. It’s like a reflex to be able to feel safe at home. It must be said that in 2023 in France, more than 217,000 burglaries have been recorded, according to Statista figures. But there is also another habit that is often adopted by most of us: that of locking our front door and leaving the key in the lock all night. A practical gesture, which is mainly intended to prevent someone from opening the door from the outside, even with a double or master key.
Except that this habit, which seems extremely banal, should be avoided, because contrary to popular belief, it helps burglars break into your home. Indeed, as the experts at Verisure, a company specializing in alarms with remote monitoring, explain, leaving your keys on the door facilitates access for experienced thieves. “The latter can, using lock picking techniques or specific tools, manipulate the key through the lock cylinder to unlock the door in a few minutes”we can read on their site. And that’s not all…
If there is an emergency, such as a fire, and your key is still in your lock, this can pose a real obstacle for emergency services. “If the lock is blocked by the key, it may become impossible to open the door quickly, thus endangering the inhabitants of the accommodation. This also complicates access to emergency services and law enforcement, who may need to ‘enter urgently’, underline the Verisure experts.
Furthermore, we don’t always think about it, but by constantly leaving our key in the lock, the mechanism can gradually become damaged. “Continuous rubbing of the key on the pins or internals of the lock cylinder can cause faster degradation, increasing the risk of long-term malfunction or jamming.” In all cases, it is better to lock your door, even double-lock, and then put away your keychain.