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Scare at Home

4K views 40 replies 34 participants last post by  celticredneck 
#1 ·
I went to bed at 0030 last Friday night. At about 0200 I heard my garage door open. My first thought was someone broke into my car and used the garage door opener to get into the house. I jumped up grabbed my G23 from the safe, checked my son's room on the way to the inner garage door (in case he was trying to sneak out-12 yr old), and stopped. I figured if anyone was in the garage they would come through the only door to the house from the garage. I backed up about 20 ft from the door and kept the G23 pointed at the door. I stayed there for about a minute and then decided to check the garage (I'm not a handyman type so I don't have anything in the garage worth stealing, in fact, I wish someone would take some of the junk in there). I cleared both sides of the doorway and walked in to the garage. I cleared the car, the garage, my car, and the perimeter of the house. Minus a few cars driving by watching me walk around my house in shorts and in the cold weather, all was good. This was the first time anything happened to me like that here so I was pretty happy with the way I reacted. My wife always gives me crap about CCW and having a gun in the house but after last week she was happy. Never did find out what it was that opened up the door but I changed the freq and all seems well. She said the garage door did that a few times while I was deployed last year. Who knows.
 
#3 ·
Take a look at how you might turn the power to the opener off to the garage door opener when closing up the house for the night. It might be something really simple like throwing a single breaker that covers your garage.

Or, you might need to buy a switch that goes between the plug from the opener and the socket, and which can be turned on and off remotely.

I am not so sure I would have gone into the garage. Kids were safe in the house. Wife was safe in the house.

Just hunker down in a strategic location in case someone comes through the door. Give it at least a few minutes to see if you hear noises or other evidence of intrusion.

If you can see clearly outside your front door and all appears well, and you must go check the garage, maybe go out that door which looks clear and lock it as you exit. Then walk to your garage. That way if there is a fight it won't be immediately within the house and your wife and kids are still behind locked doors, hopefully both talking to 911 and armed.

(This is a do as I say recommendation as my wife won't even look at our guns, notwithstanding that she is the one who initially wanted me to have them.)
 
#6 ·
Take a look at how you might turn the power to the opener off to the garage door opener when closing up the house for the night. It might be something really simple like throwing a single breaker that covers your garage.
Now that is a great idea, I have had the same thing happen to my garage door before. Radio Shack or Home Depot should have all you need. I can see a remote hung in the garage right next to the door opener.

Maasat, glad everything turned out OK, and welcome aboard.
 
#10 ·
Take a look at how you might turn the power to the opener off to the garage door opener when closing up the house for the night. It might be something really simple like throwing a single breaker that covers your garage.

Or, you might need to buy a switch that goes between the plug from the opener and the socket, and which can be turned on and off remotely.

I am not so sure I would have gone into the garage. Kids were safe in the house. Wife was safe in the house.

Just hunker down in a strategic location in case someone comes through the door. Give it at least a few minutes to see if you hear noises or other evidence of intrusion.

If you can see clearly outside your front door and all appears well, and you must go check the garage, maybe go out that door which looks clear and lock it as you exit. Then walk to your garage. That way if there is a fight it won't be immediately within the house and your wife and kids are still behind locked doors, hopefully both talking to 911 and armed.

(This is a do as I say recommendation as my wife won't even look at our guns, notwithstanding that she is the one who initially wanted me to have them.)
^^^^^^^YEP^^^^^^^^^

What they said


According to my best recollection, I don't remember.
 
#7 ·
This probably isn't the case if the door is otherwise functioning properly..... but you may just want to do a quick on the wiring to make sure nothing is shorting and/or touching metal and occasionally causing this to happen. I've seen some bad installations where the wiring at the screw terminals on the actual unit were close to touching and no insulation/wire nuts or anything on the connections down on the floor where the sensors usually are.
 
#8 ·
As someone else said, it could be someone casing your neighborhood. They did a special on Dateline or 20/20 years ago about how you could got o Walmart, get a garage door opener, and just drive down subdivisions and you'd get a good 5% of them opening with the default code. I'd suggest reprogramming your garage door opener's code so that it, at the very least, changes the code, and is less likely to happen again.
 
