Except that Burglary 101 includes a credit on "identifying key-hiding places and devices" that very quickly renders those a serious risk

I'm happy with a neighbor having a key for usual fits of forgetfulness, unfortunately they weren't at home that day...

Al, it would be as well to check your home insurance policy, it could be that it would be invalid if you left a key hidden as you suggest. As Wesley says, leave one with a neighbour, or as I do, one with each of two neighbours.

I am a simple man, heavily accented on simple. If you can't trust a bunny, how can you trust your neighbors? Just kidding, your points are well taken.

Well to add to the discussion, such as it is, some insurance companies will cover non-forced entry into your home, ie a hidden key. Whether burglars know all the tricks, I don't know but if you bury a key, for instance, they would have to be pretty lucky burglars. It is a valid suggestion for some people, particularly if they don't know their neighbors all that well. My daughter cut her hand badly breaking into her apartment having lost her key. Better she would have taken the chance, I think.

"Note below for a sampled holiday home insurer in the UK.

No unoccupancy restrictions or security requirements
*Note: For UK holiday homes certain conditions and exclusions apply during the period of 1st November through until 31st March, please view the UK holiday home insurance section of our website.
Full theft insurance - including theft by guests and non-forced entry
Includes specialist insurance for holiday lets - including employers & public liability insurance, loss of rent and accidental damage to contents
14 day money back guarantee
Established in 1984 - Schofields have a proven track record as holiday homes insurance experts with vast claims experience
Arranged with certain Underwriters at Lloyd's of London, one of the world's leading insurers - exclusively for Schofields."

Al

That is not the advice given by insuracne companies insuring homes, rather than holiday homes which will be different.

This is a quote from one...

Home Insurance and the Hidden Key

Are you one of the 27% of homeowners that hide a key somewhere outside their home to ensure that, should they lose their key or get locked out of their home, they are able to get back in? If you are then you are not only leaving yourself open to opportunists but you are also looking at a refusal of a home insurance claim and elevated premiums in the future.

Hiding a key has long been something that many individuals have done for peace of mind but thieves are now exploiting this by checking under pots, on ledges and all the other usual areas that homeowners hide a key in. If someone breaks into your own home as a result of finding a key then you could be deemed at fault because you have faclitated the crime. Do not expect too many insurers to pay out if this is the case but they can legally raise your premiums because of your admission of recklessness.

The moral of the story – move the key!
.................

I would add that I have never heard of Schofields.

I raise the white flag of surrender and lay on my back like a spanked puppy. Leaving your window unlocked at night to catch a breeze could be construed as the same inattention to the possibility of burglary. Does every house have to have iron bars and an alarm system and motion detectors to be deemed adequately burglar proof? It's a sad world we live in where we live in fear and march to the tune of our insurance companies.

Fortunately I am a happy-go-lucky guy. What me worry?

Al

Or you could be like me. When I was a young teen and not always thinking straight **snicker**, I went to a friends house while my parents were away, locked up the house like I'd been taught, but then left a note on the front door. "Mom, went to Linda's house. Key is under the door mat".

Al—what happens if you forget where the key is buried? Just saying.
My key chain is on a strap, so it goes on my wrist. I actually have three ikeys—and I’d have to pay some outrageous amount to get extra copies. The only times the keys have been outside the building were those times Mom had them for one reason or another. (I have thought of buying an extra copy, but each time the cost stops me.)

Years ago, I locked myself and Mom out of our apartment because I locked the screen door (it was one of those screens with a lock and no key).
Mom was wearing a dress that day, and had to approach a neighbor to ask if he’d help her get in the apartment (actually, what she wondered was whether he had a ladder. He did, but refused to allow her to climb due to her being in a dress. In the end, he climbed that ladder, “broke in” to our apartment—in other words, went in through the window—and unlocked the door).
Mom likes to tell that story, “of when we met our neighbors Tony and Toni.”

haha, you've made me think of a similar story.
Years ago Mum went out and reminded us NOT to lock the front door as she wasn't taking her keys. Okay okay okay, we won't lock the door. Before we went to bed we checked the door and it wasn't locked but we had forgotten about the screen door. ooops.
She had no money and no keys, we (us kids) were asleep upstairs and in her attempts to wake us she actually woke one of the neighbours. She went to the nearest phone box ad pleaded with the operator to ring us and tell us to unlock the door. Nothing worked and she ended up sleeping in the car for the night. Ooops again.
We had to tiptoe around the house for that day

Love it!

This morning, pulled out the jar of peanut butter to spread some on toast--only, it was a can of soup!

I realized a split second before I had a soup sandwich

Sometimes I ask where my purse is and then see myself holding it.

One time my TSS (Therapeutic Support Staff) and I were having a class and she looked at the time and said "Oh, 10:10--oh, we have plenty of time!" I looked at her and said, "I'm late." (This was during high school, in ninth or tenth grade, and I had applied bio/chem around 10 AM).

To this day I can't make note of the time 10:10 (morning or evenigng) without laughing.

I was checking my pencil case for my signature guide, sure that I must have put it with my pens (where it should be). First check, nothing. Second check, nada. Third, and final check, zilch...

Sometime later, found it in my walker bag (where it used to be). Seems I forgot to move the guide with the other stuff ! [For those who don't know, the "guide" is a piece of plastic (oops, I meant two pieces--that's what I get for writing early in the morning) with space in the center that helps me tell where I should write my signature--I mostly only use it anymore for the rent check or the occasional official document. (Like the paperwork I had to fill out in order to renew my non-driver's license ID.) Without it I have a tendency to "go uphill" or sometimes down--a problem if there is writing there or, the other thing that happens, if I don't use the guide, I get so self-conscious that I write my letters on top of each other ]

Writing Jubeliah-Orphella Quincefilmartin (JOQ) would take a guide for anyone's penmanship. Have you considered shortening it to Dinky Snickledoodle?

**That's the hardest I laughed all week*

I recently updated my checkbook, and I had to subtract the numbers in my head because my calculator no longer works (no good can come from that). Add to that the fact that it was late andI was tired...and you have a recipe for one funny incident.

I later called Mom to check my figuring.

The equation was: 709.63-161

My answer... 549.63.

After she gently corrected my numbers, I thanked Mom and hung up. For a few seconds I just sat there thinking, "How did she get 8 from--" And that's when it hit me--and I burst out laughing!

I've never been particularly good at mental subtraction--but that took the cake I was even writing steps on the computer (something I haven't done since I was forced to take that math class in college)

You must have been absent on the "Nine Minus..." day in school. I have trouble with the "Eight Times..." because that's when I was out with the Mumps. I picked up some of it from the quiz the teacher gave.