When I first moved to SoWal, almost 14 years ago (1996), my wife and I lived in a micro-small apartment behind our store in Ruskin Place, Seaside and felt extremely safe compared to the city we left. We heard stories of how everyone left their doors unlocked and we were excited to join the club. Back then the local community was much smaller and everyone knew everyone. But even back then, we had two bikes stolen from deep, under a carport. I'm sad to say that from that point on, I have locked all doors. I don't mean to be a downer and I'm not paranoid, and I do think that we live in a very safe place but there's no reason to press your luck.
Not 6 months ago, my wife's purse was casually taken out of her car when it was parked at Bentley's (the old 3Thirty1) off of Chat Holley. She had to run into the building for a second and just didn't think to lock it. Luckily for her, a security camera had just been installed and caught the criminal in the act. Our great sheriff's department had the burglars caught within the hour and the purse and contents returned. We were told that they were living in a house on Chat Holley that a was a junk pile of stolen backpacks, purses and bags.