Originally Posted by marilynk

Just a note--it's a matter of safety that you ANSWER the door. You don't have to open the door, you certainly don't have to let them in! But, thieves will knock on a door/ring the doorbell in an attempt to determine if no one is home. If their knock/ring is not answered they then assume that no one is home and will proceed with their plans of breaking into the house.

I encourage everyone to answer the door--and by that I mean: looking out the peephole/window, asking who it is, etc.

I'll never forget a 911 call a co-worker took. A elderly lady called because someone was knocking on her door late in the evening. She told the dispatcher that she didn't know them, so she didn't answer the door. The dispatcher asked her to look out the window/peephole so she could give a description. The lady refused because "then they'll know I'm home..." So, while she's talking to the dispatcher glass was heard breaking. The male had gone around to the back of the house and broke a window to get in the house. Luckily we already had officers en route, and they were very close to the address and caught the guy before he actually got in the house. The intruder told the officers that he didn't think anyone was home...