#9 ·
I think better than turning off the opener is to just use the built in manual bar that locks the garage door while you are at home. That way, if someone or something does it again.. you will hear the garage door try to open but stop due to the bar manually blocking it. Just remember to unlock it again before you back through it with the car in the morning... :)
 
#11 ·
BAD IDEA,I just helped a friend put his garage door back on the track and rewind his garage door springs after he had it locked and wifey decided to open it.I told him if he locks it in the future kill the power to it.
As far as the story you probably have a neighbor that has the same frequency and may punch the code prior to getting home and being in range of your door occassionally
 
#12 ·
Reprogram your garage door opener, or better yet, get a new garage door opener. You can now get GDO's that are next to impossible to 'pick' the code, so to speak.
A couple of hundred bucks is something I'd be jumping at to avoid a 'house cleaning' while you're gone. OMOYMV:ticking:

At night, pull the cord to detach the chain, or twist drive...you'll hear the motor turning (sort of an 'attempt alarm'), but the door won't be opening.:smoke23:
 
#16 ·
At night, pull the cord to detach the chain, or twist drive...you'll hear the motor turning (sort of an 'attempt alarm'), but the door won't be opening.:smoke23:
Be careful doing that then there is nothing holding the door shut it would just lift right up. If you are going to pull the cord lock it as well.

I vote for a outlet switched remotely like an x10 outlet then a key fob so you would pull up hit they key fob wait a second and hit the opener button after closing switch the outlet off
 
#14 ·
This was my thought, someone using theirs along the same frequency and it set yours off, it happens. Glad you were prepared and checked the sneaking out child first, good call on that.:smile:
 
#15 ·
Interesting story. Is there any way you could get one of those garage door openers that can be disabled? I have one that has a button you push so that the remote won't open it anymore until you turn it back on. You know it's disabled because the little green light on the control panel inside the garage starts flashing to indicate it's now locked. Just something to think about.
 
#18 ·
I have a similar story. My garage door would open mysteriously as well. The first time it opened in the dark of night was puzzling and scary. I never figured it out, but it may have been from a military plane that flew overhead.

I changed the code but it still opened.

I can't use it anymore anyway since my wife closed it on the hatchback of our car and bent the top panel.
 
#19 ·
Perhaps a neighbor's garage door opener was ont he same frequency and they had to be at just the right place for your opener to pick it up. I had a manual throw bar attached to my garage door when it was installed. It's standard garage door equipment, DIY install, and very inexpensive. Just slide the bar over (it inserts into a slot in the track that is made for it) and the door is going nowhere. Do this at night or before you leave on a trip (and then go out through another door). My garage door openers also have a LOCK mode button on the wall unit. Hold it down three seconds and it disengages the electronic receiver. The light in the button flashes when it is locked. You can still open and close the door from the inside wall unit, but that's it. I have Marantec garage door openers. They are VERY smooth and quiet, belt driven encased spring (for anyone who has ever had car damage from a broken opener spring or chain). I have show cars, so I take no chances on garage door openers chains and springs. I had one break once, but luckily I had no damage to my show car. I've seen numerous cars that have had thousands of dollars damage from this. Check out Marantec online...cool stuff.
 
#21 ·
Good job with the SA and the sense to SLLS before barging into the garage. Glad you didn't have a tango to engage.

I would agree with getting a manual power switch for your opener. Installing would be easy enough, lord knows there is enough info on the net to wire you whole house. Random signals could have triggered your door. I am not a fan of automatic garage doors for that reason.
 
#22 ·
Most door openers today don't just use frequency, they also transmit a code, the better ones change the code every time the remote is used (you have to "sync" each remote to the opener) making randomly opening doors next to impossible.

There is a pressure detection circuit as well as electric eyes to prevent closing the door on a child etc. I would try decreasing the sensitivity of the pressure circuit, it is usually a screw knob on the back side of the motor.
 
#24 ·
When I was on the job many years ago, I was working the graveyard shift and patroling one of our suburban neighborhoods. The dispatcher called me on the radio, and as I responded while driving down the street several garage doors opened. Scared the hell out of several home owners, who were also surprised to see a patrol car respond so quickly to a prowler call:smile:
 
#26 ·
My Aunt sent some of these to my mom a little while back. The receptacle looking piece plugs into the existing receptacle and is switched on and off by the remote. You could put this in the power plug for your garage door opener and it would allow you to disable or enable the opener remotely all throughout your house, instead of a hardwired switch. These are also good for lamps and whatnot that are plugged into receptacles that are hard to get to! Worth a shot anyway. Lemme know what y'all think about that?

