If that is true then you are truly a selfish and irresponsible person (I am wording it very nicely).

No need to, I always get it more than I ask.

Yeah, and I pity people who feel the need to lock themselves from the world. Are we now even
A valuable lesson about life: gated communities does not work, friendly neighbors does.

near the border sometimes it's transient homeless people who find degraded buildings without proper main door locks and sleep in the basemenents.
Dangerous because they sometimes start fires.

Otherwise, a basement can be an easy target if the main door is unlocked or broken and the contents still have some value.

Lock themselves from the world? We are talking about basic home security that stops random and potentially dangerous people from entering your building without a good reason and/or stealing things and/or committing harm against residents. I mean seriously, the mind boggles at the level of absurdity I read on these forums.

Yesterday I was waiting for my friend in front of her apartment building, a neighbor of her went out of the building and ask me if I want to enter. We never saw each other before. I see this kind of behavior in different parts of Switzerland, including Luzern where are live, or Zurich, where I guess (from your location) you live.

I seriously mean that security comes from people, and not lack of people. If you lack security try to build a working neighborhood, don't put more locks around you*. The failure of gated communities, or watched neighborhoods and buildings is quite well known, researched and documented, but people still repeat it. Jane Jacobs first wrote about it in "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" 60 years ago, maybe spare some time and read it. Or at least first few chapters out of it, it becomes repetitive.



I will explain you a concept of safe building/neighborhood: it is where people watch and they are seen, strangers are welcomed, misbehavior is reported, children play, people stay at home at different times of the day, some live home at 5 am, others come back at 4 am. Locking a door is never going to be as useful as an retiree or parent at home as a friendly neighbor. As far as I know, Swiss agree with that concept, I heard it more than once, how important is an overview of the street one can have from his own window.



I wrote you up my experience, I guessed you jumped over it in indignation, but not even the policemen looked surprised that I just let them in. I feel quite happy and safe in my environment. I don't lock the door to my apartment when I am in the washing room. I live in ground-floor and in summer I sleep with windows open to the hof.



*yes, there are situation when this is needed, but most of the places in Switzerland are not there

I get it. So for people in Ferney, I guess Geneva is referred to as 'neighbouring Switzerland'....

you are mixing concepts.

If you let a thief in the building, he can steal bikes from the basement bike room or packages laying around, because you gave him access, that's it.
A retiree in his flat will not see or be able to do anything about it.

Not a chance. It is La Suisse voisine !

That's an admirably polite way of saying: "you are on cloud cuckoo land".

Thanks for the explanation. Sounds like an ideal scenario. Sign me up.

Oh, I see. As long as you have retired folks, looking out their windows making sure everything is secure, you feel that you don't have to take any responsibilty. Makes perfect sense.

Is that like nonante?
As the French would definitely say la voisine Suisse.

La voisine Suisse would be a neighbour who happens to be a Swiss person.
Suisse voisine refers to Switzerland as a neighbouring country.

I am happy for you that you learned something, it is never too late!!!

And Ferny has both.

About ten years ago, I was living in Zurich; and one day my neighbor (a single mother from Australia, with a seven-year old girl) told me that the day before, she was standing on her balcony and heard a noise behind her and turned around to find a strange man standing there, holding a knife. He had walked right past her little girl's bedroom to get there. She instinctively freaked out and screamed and (thankfully) he ran off. She contacted the police as well as the landlord company, and they retrieved footage from the security cameras, which showed that another tenant in the building had let this guy in, as they were on their way out. My neighbor's daughter had forgotten to lock the door into their flat when she came home from school. And all the more strange (and creepy) is that that same day, I remember sitting at my computer and hearing the door handle to our apartment jiggle, as though someone was trying to come in, but our door was locked. So this guy obviously had tried to come into our apartment as well.

Now just imagine if that woman had been stabbed (and/or her daughter) or anyone else and then being that person who was responsible for letting that guy into the building.

I'm sorry, but your post just comes off as being extremely naive. I'm sure the majority of people whose homes are broken into (women being raped, etc.) never thought it would happen to them. Even here in Greifensee, which on the surface seems extremely peaceful and safe, there was a problem with someone breaking into ground-floor apartments two years ago. The police had even set up a "stop and inform" post on the main street here for a while, where they were stopping every car to ask people where they live and to warn the residents about it.

Quote:
"And about going into the building, I always let people in, I never ask them where they are going. I open the door if someone rings, never check who s/he is."



Today I noticed that our front door does not lock properly, I called our landlord and he confirmed that it happened yesterday, they are on it and door will be repaired this afternoon.

There is a reason most entrance doors are supposed to be locked ... if you live in a building, what gives you the right to decide for all the other tenants?

Of course, if you live in your own house, then you are free to do whatever you want.

You mean Synthale?

One breaks into a basement to steal something. Or if a person is intoxicated and acts irrationally.

On a separate note: while living in States one of the rules I learned was to have your property protected just marginally better, than the next guy's. It may be simply a better lock and a couple of extra steel plates on a door, a video surveillance (literally costs nothing and can be installed even in a bulb socket; even a primitive LED with a warning label have an effect against opportunity crimes), a simple movement detector and a sound alarm, etc. If your neighbors are nice and cooperative, then you can secure common perimeter instead of securing just your private areas.

Always important to secure your privates.

I agree with what you say about making yourself a slightly harder target, as most theft is opportunistic - they see an open door, or try a handle that happens to be unlocked, or are let into the building by a naïve neighbour ... and then see what they can easily grab and walk off. If a thief is truly targeting you personally, then no standard security set-up will stop them. A bit like online security: play safe but know that if somebody really wants to get your data, they will.