I grew up in a not so good neighborhood in Houston in the 40’s/50’s. We never locked anything. I can remember my mother searching frantically for the front door key when we went out of town for a 2 week road trip. Some times she never found it.
In the 60’s we lived in the country not far from a prison farm. We always left our keys in the car so if there was an escaped convict they would take the car and not come in the house looking for the key.
Yeah, I am talking late 1970s-1980s here. Not very long ago