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We lived in Hungary for 7 years and 11 years in Luxemburg, we did not have ANY problems with crime (honestly I think also due to our big dogs (not for cameras or ...). Our neighbours tended to look out as well (and for them our dogs took care of that). So no problems whatsoever. My family live in Curacao and Netherlands and they have some problems (sadly), I am sure this happens also in Hungary. Where I live (in Turkey) no problems at all.Is it luck or good preparation? - @cdw057

We've been the victims of crime here in Hungary several times.   Car stolen and recovered 7 (yes, 7) years later plus car broken into plus a burglary. 

Now we have metal window and door shutters, security doors, alarm, security cameras, automatic lights, a dog and nosey neighbours with nothing better to do.

And no-one has tried it since then.

Most burglaries happen when people make silly mistakes, leaving windows slightly open etc... then on the other hand it can be purely being unlucky. Crime in my town in Austria is low, not heard of any crimes happening. A few years back a Turkish man killed all his family including the children because the wife threatened to leave him and wanted a divorce. The other one was a man held up the bank and try to get away on a push bike, the police soon picked him up.

But everyone knows everyone in my town, and anyone acting suspiciously is reported in our Facebook group. I once dropped my passport, I had it left in my postbox 📬 with in the hour and a message sent to me.

Out of my family it's only been my sister that has been broken into, 1st time it was a neighbour in her block of flats. (A real shitty area of Birmingham). The 2nd time it was a Romanian gang that had done the whole area used kids.

Back to my area I rarely lock my door, as I have to huge metal door at the front to get through first. I do have some flood lights that turn on in garden and by my bins.

Most burglaries happen when people make silly mistakes, leaving windows slightly open etc... then on the other hand it can be purely being unlucky. Crime in my town in Austria is low, not heard of any crimes happening. A few years back a Turkish man killed all his family including the children because the wife threatened to leave him and wanted a divorce. The other one was a man held up the bank and try to get away on a push bike, the police soon picked him up.
But everyone knows everyone in my town, and anyone acting suspiciously is reported in our Facebook group. I once dropped my passport, I had it left in my postbox 📬 with in the hour and a message sent to me.

Out of my family it's only been my sister that has been broken into, 1st time it was a neighbour in her block of flats. (A real shitty area of Birmingham). The 2nd time it was a Romanian gang that had done the whole area used kids.

Back to my area I rarely lock my door, as I have to huge metal door at the front to get through first. I do have some flood lights that turn on in garden and by my bins. - @SimCityAT

I think all these things are mostly it's a deterrent.  When we got burgled, they were spidermen.  My wife had gone to the kindergarten to collect our daughter.  The perps climbed up to the 1st floor balcony and used a large screwdriver to jemmy the patio door.   They stole our child's pocket money - about 1000 HUF.  One thing they did was put a stepladder in front of the apartment door. When my wife opened the door the stepladder clattered down, giving them warning and extra time to get away.

We think it was some building workers fixing the house behind us.  They had ladders, tools and opportunity.  We told the police but nothing ever came of it.  The damage to the door was quite a lot - like 1000 EUR to fix as they split the wood.  It would have been cheaper if they'd just asked for money by ringing the doorbell.

We had shutters but they were manual.  The cops said no-one gets burgled if they have shutters. 

We have shutters on our house and they are electric and when they are down, they are locked in position.  No way anyone can just push them up.  Obviously we do have ways to get out in the event of a fire.  We thought about it.

Interesting thing is they rifled through our sock drawers.  Apparently people keep their jewellery in their sock drawers.   We don't have anything valuable like that so they were sh*t out of luck.  But it's also useful not to keep your valuables in the sock drawers.

People are quite cavalier with their garden tools.  The burglars use whatever they can find to get in.  They don't carry stuff these days.   If all the tools are in the shed, then it's like a menu/selection box for tools to open anything.  We always lock our tools up .  But I see others in the area leaving tools in the garden.  Very dodgy.

Many times a burglary can be a inside job.

I know what I am speaking of.

Have to be careful about letting people know you are on holiday or staying out late.

I can not believe all the people on FB who post holiday photos, telling the whole world they are not home.

Our next door neighbor set up a automatic light that turns on by any movement. First it was a bit much having it announced every time we pasted her door on the way to our flat. Now, since we hardly go out in the dark, it is not big deal and in many ways also protects us without having to set up our own light;

Our friend who has since passed used to live with a guy that now lives here in Hungary. The one still living we know by the grapevine set up his room mate to get robbed.

What?, I know so rude.

.

The deceased guy was a professional photographer and had some nice cameras. The one invited the other out and a 3rd party pulled the heist while they were out.

Heard many of these set up tales over the years.

Many times a burglary can be a inside job.
I know what I am speaking of.
Have to be careful about letting people know you are on holiday or staying out late.
I can not believe all the people on FB who post holiday photos, telling the whole world they are not home.
Our next door neighbor set up a automatic light that turns on by any movement. First it was a bit much having it announced every time we pasted her door on the way to our flat. Now, since we hardly go out in the dark, it is not big deal and in many ways also protects us without having to set up our own light;
Our friend who has since passed used to live with a guy that now lives here in Hungary. The one still living we know by the grapevine set up his room mate to get robbed.
What?, I know so rude.
.
The deceased guy was a professional photographer and had some nice cameras. The one invited the other out and a 3rd party pulled the heist while they were out.
Heard many of these set up tales over the years. - @Marilyn Tassy

That's outrageous.  I hope the perps got their comeuppance and several years in the klink.

