Prevent Break-Ins in the Home and Garage with This Guide

When do burglaries happen? If you’re like most people, you imagine that they only happen in the dark hours of the night, while cat burglars with evil intent slither their way through your home. You can’t imagine that a burglar might be someone you know or that it could happen in broad daylight. However, the reality is quite a bit different.

Home Alone Movie, two most infamous burglars.

Everyone knows these two bumbling burglars from Home Alone, who didn’t fare so well against trap master Kevin.

Burglary Stats Could Shock You

Get the facts:

According to Aeon Matrix

● Burglaries happen in less than 10 minutes in most cases.

● Burglaries between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. most of the time.

● Burglaries are committed by people who live near your home.

● Burglars often avoid homes with security systems.

● 65% of burglars know their victims.

● Burglaries usually start in the master bedroom.

Maybe you think your garage is safe since no one would want what’s inside. Of course, you have to stop to think about what you have in your garage. Maybe you have some bikes or other sporting equipment. Maybe you have some valuables from your collection that don’t fit in the house. There might be tools or parts for your car. The garage is a veritable treasure trove for thieves. It also has a large door that could provide easy ingress.

Safe at Last has the stats on the ways burglars get inside homes:

● 34% will boldly walk right through the front door.

● 23% make their way inside using a first-floor window.

● 22% head around to the back door.

● 9% squirm their way into the basement.

● 9% use the garage door.

Why Isn’t Your Home Safer?

You purposely moved to a new neighborhood, so you wouldn’t have to worry about burglaries. So, doesn’t that mean you’re safe? No, unfortunately, it doesn’t. You still need to make sure your home and garage are protected.

Even if everything seems peaceful right now, it doesn’t mean that’s the true nature of the area. Thieves can be anywhere. You can’t stop locking your doors and windows or hiding keys around the house for the landscaper or the housekeeper.

If someone watches your home long enough, they can start to notice your bad habits. They will figure out the weak points in your home’s armor.

Keep These Things in Mind…Always

Home Alone most famous picture with young actor Macaulay Culkin

Okay, you don’t have to learn how to set up traps around your home. You aren’t trying to capture thieves. You’re trying to make sure they don’t target your home in the first place. The following will help.

● Lock your doors all the time—it doesn’t matter if you are home or not. Keep them locked.

● Lock your windows and replace window locks that don’t work.

● Don’t hide your spare keys. Thieves will find it, even if you think you have an ingenious hiding spot. If you have to leave your key for someone, leave it with a relative, friend, or neighbor that you trust instead.

● Don’t keep your keys, wallets, and other valuables all in a bowl on the entry table. Don’t label your keys, and don’t leave your garage door opener in sight. If you do these things, you’re making the thieves’job easier.

● Be careful with the patio doors. Even when they’re locked, it’s easy to get inside. The simple way to keep things safer is to take an old curtain rod or sawed-off broom handle and place it in the tracks. This way, even if the lock is forced, the door will still not open.

● Know your neighbors. This doesn’t mean you have to become buddies with everyone on the block, but you will want to know them and be friendly. Neighbors are great because they can provide an extra set of eyes and ears for anything strange happening on your property. You will want to reciprocate, of course.

● If you move into a new place, be sure to change the locks.

● When it’s dark, keep the curtains closed. If you don’t and there is light in your home, it allows potential thieves—and everyone else—to see inside. They can see the people in the home, as well as all of your valuables. Don’t let them see that you could be a target.

● Put curtains on the garage door and the basement, as well. Again, you don’t want people to see inside. If you like the idea of having more natural light in the garage, consider getting some special windows. Sandblasted glass can provide you with the light you need, as well as privacy.

● Put your interior lights on timers. Timers are better than just turning on the lights and the TV and leaving them on all day or for several days. This option will use less electricity, and it makes your property look like someone is home. Have a few timers in the home for lights in different rooms and set them to go on at different times. You can also get timers for the TV, as well.

● Motion-activated exterior lights are a nice option, too. Put them at the front door, back door, and garage door. This will help to keep you safer in those cases where people try to come to your home after dark. It’s also nice to have some lights that come on automatically when you arrive home. You won’t have to worry about tripping over anything.

● Check your landscaping. Do you have areas where the bushes are overgrown and where someone might be able to hide? Look at the area with a fresh set of eyes and consider what areas you might want to change up. One good option is to put some rose bushes or other thorny bushes under the windows. Thieves are less likely to enter the home through those routes if there’s a chance of getting injured.

● Check the inside and outside of your home looking for weaknesses. Pretend that you are casing your own house. What areas would be the easiest to access? Find the flaws and then fix them. For example, you might not think that the window on the second floor with the broken latch is a big deal. What if you have a ladder alongside your garage, though? Think about all of the potential issues and handle them as soon as possible.

● In a perfect world, there wouldn’t be thieves. We don’t live in a perfect world, though. This means you need to be careful about where you have your expensive items. You don’t want thieves to see them because they will start drooling like a dog that smells steak. They’ll find a way to get it. Keep them out of sight.

● Stop putting everything on social media. Sure, Twitter and Facebook are great for connecting with friends, family, and others. However, when you start posting about all of the places you are going and things you are doing, people will know when you aren’t in your home. Remember, a lot of thieves are people that you know, which can be hard to reconcile for a lot of people. Keep your social media posts under control, and only post about things you’re doing and places you’re going after you’re back.

Is your home safe? You can learn more in this Safeatlast blog article.

Break-Ins in Your Garage: Keys to Preventing Them from Happening

Is It a Good Idea to Shorten Your Garage Door Release Mechanism?

