My front door wide open !!

[Evita]

Today a dog came in to play and they frolicked on the bed - the foxy and my doggy. Yesterday the local chooks walked in.... and ate the dog food....Now that is a special form of freedom !

Evita


 

[SA3001]

    Funny how these small pleasures impact us so    I often tell people that I didn't realise the extent of my stress back in SA until I was here and able to indulge in the small pleasures others take for granted 

[Tui]

  Funny how these small pleasures impact us so    I often tell people that I didn't realise the extent of my stress back in SA until I was here and able to indulge in the small pleasures others take for granted 

How true!! I am dead serious when I say, we only have ONE set of front door keys.....which is attached to OH set. Should I or the kids go out.....our door remains unlocked! Has done so since we moved in, last year December. Oh, and our garage door does not lock either.....and half our furniture is still down there! Should our son be out with his mates, only returning at say midnight...he can walk straight into the house (we are fast asleep) - my Mom was like  ..... when I told her 

FREEDOM - what a lovely feeling indeed!! And being able to sleep without house and car alarms going off during the night - BLISS!!


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[Savayla]

The other day all of us were going out and I had to say "Uhmmm, who has a front door key ?  It was so funny.  We just never lock.  Our bedroom door opens into the garden and is never locked when we are sleeping.   

Absolute freedom.  BTW, it was snowing in our garden tonight !!!!!  A first for us and so beautiful seeing these large flakes falling down.

[SaKiwiBoer]

We have previously left home for a weekend and returned to an open garage...  , and an open house. The door leading into the house from the garage could not lock. Front door to the house was locked but the rest was W I D E open.... Had a whee bit of a shock on our return... 
Every thing was untouched as far as we could gather. 
Freedom... 
SAKB

[Chan in Wellington]

  what??  I will have to get used to that.  We have outside beams, full alarm, two dogs....a gun...lock up house/car everything ALL the time!!

[Rockhopper]

Just a friendly reminder to all you less-than-careful-forumites that this is a PUBLIC forum, which means anybody can come on here and read these stories, and immediately have four targets just from these posts!!  Don't be stupid!!

A colleague of mine has just been robbed at gunpoint inside his home over the weekend!  Yes this was in cozy New Zealand in cozy Wellington where supposedly nothing bad happens!!!  Crime happens here as well, including violent crime!  Long story short -- Police suspect that the robbers might have been "following" my colleague on facebook as his profile was rather stupidly open for everyone to see and he regularly commented on how forgot his car keys or house keys, etc etc.

Just because you came to a "safer" country, does not mean you need to be totally oblivious in securing your life and your family.

Keep this in mind next time you "invite" everyone on the internet to your never locked house...

[groenlemoen]

Thats shocking. Been living in Wellington for a good number of years and never heard of anything like that happening before.

Sure it can happen anywhere, but this story has not made the news here in Wellington so I can’t help being sceptical?!? Here in NZ everything makes the news.... At least in this case though your friend is alive to tell the tale, thats the difference between SA and NZ, the violent crime. Not saying this was not violence, but am saying its a hell of a lot less violent than what happens in SA where families re left dead, and raped.

That said, most South Africans whom have grown up with security never stop taking precautions. I still lock my doors, car etc.. Old habits are the hardest to die I suppose..

[Tui]

That is the way we have been living, and it is up to the next person to deal with their own safety issues in their own way. We do not have our addresses or names on this forum........I do not have facebook! And I will still have my doors unlocked!! And, if something bad should happen to us, regarding a robbery etc.......then, we have no one else but OURSELVES to blame.......


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[Rockhopper]

Sure it can happen anywhere, but this story has not made the news here in Wellington so I can’t help being sceptical?!? Here in NZ everything makes the news....

I disagree - not everything makes the news, especially if it happens in less affluent areas!  Surprisingly, John Campbell is less interested in activities in South Auckland and Lower Hutt, for example.  Also, certain cultures do not report all the crime they should, as it is seen as splitting on your whanau... If you really want confirmation, I can try and get you the case number...

Not saying this was not violence, but am saying its a hell of a lot less violent than what happens in SA where families re left dead, and raped.

Try "left for dead" -- still in hospital.  I am sure he is not "relieved" that he is better off than people in SA.  This is his reality.

We do not have our addresses or names on this forum........I do not have facebook!

Yes but you still connect to the internet to access this forum, and users can see when exactly you are online, and any clever hacker will have no problem getting ip addresses and with geolocation would be able to get to your house, etc etc.  I am saying it is possible.  NO ONE on the internet is safe - never assume that you are -- that is all I am saying.

And I will still have my doors unlocked!! And, if something bad should happen to us, regarding a robbery etc.......then, we have no one else but OURSELVES to blame.......

in the words of Forrest Gump, "Stupid is as stupid does"  As long as you blame yourself, everything is as good as gold!

