Here's What You Need To Know About Garage Door Remote Theft & How To Keep Your Home Secure
In Reno and many other areas, thieves are using garage door openers to gain entrance to homes. If you have a garage, here is what you should know and a few important safety tips that can help prevent you from becoming a victim of theft.
How thieves are stealing garage door openers
Thieves can gain access to all the contents of your home if they can get ahold of your garage door opener. If you park your car in your driveway but you do not lock the doors, you place yourself and your family at risk of having an intruder take the remote. Since the car is parked in your driveway, they assume that you live there. They may enter your house when you are home but more likely, they will take the remote and gain entry at a later time when you are not there.
But your car could be parked anywhere and the thieves can still gain access to your home if they can get inside your car. All they need to do is to open your glove compartment and take a look at your registration or insurance paperwork to find your home address. With the remote in their hands and your home address written down or photographed by their camera or phone, they know which house to hit and steal from.
How to keep your garage door opener and home secure
It's important to always lock your car doors, even if your car is parked in your driveway. However, since thieves can break into cars, it's a good idea to keep the garage door opener with you or hide it in an inconspicuous place inside the car. Invest in a small remote that is designed to fit on your key ring so you can safely keep the remote with you.
Also, keep your glove compartment locked and make sure all paperwork that has your home address is kept in it. That way, even if a thief does locate your garage door opener, he or she will not be able to find out where you live and you will still be keeping your registration and insurance information in your car as required by law in most states.
It's also a good idea to keep the door between your garage and home locked at all times as a last measure of protection in case a thief does steal your garage door opener and figure out where your house is.
What to do if you realize your garage door opener is missing
Always check to be sure you have your garage door opener. If you realize that your garage door opener is missing, you should report it to the police. Immediately switch your garage door opener to vacation mode or lock if either of those features are available. If not, see if your garage door opener is on a separate breaker. If so, flip the breaker switch to off. Another thing you can do is simply unplug the garage door opener until you can purchase and program a new remote.
If you have an older opening system, call a garage door repair service and purchase a new remote through them. The universal remotes that can be purchased at home improvement stores may not work with old opening systems. Regardless, it is a good idea to have your garage door repair service program the new remote so you know it is programmed correctly. While the repair service is at your home, have them inspect the various parts of the entire system to make sure it is fully capable of securing your home. Contact a company like DSI Door Services North Shore for more information.
