When securing your house against robbers, doors and windows may be your first priority. However, don’t forget to secure another possible entry point in your home: the garage door.
We secure our doors and windows every night. We even buy state-of-the-art security systems to protect our houses against home invaders and thieves, but are we overlooking another major entryway in our house? If your garage is attached to your house or contains a lot of valuable items, you should take extra steps to keep burglars out:
Repair existing issues
Although the crime rate in some areas is pretty low, don’t make your garage door a shining beacon for possible trespassers. If your garage door needs immediate attention, hire professionals who specialize in garage door repair in Salt Lake City
and other places as soon as possible. Garage doors with minor issues such as broken springs or misaligned tracks can be more easily broken into by thieves.
Get an automatic timer
If you continuously forget to close your garage door, especially if you work in it often, buy a timer that will automatically close the garage door after a certain period of time. This way, every time you forget to close your garage door manually, it will still close and prevent unwelcome visitors from lurking around your garage.
Don’t keep the garage door opener in the car
As much as possible, bring the garage door opener
in the house with you. Attach it to your keychain, keep it in your bag, or lock it inside your glovebox; whatever you do, don’t leave it in the car where thieves can see. Otherwise, thieves may steal the garage door opener and access your house using it.
Install an alarm or motion-detecting lights
An alarm is an excellent deterrent against thieves who try to open your garage door, while motion-detecting lights can send them running even before they attempt to go near your garage. If you want to go the extra mile, you can also install a hidden camera that will notify you via phone if they detect motion near your garage.
Keep a radio on
A house that shows no activity
is oh so attractive in a burglar’s eyes. It is thus all the more important to make it seem that there’s still someone at home or someone awake in your house, even if there isn’t. The simplest way to fake indoor activity is to keep a radio on in your garage at low volume. You can also buy special lights that mimic the illumination of a TV screen to make it seem that someone is still in the garage. When a potential robber sees or hears this activity, they will be more likely to move on.
Zip tie your emergency release
The emergency release feature of automatic garage doors is useful in case of an emergency. However, it also makes it easier for thieves to break into the garage by activating the release from the outside. To prevent this, use a zip tie and secure the release so that it can no longer be triggered.
Even in the safest neighborhoods, there’s no such thing as being ‘too safe.’ Aside from securing the doors and windows inside the house, use these tips to make sure your garage door is burglar-proof as well.
