Locking doors was not something I cared about when I lived on campus. I figured out about two weeks into freshman year that I could save myself 30 seconds every time I entered and exited my room by leaving the door permanently unlocked. In retrospect, this was not the smartest decision. However, in two years of leaving my worldly possessions open to the world, neither my roommates nor I ever had anything stolen. By the beginning of my junior year I had developed a very lax attitude toward safety.
This attitude did not serve me well when I moved off-campus. I live in a house close to campus with four other girls. Our front lock is really difficult to open. So again, we decided that it would be more convenient just to leave it unlocked during the day. I grew up in a neighborhood where that would be OK, but as I learned the hard way, Logan is definitely not that neighborhood.
Our first break-in happened in December. My housemate came home and found the contents of her purse and desk strewn across the floor of her room. By some miracle, whoever had come into the house did not want to take our laptops or credit cards, just cash. It looked like the person had come in through an unlocked back door while one of the girls was home. We were pretty shaken up, but we were grateful that nothing worse had happened.
The second break-in was a lot scarier. This time it was during finals week of spring semester, and it involved an open window instead of an open door. I was in my room talking with my boyfriend really late one night. I live in the basement of my house, so my bedroom has a large egress fire escape window.
I had cracked the window slightly to get air, and then forgotten about it. We were talking at a normal voice and the lights were on. When Thomas (my boyfriend) was leaving, we heard a weird noise outside my window. I chose to ignore the noise because my house always makes weird noises, but fortunately Thomas recognized that someone was trying to open the window. He stayed in my room and waited.
All of a sudden a black gloved hand reached through the window and pulled back my curtains. Thomas jumped up and shouted, and whoever it was ran off. It was one of the most frightening things I have ever experienced. I don't know what would have happened if I had been alone that night. I'm not sure I would have been able to defend myself. Again, I'm mostly just grateful that everything was OK in the end.
Needless to say, my housemates and I are taking safety a lot more seriously this year. We never thought this would happen to us but it did, twice. Both times it was clearly a crime of opportunity and we've learned that it is worth it to sacrifice some convenience in order to keep our house safe.
If you live in a house off-campus, or even if you live in the dorms, please learn from our mistakes. Be vigilant in keeping your doors locked all the time, and don't leave your windows open unless you have a way to keep them secure. A wooden dowel in a window will make it possible to keep it slightly open without being an open invitation to thieves. Talk about home safety with your roommates, your landlord and Gonzaga Security.
Convenience is never worth the sacrifice of basic safety precautions. By taking the time and energy to be serious about home security today, you will be protecting yourself from becoming the victim of a crime in the future. Trust me, it's worth it to be safe now before you become the subject of the next Gonzaga security bulletin.