Is Your Garage Door Secure from a Simple Coat Hanger?

Secure Your Door by All Four Seasons Garage Door Service Roswell GA

Thieves are always looking for their next target, and they will pick out the ones that look convenient and easy to access quickly. They have found an easy way to gain access to items in garages, right through garage doors. And, they can do it in seconds.

How Entry is Easily Gained

Burglars are gaining entrance to Roswell GA garages and at times homes by using a simple coat hanger. Not only can they use a common coat hanger, but they can gain entrance within seconds with it. Here’s the feature that makes it possible. Your garage door has a safety release feature. It’s that cord you see hanging from the middle near the ceiling. You pull the cord and it releases the door so that you can manually open it. It a good feature to have, when you need it.

Thieves use a wire coat hanger and bend it into a straight piece with a hook on the end. Then, they can slide the hanger above the door and pull the safety release. If you have a window this is made even easier as they can see what they are doing, but a window isn’t necessary as judging the center of the door can be easily done. Since most thieves have tried this method before it only takes seconds to gain entrance.

Since garage doors can be easily opened once the safety release has been pulled the thieves can be in your garage before they are spotted. Once in they can pick from your things and take what they want. And, if your garage is attached they can most likely gain entry into your home. Many don’t always lock the connecting door from the garage to the house. If you do, many times the doors are not as secure as your front door. Burglars can even use your own tools in the garage to help them gain entrance into your own home.

How to Prevent Easy Entrance

Making sure that thieves can’t easily access your garage or home isn’t difficult. You can quickly make sure that they can’t successfully use a hanger to gain entry through your garage door. The ways to prevent this are simple and take only minutes to do.

Disable the emergency release. This will prevent an unwanted intruder from using the hanger method to get in. Unfortunately, it means that you won’t be able to use the emergency release if you ever need it.

Remove the cord. Without the cord there will be nothing for them to grab onto with the hanger. You can still then use the lever if you ever needed to.

 You can make the cord too difficult to pull with a coat hanger. You can use a thin plastic tie or other similar item to secure the emergency release lever to the garage door frame above it. The lever will have holes in it for the cord and the frame should, but if it doesn’t you can drill one into it. Then, use a cable tie to secure the lever to the frame. If an emergency does occur, you can still pull the cord hard enough to break the plastic tie, but a hanger will no longer be able to do it.

Now you know how to secure your garage door to help prevent easy access. Other things to consider are outside security lights, ensuring landscaping doesn’t provide cover to hide activity, and locking all doors and windows. Taking action now can help maintain your home’s security.

We’re here because we want all Roswell GA garage doors to work as well as possible. You’ve invested a lot in you home, pay some attention to the garage now! Call us at (770) 517-7078 or click in us: All Four Seasons Garage Door Service Roswell GA