We've got multiple security lights as well. Forgot about those.   The lights come on automatically with movement.   

One of our lights, also encroaches on the neighbour's garden.  They actually said they like it as it helps them see where they are going.   Those neighbours are complainers and that's the one thing they aren't miserable about.

They say people will pay for their crimes but when???

Those 2 scammers who ripped off their  so called friend are both living the high life, one in Buda and the other in Rose HIlls while the poor scammed guy is long since dead.

We went to his memorial years ago . His HU wife brought his ashes from Hawaii to be laid to rest in a crypt with his parents.

When we heard he died in Hawaii that friend who set him up and his wife were visiting in HU. They told us about him and all the guy could say was, poor bastard!

WTH??? IDK, that statement really rubbed me wrong. They guy was his room mate and they knew each other since their teen years and he called him a poor bastard? Better to have no friends then friend like that!

We are no contact with those scam guys these days.

One invited us for a 4th of July party in Rose HIlls but we did not respond, said we were busy; Id rather clean my oven then hang with, poor bastards like them! Besides I did not want to be the token American.

I could go on and on, those 2 guys are a bit afraid of my husband as it is. He knows how fake they are now and how he was the one helping them over the years but now they think they are so high and mighty;

I do not think they would enjoy it if my husband talked about the past, how each of them at different times slept on the floor at my husbands place because they were broke, he set them up with jobs and paid for their meals etc; They came into a few bucks by hook and crook and now act like princess; disgusting! My husband and I are too down to earth for them, dishonest people are afraid of those who call it like it is. What if their wives should hear something that slips out of our mouths about their past??

Thanks giving was last week; I had permission from my widowed mother to bring one of those dudes and his wife to her home to share that holiday with my family.

Showed them a real American family holiday. Makes me sick to think how hard we tried to be friends with them but probably behind our back we are also , poor bastards to them.

In fact the time we visited HU for 6 weeks in 1986, we had just bought a house in Ca. My neighbors were great, kept an eye on our home but we were not taking any chances due to thinking of that guy ripping off his room mate years beforehand. I got a marking gun from the police station and marked many items in our home with it, told the police to cruise by our house.Moved many large items into my mothers garage for safe keeping; just because that couple knew we were going on holiday. Who needs friend like that?

We lived in Hungary for 7 years and 11 years in Luxemburg, we did not have ANY problems with crime (honestly I think also due to our big dogs (not for cameras or ...). Our neighbours tended to look out as well (and for them our dogs took care of that). So no problems whatsoever.
My family live in Curacao and Netherlands and they have some problems (sadly), I am sure this happens also in Hungary. Where I live (in Turkey) no problems at all.

Is it luck or good preparation? - @cdw057

If you live in an apartment in a student area in  Budapest you should lock your front door even if you are in. Sounds paranoid but at night and daytime people can get in and do try the door.

Like anywhere in the world opportunistic and petty thefts do take place.

We lived in Hungary for 7 years and 11 years in Luxemburg, we did not have ANY problems with crime (honestly I think also due to our big dogs (not for cameras or ...). Our neighbours tended to look out as well (and for them our dogs took care of that). So no problems whatsoever.
My family live in Curacao and Netherlands and they have some problems (sadly), I am sure this happens also in Hungary. Where I live (in Turkey) no problems at all.

Is it luck or good preparation? - @cdw057
If you live in an apartment in a student area in Budapest you should lock your front door even if you are in. Sounds paranoid but at night and daytime people can get in and do try the door.
Like anywhere in the world opportunistic and petty thefts do take place. - @anns

I don't think "student" areas have anything to with it. But yes, lock the door day and night when you're in a city, a large town or in a rough area.

I've lived all over the UK, we did lock the door a night in all our properties but most of the time we didn't lock the door during the day. A few houses our front door was always locked as we only used our back door and that was left open.

We lived in Hungary for 7 years and 11 years in Luxemburg, we did not have ANY problems with crime (honestly I think also due to our big dogs (not for cameras or ...). Our neighbours tended to look out as well (and for them our dogs took care of that). So no problems whatsoever.
My family live in Curacao and Netherlands and they have some problems (sadly), I am sure this happens also in Hungary. Where I live (in Turkey) no problems at all.

Is it luck or good preparation? - @cdw057
If you live in an apartment in a student area in Budapest you should lock your front door even if you are in. Sounds paranoid but at night and daytime people can get in and do try the door.
Like anywhere in the world opportunistic and petty thefts do take place. - @anns

It's good practice to lock your doors.  That includes the car doors.  That's anywhere at all.  Our cars lock the doors automatically. 

My BIL lives in a block of flats in a student area and he's got an extra security grille over his front door.  So any scallywags have to get through that before tackling his security door.   Any intruder would need substantial tools and to be very determined to get in.  It wouldn't defeat anyone ultimately but it'd slow them down considerably and that's the main thing.   Someone would be coming past and the assailants would be discovered.

We always lock our door, even if we are just taking out the trash.

Use an alarm at times too.

Our next door neighbor has a bright security light that comes on with any sort of movement.

I disliked it at first but now I think it is good to have.

Does not matter where you live or what sort of people are around, best to play it safe.

Growing up my mom often left the front door open when she jumped to the store so that we would not be locked out after school;

later she always left the back door open, we had a dog but even so anyone could just get into the back yard and walk in.

Never happened because neighbors used to watch out for each other.

Now days it is more likely it is a neighbor who breaks in!