[Tui]

I doubt people have so much time on their hands to connect to the forum to access the forum, and hack into whatever...... I am through looking for trouble, the fact that we were SO security mad in SA, and always 'looking' never stopped them from getting into our house anyway.....3 TIMES!!! With the alarms, bars and our 6 foot wall. hello?? We tend to look for the negative coming from South Africa - lets breathe a little and not be so uptight, but constantly looking, worrying, to me, it's like inviting the very thing you don't want to happen to you - let go a little. I now have a much positive outlook, and am I silly, stupid - yes, maybe.

I am now living the way I want to live without looking, thinking negatively etc........and if stupid is as stupid does, then really, so be it! BTW - what a stupid saying...... but catchy!



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[Rockhopper]

I doubt people have so much time on their hands to connect to the forum to access the forum, and hack into whatever......

You will be surprised - you don't need time, all you need is a good program that does all the work for you.  And yes they are out there scanning every second, and yes they will scan forums like this.....

I am through looking for trouble, the fact that we were SO security mad in SA, and always 'looking' never stopped them from getting into our house anyway.....3 TIMES!!! With the alarms, bars and our 6 foot wall. hello?? We tend to look for the negative coming from South Africa - lets breathe a little and not be so uptight, but constantly looking, worrying, to me, it's like inviting the very thing you don't want to happen to you - let go a little. I now have a much positive outlook, and am I silly, stupid - yes, maybe.

I am not looking for a fight or trouble.  I fully agree with you that one should relax and live a little when you have the privilege of doing so.  All of us living here have that privilege, and most of us coming from sunny SA now deem the paranoia and constant looking over our shoulder a little bit excessive or even superfluous.  I am just stating that there is a difference between paranoia and security mania, like we had in SA, and being security conscious.  I am not saying you should even remotely go back to the state we were in SA, but would you walk into pack n save, climb on a box, and yell out that your house is currently unoccupied and unlocked?  It boils down to exactly the same thing when you declare that on a public forum, whether you use a dummy name or not.

Just be aware of what you say and where you say it - that is all.

[Tui]

Yes, I think this is a very person matter regarding what/how one should live, and it is really each to his/her own Like I said, i am a strong believer that you do attract some negativity, should you always be in a paranoid state of mind, we may be laxa daisy regarding our security, but you have a gut feeling when to shut up (doors etc....) I have not felt the need as yet. I will not let a handful of stories about crime stop me now from my 'new frame of mind' and resort back to my paranoid ways, which clearly did not help in SA.

In one - different strokes for different folks!

I do realize that you are voicing your opinion Rockhopper, and especially now after that attack on your work mate, as it does stir up those gloomy SA issues, and that you are saying what is on your mind, that is good, after all, we are all open for debate. Not a heated debate - just a wee forum discussion   


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[groenlemoen]

That is the way we have been living, and it is up to the next person to deal with their own safety issues in their own way. We do not have our addresses or names on this forum........I do not have facebook! And I will still have my doors unlocked!! And, if something bad should happen to us, regarding a robbery etc.......then, we have no one else but OURSELVES to blame.......

Agreed. One just has to drive to the local dairy to find some local that has left the keys in the car with car idling.  Or a walk through most suburbs will reveal kids toys/bikes left lying around in the yards. Many garage doors simply left open. The same could be said for houses. Kiwis are terrible with security, and most of them will tell you that they don’t lock their doors.

Nobody needs to go onto face book to stork out who leaves their houses unlocked. A walk down most roads will probably reveal one out of every 5 houses are unlocked – And nobody is home.

I disagree - not everything makes the news, especially if it happens in less affluent areas!  Surprisingly, John Campbell is less interested in activities in South Auckland and Lower Hutt, for example.  Also, certain cultures do not report all the crime they should, as it is seen as splitting on your whanau... If you really want confirmation, I can try and get you the case number...

Yea, case number should be good. I am sure the local media would have a field time with an article like this. I am not saying that this sort of thing does not happen, I am just curious as to why its not spashed out in the media? Even police ten7 would normally feature a crime like you have described. Most of the crime investigation programs on the police ten7 show are directly out of South Auckland, the hutt etc.. And many of those crimes much less violent. So I disagree with your assumption as to why its not in the media. Instead, i think there is something fishy about your story. Keep in mind that most attacks that do happen in NZ are where the victim knows the attacker, and that is normally reason itself to not want to press charges, hence no case number. No news.

Try "left for dead" -- still in hospital.  I am sure he is not "relieved" that he is better off than people in SA.  This is his reality.

Can you supply me with some more details about this please. Ie, the area, where it happened etc.. You say it was a colleague of yours? Give us some details, I am really curious as to why this story has not made the news.

[Tui]

Must be honest, just out of interest, I tried to google it, as I too did not see it on the news.....



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