Valuables Stolen In The Middle Of The Day? Check Your Garage Door Lock
If you arrive home in the evening to find your valuables stolen, and there's no sign of damage in any of your entrances and windows, check your garage. A number of residents in the United States experience burglaries and theft during the day. In many of these cases, the windows and doors appear untouched or damaged, because the thieves entered the homes through their garages. Even if you lock your garage before you leave for the day, it can still be vulnerable to break-ins if you have a weak or outdated lock. Here's one problem you may face that allows thieves to enter your home through the garage and solutions for it.
The Problem: Easily Manipulated Garage Door Lock
One of the most common ways thieves enter homes is through unlocked garages. But if you lock your garage door every time you leave the house, you may think that you're safe from burglaries. However, you might not be. Many thieves can open locked garage doors with things you may never expect to them to use, such as metal coat hangers.
The thieves use the straight end of the hangers to jimmy your garage door lock until it pops open, comes loose from its locking mechanisms or breaks. Because the damage occurs inside the lock, you may never notice that a thief broke it, especially if you use a garage door opener to enter and leave the garage.
You can protect your garage door from burglaries by having a garage door repair technician replace your old locks with a new system.
The Solutions: Install a New Locking System
Your new locking system may include a faceless lock and special keyhole that thieves can't manipulate easily with coat hangers and other tools, such as bobby pins and fake keys. Some locks feature long, thick cylinders inside them that won't move unless you use the right key. Other products feature secondary locking systems that act as backups if the first lock fails to secure the garage door.
You can also select electronic systems that connect to your garage door opener. The systems may shut down the door if thieves bypass the locks and try to lift it. However, you want to choose a system that doesn't use a fixed code. Thieves can now decode garage door openers with devices they construct out of toys and other electronic applications. A garage door repair specialist can help you select the right locking system for your garage door when you contact them.
For more details about keeping your garage door and home safe from thieves, contact a specialist near you.
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