That's how it was everywhere I've lived except here. Even in my old house in Crowley - only five miles from where I live now, I left the doors unlocked and friends/family could just walk in. I have to constantly remind visiting family to lock their car doors and keep the house locked while they are here.
Wow. This one housing edition I lived at, we never locked the door, even if there was going to be nobody home.
But then again, we lived in a small trailer, had a slightly unkempt lawn, and was surrounded by actual houses.
Motion detector activated lights give you an early warning to an intruder and you can install an additional light in the house to let you know when they are on very inexpensively.
The one problem with lights, is if you get too accustomed to them, and they do not get you to wake up anymore, if an intruder noticed no one was startled, he now has a light to see what he is doing. But that one also depends where you live. In the middle of a city an intruder would be forced to run since any one driving by could see them, but out in the country there is a slight chance of anybody driving by.
Personally, I trust a loud, bark happy inside dog. They don't have to bite. But as soon as they start barking, everybody is awake. And there are some good sized dogs that have plenty of bark.
