May 20, 2016

Homeowners Be Aware: Burglars Target Cheap Garage Doors

Don’t Skimp on the Garage Door If You Want to Protect Your Home

Powerful reasons you should never be cheap on your garage door security

Homeowners follow patterns, and one of the most common is looking for a way to save money or cut costs. This is not a silly thing to do, but it can result in unintended and harmful outcomes. Why? Because it can leave your home vulnerable to crime. In this article, we are going to look at three issues: garage doors, garage door openers and the criminals who target them.

After all, homeowners don’t view a garage as a living space, and most would rather spend money on the family room or that new kitchen than upgrade the door or opener. And yet, criminals know this and take advantage of it.

Crime follows a pattern, just like so many other things in the world. And though crime is frustrating, knowing it follows certain patterns means you have a chance to thwart it! Home burglary, for instance, occurs in common ways. One crime expert writes that a burglar tends to look for an “easy hit; a hose that they can break into quickly, take something of value, and leave without being detected.”

Now, that is not what most of us envision when we think of burglars. Even more surprising is that they also follow typical patterns in their choices of targets. They hit homes with only two inhabitants and they choose ground floor rooms, usually making their move during daylight hours. Why? Daylight hours are when both people will be at work, and the ground floor because it is so easy to enter. However, they are even more likely to hit a home where it is obvious that a cheap garage door or garage door opener is at work.

Overcoming burglary trends and patterns

A burglar wants to get in and out quickly, and with the least effort or risk. They spend no more than a few minutes gathering your belongings and escaping. As indicated, they’d prefer to enter on the ground floor. They also like to enter in a place that is out of sight, such as a covered porch or rear window. However, they also can get in quickly, easily, and without attracting much attention through the garage. The garage door is actually the second most common entry used (after a vulnerable back door with cheap locks).

Does it surprise you to learn that your garage door is as appealing to burglars as concealed and private back doors? There are two reasons why this is so…

Open a garage door with a wire coat hanger: easy to do

The first is that cheap garage doors are easily manipulated with one of the most “low tech” gadgets imaginable. Do you know what that might be? An old‑fashioned wire coat hanger. In a matter of seconds, a burglar can open your cheap garage door by simply sliding the wire through the top panel, snagging and springing the emergency release cord, and then manually opening the door. Though this feature is meant to allow you to get in and out of the garage if the power is out, it can also compromise home safety when a cheap garage door has cheap safety systems.

This is actually the subject of many online videos, demonstrating the ease with which the door can be opened. In just a few seconds, the emergency release is hit and the door is now easy to open, and a thief may even be able to drive their vehicle into the garage to load and depart as if they belonged there!

How to protect yourself? Two ways: place a Ty -Rap Cable Tie to prevent the slide to activate the emergency trigger for the opener, or, you can install the Garage Defender Shield which prevents triggering the system and allows you to operate the emergency cord at all times.

Cheap remote openers can be hacked

The other vulnerability that your cheap garage door system has is the remote opener. Whether it is a stand alone system or one with a keypad, if it does not use something known as a “rolling code”, it can be hacked and compromised.

One researcher proved that he could use an out of date toy called the IM-ME, which was an early text messaging toy that is still readily available, to capture a cheap remote opener’s code. The way it works is frighteningly simple. The toy can be prompted to make its way quickly through all of the possible “codes” used by your cheap remote opener. The antenna attached to the device sends the codes to the opener, and when it hits the right combination, it opens the door.

The researcher discovered that he could send out all of the codes needed over the four different frequencies available, and in less than 60 seconds time he was into the garages that had fixed codes instead of rolling codes.

The rolling codes are impervious to such hacking because the moment the wrong series of numbers is received, it switches the code to a new one and continues this until the right signal is sent (something only the rolling code remote can do in sync with the opener). Fixed codes are used by many contemporary systems (and not just the cheapest garage door openers) and need to be changed out if your home is to be safe.

Take steps to secure the garage with a premium garage door system

Saving a few dollars, or even a few hundred, is not wise if it leaves your home so vulnerable to burglary and other crimes. If you are in the market for a new garage door or garage door system, don’t go cheap! In just a matter of minutes a burglar could use two different ways to get inside. Choose a quality door with good seals and a rolling code opener for your best results.

Get a free quote today, or design your perfect garage door! You can also call us at 1-978-342-3344.

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