Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

There is yet another scare article filled with pointless information that honestly does little to help you with the security of your garage in this day and age:

Not all thieves are stupid! Informational…: Some warnings for us. Thieves can be methodical and masterminds...after all it's their 'bread and butter'. 1. LONG - TERM PARKING Some... (uglyhedgehog.com)

In practical terms, here is what you need to do to secure your garage. Go and look at your garage door opener, the machine hanging from the overhead structure. There you will find a rope hanging from the base of the device. You need to remove this "safety' release from your opener. With this poorly designed "safety" device anyone with a long flat metal device similar to what use to be called a "slim Jim" car door opener can open your garage door without code, or even electricity. The removal of this rope hanging from your device in no way interferes with the operation of the garage door opener.

Now for an additional "safety" device that exists on any and all garage doors, as you face the garage door from the inside look to the right hand side of the door, there you will find a steel slide that will match the opening of a slot in the doors guide steel runner. If you slide this steel slide into the slotted opening the garage door cannot open no matter what the statis of the garage door opener. The door will not move. If you care to, a pad lock can be substated for the opening slot so that the door cannot be opened until the lock is removed.

Because there are those who like to troll, let me state that the hanging rope that you remove ONLY removes a connivance, it does not eliminate the doors releasing feature. So, you will then need to use a step stool to reach the release device for the garage door, you have NOT defeated this feature, you have only created the need to have a connivance for you and anyone wanting to open the door (like unwanted individuals).

If you need to verify all of this, do not waste your time with the police nor the fire department, nor an EMS unit, they are unaware of this situation. The people to call is your garage door installer and garage door repair. These people are fully aware of this and in fact they will make and have on their service vehicles their version of door by pass devices. They use these to open your door to service the door when called. These are to go to people who know all about this option.

So now you know how to secure your garage door. At night as you secure your doors it is worth a trip to the garage to 'lock' your garage door against intruders. If you're going to be gone for any length of time, then you should secure the garage door with a pad lock.

Bill_de Loc: US

Did you get lost? Your post is not about photography!

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Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

Sure did, never know how these sites work.

luvmypets Loc: Born & raised Texan living in Fayetteville NC

If someone breaks into your garage window they can slide back that bolt you mentioned and open the door then use your step ladder to get to the release even though you have removed the release cord. My garage door does not have a slide to lock it with so if I'm going on vacation I insert a padlock on each side to make it harder for them. If they are intelligent and have brought tools then my locks will only slow them down for a couple of minutes while they get out their bolt cutters.

Dodie

JimBart Loc: Western Michigan

You forget to mention your garage door opener… never leave it in a vehicle parked in your driveway-smash and grab n into the house we go. Same with the preprogrammed openers in the fancy cars… reach in, open the door and away we go

Ollieboy

Try this. Turn the circuit breaker off to the garage if you are going on vacation. (This only works if you have an electric door opener)

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

When I had my garage door installed I got an insulated door and it has no windows. And instead of windows on can get a garage door that is made of plastic/translucent type. Just saying that one should choose with thought what type of door you need. Of course you could replace that close window with Lexan and they do not break easily.

Harry0 Loc: Gardena, Cal

Do not forget to always lock your garage to house door.
Once most thieves enter the garage- the purpose was to enter the house. They're in!
A lot of police reports mention that that's how the bad guys entered the house.

luvmypets Loc: Born & raised Texan living in Fayetteville NC

Thank you for the advice but I was referring to the windows of the garage not the ones on the garage door. The ones on the garage door are too small for a person to crawl through so they would have to enter from the windows built into the garage.

Dodie

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

Yes, this is a truth. What that 'police reports' never tell people is how to secure that garage in the first place. That was covered in my initial post and some additional observations others added. he important issue is that as you consider the many issues that you as a home owner or renter can resolve to secure your living space.

So, lets keep adding to this.

Of you have wood framed windows (sash style windows) there is a rather simple technique. At a place like Home Depot or Lowel's you can get a type of nail called a framing nail. This is usually the size of a 16D nail, but it has two heads on the nail. This allows a concrete frame to be assembled and leaves a short protruding head sticking out. Raise the window slightly and drill a hole in the wood through to both wooden frames. This will alowe you to open the window for ventilation but keeps the widow secured with the nail. Of course you need to drill an additional hole to place the nail in for the window while closed. This will secure the window better than just the top locking sash clip. You can even place a nail on either side of the window. In addition you can tie a string to the nail to keep it located to the window.

Sliding glass doors. These are notorious for poor security. The amateur 'joke security' is to place a dowl to prevent the door from opening. The easy way in is to simply lift the door straight up a few inches and take the door out of the opening. There is an add on device that screws into the two doors that will 'lock' the door in place so that lifting the door vertically and so create an opening is defeated. The real question is why do theses doors not come with this feature built in?

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

Sorry Dodie, I was not understanding what you were saying.

But why break a window in a garage to get into the main building? That still leaves you to break into a door?

But to respond, you can cover the window with a sheet of Lexan to prevent this sort of break in. I was renting a house with a back door that hade a large window in the back door (3x3 foot) so I replaced that window with a sheet of Lexan and it became secure.

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

In vary old buildings (mine goes back to 1907), you may find that hinges were placed such that the pins could be knocked out and so remove the door. Great if you accidently lock the key in the building! You can also replace the hinges with sealed end hinges that have pins not designed to be knocked out. A cutting tool can remove these hinges. To secure any hinge on a door regardless, by placing several doles on the hinged side such that they match both door jam and door, and the door cannot be opened until the lock has been defeated.

ClinchfieldPaul Loc: Salisbury NC

We use the slide bolt when on vacation but now have installed a motion sensor for our home alarm system in the garage. Hopefully that will alert the police to come check it out

luvmypets Loc: Born & raised Texan living in Fayetteville NC

No problem, Timmers; I wasn't as explicit as I should have been.

All my windows have special security screws that you need a certain "key" to open so a thief would have to do some major damage and take out an entire window to get into the house or garage. All my doors have double cylinder locks so if they get in they won't be able to just flip the lock and open it.

It will be very difficult to get past all my security measures and then they have to get past me if I'm home.

I have a friend with a door that would probably benefit from your Lexan idea and I will pass that on to her hubby.

Dodie

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

Thank you Dodie, my big problem has been the local petty thieves, but that has been resolved. They are just so tiresome!

Tim.