Going Up or Down?
That’s a fine question if you are getting on an elevator, but when it come to your garage door, it’s not something you want to wonder about as you are pulling away from your house in your car. Everyday I see people back their cars out of their garages, then drive away down the street as their garage doors are closing. What they failed to see was the garage door stopping and opening back up.
All garage doors nowadays have sensors to prevent the doors from closing on children. Most doors have a light beam sensor that emits a light beam from a sensor on one side of the garage door to another sensor located on the other side of the door. When this light beam connection between the sensors is broken or interrupted, the closing garage door will stop and go back up.
A lot of things can cause the sensor to send the garage door back up. A cat running across the beam into the garage, a leaf blown by the wind across the beam, spider webs collecting on the sensor eyes, or even the sensors being slightly out of alignment. I accidentally bumped one of my sensors one day while taking out the garbage and it was enough to make my garage door malfunction. When I tried to shut my garage door, it would go ¾ of the way down then stop and go back up. If I wasn’t watching the door as I left, it would have been open all day long.
If you’re like me, you probably have some nice stuff in your garage that you would like to keep. If my garage door was open all day long with no one home, I’d probably come home finding my garage emptied out. Criminals cruise through neighborhoods looking for open garages with no one around. It only takes a few seconds to grab a tool chest, bicycles, fishing poles, golf clubs, whatever is lying around. A recent rash of open garage thefts in nearby cities resulted in the loss of numerous custom Harley Davidson motorcycles, simply taken right out of open garages.
Not to mention if a thief enters an open garage door and closes it behind them, they will probably find more than enough tools inside to force their way into your HOME. Many people leave the inside garage door leading into the house unlocked so the thief simply walks inside your HOME. If they are lucky enough to find a car in the garage with keys left in the ignition (yes, lots of people still do this) then it makes the thief’s job much easier. They close the garage door behind them, load up the car with all your cool stuff from the garage and house and simply drive away in YOUR car.
All because you didn’t wait to make sure your garage door closed all the way before you drove away. Another way to lose your stuff is to leave your cars unlocked in your driveway with garage door openers inside. It’s like leaving a key out for burglars. We try to keep reminding you that CRIMINALS LOOK FOR THESE KINDS OF THINGS DAILY. That’s their job. They look for people who make mistakes, and then make them a victim. Follow these tips and avoid thefts from your garage:
WAIT and WATCH for the garage door to close fully before you drive away. It only takes a few extra seconds. Cats, blowing leaves, spider webs, and misalignment can cause trigger a sensor to cause the garage door to stop and go back up, even after it’s ¾ of the way down.
Check the alignment of your garage door sensors monthly. A malfunctioning sensor can cause a garage door to open back up while closing or worse yet, not stop closing if a child is in the way of a closing door. Sensors are designed to open the garage door if the beam is interrupted.
Don’t leave a garage door opener in an unlocked car in your driveway. It’s like leaving a key out for burglars.
Don’t leave your garage door open for hours, even if you are home. If you are in and out of the garage, fine. But don’t watch a 2 hour movie or an entire football game inside the house while your garage door is open. You might find your garage a little cleaner when you go back out there.
DON’T leave keys in a car in the garage; you never know when someone else might gain entry into your garage.
ALWAYS lock the door leading into the house. If you have an alarm system, USE IT, even if just going on a short errand.
Power failures and surges, or even criminals trying stolen garage door openers up and down streets can result in opening up people’s garage doors. Don’t make it easy for them by leaving interior doors unlocked, alarms unarmed, or keys in car ignitions.
Check your garage doors at night, make sure they are closed. An open garage door during the night is like Christmas for burglars.
If you leave on a vacation or extended trip, unplug the garage door openers from the outlet. Garage doors also have a sliding latch to secure them closed. If gone for a trip or vacation, you can insure your garage door won’t be opened by securing it with the latch and unplugging it. Nothing can spoil the fun of a vacation more than returning home to an open garage door and a burglarized house.
With garage doors without sensors, or manual garage doors, just make sure they are closed and locked when you leave.
Pet Doors. Remember, a medium or large size burglar can fit through a medium or large size pet door to get into your garage. If pet doors are unlocked while you are gone, always lock the interior house door and USE A HOUSE ALARM SYSTEM.
If you are in too much of a hurry to wait the extra 5 seconds to make sure your garage door closes before you leave, I hope you have the extra 4-5 hours to make a police report and inventory all the stolen property from your garage and home. The choice is yours, take chances or take precautions.