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#27 ·
I have mentioned this before here but it amazes me that so many garage door openers are so quiet..if I had one, I would want it to be loud enough to be heard inside the house so that I would be alerted to an intrusion..I would also have it wired to a wall switch for on and off...if you approach and click the opener and it doesnt open, then it's off. Turn off your car, go in and flip the switch, go back to the car and open the door and proceed in..it's not rocket science, just a little inconvient for being safer at night..duh
 
#28 ·
IMHO it is a bad idea to attempt to clear a house, garage, etc., unless you're SWAT and on duty. I think it's a better idea to arm yourself, get your family secured in one room, call 911, and wait for BG(s) to come to you. That way, you spring the ambush and you know where your rounds are going. There's too much margin for error the other way. You don't know how many attackers or where they are.
 
#29 ·
Hey Y'all: I'm sure that many of you are very proficient in your defensive/firearm capabilities and that is great. It sounds from maasat that he is in that category and I'm glad it was a false alarm. Personally, I pay my taxes for a police department and yes, they are not seconds away and probably many minutes away, but they are still, IMO, the safest bet as far as I am concerned. I am not going to expose myself or my wife to something I do not know anything about. In my house it is only my wife and I--no children in other areas of house and no other family members to be worried about. When we go to sleep, I put a rug and a door stopper on my side of bedroom door which I have also locked. Everything on the other side of my bedroom door is "stuff" that can be replaced or is insured. If my garage opened like that, I would call 911, activate the car alarm in the garage, set myself up in my bedroom and listen. I am not going to risk my life against who knows what just for "stuff". If they want in to my bedroom, their actions to overcome the lock and the fairly adequate barricade are now actions that truly endanger my wife and I; I can assure you I will be ready with enough of my "stuff" to make them very sorry and I will have the advantage. Hopefully the police will have come by then or the car alarm spooked them, or they did their smash and grab and left.
 
#31 ·
I had a keyless entry keypad mounted next to my door so the kids could get in without having to carry a remote. After about 15 years it went bad. When it failed it started randomly opening the garage door. I have also seen TV remotes that send random signals to the set when the batteries are dying. Check the batteries in your remotes.
 
#32 ·
Before you start to spend a lot of money on a new opener there is one of two problems that you may have;

1) Someone is casing the place

2) Your opener maybe defective. My opener used to open up and close at random. It started to do it every now and again then it did it all the time during the day time and night time. I had a guy come out and he said that something was going wrong with the "brain" of the opener and fixed it. I haven't had any problems since.
 
#33 ·
Opener going defective



We replaced ours about 3 weeks ago. The first indication something was going wrong was when it opened on its own about two weeks before the final fatal plunge into opener limbo.

Well, it was 21 years old, so no big loss-- it was time for a new one.

The new one has a key-pad outside which activates the opener by radio signal the same as the little remote controls. Those, are in the cars, one of which is outside all the time.

The only way to be sure the door isn't opened by someone playing with the key-pad (chance), or someone having broken into the car to get the remote that resides there, is to use a remotely controlled power plug to shut it down for good at night.

When shopping for these, make sure the remote controlled switch is rated sufficiently high (amps) to work your opener. Some of what is on the market is really just for lamps, and can't handle the power load of a 1/2-3/4 horse motor.
 
#36 ·
My garage door opener has a disabling/enabling switch which I, too, required several years to notice. Doh!

If I leave town, I unplug the motor, cover the cord's plug with duct tape as a reminder to self, and put clamps on the door so it can't easily be raised by thieves.

Another gadget I really like is the remote position indicator. There is a little mercury rocker switch with a transmitter mounted on the upper door panel. A receiver in the kitchen shows a green light if the door is fully closed or a red light if the door is open even a little bit. You can get one of these cheap at places like Lowe's and install it instantly yourself.
 
#37 ·
Hey Once Bitten: Your wow makes it sound like it is a lot of trouble for what I do but it only means locking a bedroom door with the lock that is already on the door handle and placing the mat that is there closer to door and using one of those simple door stoppers. The rest of it is just simply leaving the cell phone and my car keys by my bed instead of in the kitchen and takes no time at all. In 68 years I have never had any encounters of any kind anywhere but, quite frankly, I do not like our country right now and the direction it seems to be lurching to and do not intend to be a sheep to anyone when it comes to my life or that of my wife; "stuff", however, is not worth my life by going out to "investigate" a bump in the night.
 
#38 ·
Do not disengage the chain. That will leave your door easy to open.

Often thieves will break a garage door window and pull that rope themselves to open the door. Why do their work for them.

To prevent access like this, I removed the pull rope, replaced the lynch pins that hold the arm to the door with bolts, put a layer of polycarbonate inside the windows, and privacy screen to obscure ability to see in.

Also I had door alarm sensors installed on the doors and motion sensors in the garage.
 
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