In this ColoradoRMN video, it’s suggested that you shorten the garage door release. They even explain how to do it. Is this necessary?

Someone is showing the rope of an electric garage door opener in a garage.

When a rope is too long, it can be hooked through the two door sections. Thieves can hook it, grab it, and then pull it to open your door from the outside. Photo credit: Image from the video

This is how the doors are designed. It’s not a flaw, but a feature. It’s in place for safety.

It works as an emergency release. For example, if the power goes out, you can use the rope to open the door and get out.

In our opinion, it’s not a good idea to add a tie wrap. You could opt to shorten the rope somewhat. Even better, you could add a garage trolley shield.

Automatic Garage Door Locks Work Wonders

Opening a garage door using brute force is possible with a pry bar and some time. Some might suggest that you use sliding bolts inside to lock the garage door from both sides near the floor. This might be going overboard, and it could be dangerous. It’s also a homemade solution that doesn’t always work and that could damage your door. Fortunately, there’s a better option.

LiftMaster Automatic Garage Door Lock Picture

A quality garage door has the potential to last for a quarter of a century. If you drill holes in it, the door could be compromised, and your warranty could be voided.

A better choice is this option from LiftMaster. It is an automatic garage door lock. When you close the door, it will lock automatically.

Benefits of This Option from LiftMaster:

  1. The deadbolt will help to ensure that the garage door has added protection, providing you with more security.
  2. You will hear the sound of the lock engaging. This lets you know that it’s worked correctly.
  3. It works along with the opener. You never have to think about this lock because it will lock and unlock in tandem with the garage door opener.
  4. Smartphone monitoring through the MyQ app ensures that you will always know that your door is secure, and you can control it from anywhere.

A woman checking if her garage door is lock on her smarphone by using the free MyQ app.

No worries. The Automatic Garage Door Lock and MyQ app put you in full control of your security.

Smart Garage Door Openers Are Ideal

There’s a substantial amount of wonderful technology that can help make you safer that you can use in addition to the automatic lock. LiftMaster offers a high-quality smart garage door opener system that has a host of fantastic features. Let’s get a closer look.

Benefits of the Smart LiftMaster 87504-267 Opener

  1. You can customize your alerts quickly and easily.
  2. Check to see whether the door is opened or closed. You will never again be sitting at work wondering whether you remembered the door.
  3. Use your phone to open and close the door regardless of where you are.
  4. Provide access to users you want. This might include your housekeeper, kids coming home from school, etc. This way, you don’t have to share keys.
  5. Whenever someone enters the garage, you will get a notification on your phone.
  6. You can also get in-garage deliveries when you place an order online in many cases.
  7. Always see what’s happening in the garage… in real-time.
  8. The two-way communication allows you to speak with the people in your garage.
  9. It’s also possible to check past activity in the garage using a 7 or 30-day video storage option.

What Can You Expect?

The homeowner gets a notification “Garage door 1 opened just now” on her smart phone and sees her children and the babysitter, live on camera, as they enter the garage.

The system has a built-in camera, so you can always see what’s going on in the garage as it’s happening.

● Live-streaming 1080p HD video

● 360-degree manual rotation

● Motion detection

● Night vision

The homeowner gets a notification on his smart phone and sees the neighbor as she enters his garage. “Hi, Rachel!” he says, “the ladder is hung on the left wall”.

Talk to people and listen using the 2-way audio.

● Live 2-way communication (speaker and microphone)

● Enable/disable the microphone

The homeowner gets a notification on his smart phone “Alert Occurred – The garage door remains open  and sees that the neighbor who walks the dog as the last to come out from the garage door.

Always know what’s happening no matter where you might be. The smartphone control and WiFi make it possible.

● MyQ-connected.

● Open/close from anywhere

● Customize alerts, share access

● Wi-Fi and integrated Bluetooth

A mom and her daughter are going to the house from the garage. We can see that the garage door has secure door lock.

You’ll appreciate the safety features.

Battery Backup – What if the power goes out? It doesn’t matter since there’s a battery backup that lets you open and close the garage even with no power.

Electronically Protects – Never worry about forced openings thanks to the protection it can provide.

Secure Code – A secure code is sent with each click, so you don’t have to worry about people getting access to a code.

Safety Sensors – These sensors will stop the door from shutting when it encounters an obstruction.

Motion-detection lighting – When you or anyone steps into the garage, the lights will turn on.

The LiftMaster 87504-267 door opener, the Next Gen model that replace the former LiftMaster 8550, has a lot to offer, as you can see. There are a lot of advantages. You’ll find that in-garage deliveries are going to start becoming the norm since there are so many porch pirates. It’s better to be prepared for this eventuality.

Here are some tips that will help to ensure your garage door isn’t the weak point in your garage’s security.

● Always lock your car, even if you are just inside or it’s in the garage.

● Don’t leave the remote control in sight in your vehicle. It’s better to have it inside with you.

● You can reprogram LiftMaster accessories to ensure other remotes aren’t able to open the garage door.

It Might Be Time to Talk to a Garage Door Professional

Call us at 1-800-886-9409.

We can help with the maintenance, repair, or installation of garage doors and openers. We know and understand these items because we’ve been in the field for many years.

Do you need a new garage door opener or a new garage door?

The professionals from Doormasters, are ready to lend a hand. Just answer some quick questions and we can figure out some options that will work for you and your budget. We can help you find styles that will work great for your garage.

Have you already discovered the ideal door opener or the garage door?

Talk to us about getting a quotation by email.

Maybe you need to have a bit of inspiration.

Check out the residential photo gallery. If you want to have some more control, spend some time with our Design Centre. It’s a great way to get the perfect garage door for your home.

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