Big Vern

we're moving to NC in April, we're going to be out of the city (Charlotte) initially, probably in one of the the smaller towns, Cornelius, Mooresville maybe.

At the moment in the UK I live in Leeds. At night we go to bed with every window in the house locked, the front door with two seperate locks, a chain and two deadbolts, the back door with one lock and two deadbolts, the alarm system on, and the car locked in the garage with its alarm on.

And we live in the nice part of town.

I hope it's a hell of a lot better out there, I don't want to spend the rest of my life worrying about getting ripped off....

Anyone had any problems - or anything reassuring to tell me??

edwords

I've lived in New York, New Jersey and Arizona and have always locked my home's doors. Why invite trouble?

JulianB

Leeds? I lived in Oakland for a while. :scared:

TRPardoe

I am emailing a friend who lives in Charlotte for feedback. If he replies I'll pass it on.

Bluegrass Lass

Can't tell you much about Charlotte. I live in a small town in central Kentucky. I grew up in the city, where you lock your doors and cars at night (not quite as many locks as you mentioned - 1 on every door), but you could probably get away with leaving windows open. In this small town, people will just walk into a store and leave their keys in the car, leave the doors unlocked, and generally, to my thinking, leave things around that I would never do at home in the city.

Depending on the community, crime rate may be low. I'd watch the locals, see how they do things and go from there. But personally, I'd never leave my house unlocked at night!

doctor scrumpy

From what I read or hear from the media in the DC NOVA area, majority of murders are within the same race ( ie Black on Black, Hispanic on Hispanic. )

There has been only one inter racial murder that I can recall, that was white male murdering black female. The myth of the black criminal preying on the white is a figment of the US culture of being worried about non-whites. Dating from the early Indians through the Negro to the Arab these days.

Dant3

Hey, Big Vern, I moved from Leeds to Los Angeles last September. I too routinely locked my doors and windows, had abuse yelled at me in the street by pre-teen illiterates and looked over my shoulder walking down the Headrow at 10 on a Friday night.

You'd be surprised how low-crime most of the US is. The media here, more specifically the crappy tabloid TV news shows, like to spice things up a bit by trying to make out that Americans are living in a gang controlled warzone, but if you look at crime statistics on any police departments' website you'll see that the crime rate (evereything except murder) is considerably lower than in the UK. They also might tell you which areas of their juristiction are the most crime ridden/crime free.

Sure, there IS crime, and in some neighbourhoods it's a genuine concern, but for the vast majority the fear really does outway the threat.

James

Big Vern

Thanks everyone, I'll take it all board...I wasn't suggesting I leave my windows and doors open - with a big sign saying 'Please - Take Everthing I Have' ...I was just trying to emphasise that around here if you don't lock EVERYTHING, some scally will be in your kitchen window and have your car keys away before you can say 'No Claims Bonus'! And it's not US style whipping everyone into a frenzy of fear either, both my next door neighbours (and several others near by) have been turned over in recent months, hence the extra paranoid security measures.

I've been to small town MA fairly recently to stay with friends, and it was completely different, pretty much crime free, and I'm just hoping my eventual destination will be as laid back....

edwords

In this area, thieves are generally relunctant to enter homes, since they know that many people are armed. As a result, in residential areas, they turn to "crimes of opportunity" such as stealing valuables from vehicles or uprooting valuable plants from lawns.

Jxab12

We were lucky in that our area is very low on the crime front. Cars are never locked, house doors are never locked (but sometimes they are shut). The local police routinely pull people over just because they dont recognise the car as coming from the neighbourhood! I hope you find somewhere similar.