Reasons Homeowners Must Consider Garage Door Security
It is a simple fact of life that most homeowners find themselves forced to “cut corners” if they are to reduce costs. These corners can range from simple things like cheaper lightbulbs or cut-rate cleaners. However, in almost every decision of this kind, there could be some “costs” that you may not initially recognize.
The cheap lightbulbs could be energy vampires that cost more to operate and die sooner. The cheaper cleaners could be full of harmful compounds that cause trips to the doctor or vet, or which end up being a waste of money as they don’t clean at all.
These “costs” apply to bigger ticket items too – like your garage door or garage door opener. We don’t “live” in the garage, and so we don’t give it the same attention as we might a living room or even a patio. We are more than willing to go cheap when it comes to some aspects of the garage, and yet there are some unexpected costs associated with cutting these corners.
What Burglars Know
As a prime example, you may look for the least expensive or cheapest garage door available. This, however, is unwise. After all, the garage door is a line of defense for your home. It keeps unwanted visitors out and also protects your home from the weather. Purchasing a low quality and cheaply priced door jeopardizes your home’s safety and its efficiency.
You would never buy an ineffective or inefficient front door because you easily recognize the risks of such a choice, yet many of us go cheap with the garage. We also look to cut costs on garage door openers too, and these are all facts that most modern burglars know, and the statistics prove this to be the case.
If you don’t believe that your garage is a point of vulnerability, just consider some interesting facts. Det. Kevin Coffey, described as the “Scholar of Thievery”, has explained that burglars follow patterns. They tend to seek out an “easy hit” which is a home that can be easily entered and exited, while also yielding some good objects or “loot”.
So, what makes a home an easy hit? It is one in which there is little to no challenge in terms of illegally gaining entry. This tends to mean that burglars want to get inside from a ground floor location. They want to dedicate only one minute, or less, to get inside, and they will then spend less than five minutes grabbing items and quickly exiting.
Burglars do their research and the majority of homes entered are occupied by two people. Burglars also enter during daylight hours, when most homeowners are at work. Their preferred spot to enter a home is a back door that is concealed and out of plain sight, but the garage door is their second most frequently used access.
Why? There are actually a few reasons they’ll opt for this means of entry, and homeowners who chose cheap garage doors or cheap garage door openers will want to pay close attention.
Hacking a Cheap Garage Remote
One reason that burglars will choose the garage door as a point of illegal entry is that they may have already hacked the remote control for the door. One security expert discovered that it is very easy to “hack” a remote through the use of an outdated text messaging device known as an IM-ME.
This is actually a toy that can make its way through all of the possible codes in a very short period of time, “speaking” to a cheap opener until it hits the right combination. In less than a few moments of time, and using this cheap and readily available device, it would be possible for a burglar to open the door as if they were sitting in the car with the remote. They might even drive inside to load their haul and depart without bothering to close the door behind them.
This means that out of date or cheap remote openers that relied on a fixed code or keypad, instead of the more modern rolling codes, can be quickly hacked. Why is a rolling code better? The system instantly changes the two-digit code the moment it receives an incorrect one. The fixed code just remains in place, waiting for the right code, enabling someone to continue entering possible codes until they get the right one.
The security expert who made the discovery even had his own modern condominium garage opened using this simple technology, though the building itself was new. Cutting costs by using a cheap remote opener with a fixed code is going to probably cost you in the long run, enabling a burglar to enter and rob the home in only a few minutes.
Open Sesame… with a coat hanger
Another way that going cheap on a garage door can leave you vulnerable is in the mechanics of the doors themselves. Burglars may seem foolish for choosing to commit crimes, but many are students of the various systems they must break in order to gain access to a home. They can often spot doors that can be quickly and covertly manipulated mechanically.
How would this work? They use a standard wire coat hanger, sliding it between the upper panel and the seal, snagging the emergency release cord, and enabling manual opening of the door. The emergency cords are there in the event of a power outage. Popping it allows you to lift the door manually to open and close it, and thieves can easily look in a window and see if your door is one with such an easy “hack”.
There are even YouTube videos that show people how to do this, explaining to those with cheap seals how simple it is for a burglar to break in at any time.
A High Quality Garage Door System is the Only Security
The only way to work around clever and determined burglars is to eliminate the vulnerabilities. Why boost the chances of a break in just to cut costs on a garage door or garage door opener? If you are in the market for a new opener or a new door, be sure you use one that relies on a rolling code system and which has strong seals that a coat hanger cannot defeat.
Get your free quote today, and begin creating your perfect garage door! You can also call us at 508-563-5633.
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