There’s nothing worse than coming home from a long day in work, or after a night on the tiles, to realise you’ve left your key at home, or even worst, lost it en route.
There’s other times when you have a friend staying on the couch, or a boyfriend wanting to come over, that a spare key is more a necessity rather than the ill-advised ringing a doorbell to wake up the roomies.
You only realise this could be a problem when you realise you need to hide this spare key, because keeping the front door open and blowing in the breeze probably isn't a great idea.
So when UK officials reviewed household crimes from 2014, they found more than 6,000 burglaries involved intruders using keys to access the property, as opposed to breaking and entering.
So where were the top five places intruders searched for that spare? Here's the hot spots to avoid planting that spare key..
5. Take a tip from Amelie… and realise the garden gnome is purely aesthetic. (And even then we’re not buying. *Shivers*)
4. Don’t let people walk all over you… because the fourth most likely place a burglar will look for that key is under your doormat.
3. They also won’t leave any stone unturned… as evidenced by the fact a stone, or rock was one of the most common hiding places in the study.
2. Don’t throw away your security by putting that key under a wheelie bin.
1. The root of the crime problem-solving won’t take long if you put that key under a plant pot. Nearly a fifth of all participants made this their number one spot for hiding the spare.
So before your next night out, we suggest meeting the person in advance to hand over the key, and if that fails, a trusty neighbour or a new hiding place might be worth considering…
