Scare at Home

[maasat]

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.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[Jet Doc]

Thank the good Lord you were both safe AND prepared!!

[Hopyard]

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.)

[sgb]

Well done

[Rmac58]

Wouldn't surprise me someone was "casing" garage door openers in the area.
Good for you on changing the frequency.
As mentioned, maybe even a switched power supply for the opener.

[Paco]

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.

[nlax2011]

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.

[silo]

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.

[RockStrongo]

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... :-)

[oneshot]

Wouldn't surprise me someone was "casing" garage door openers in the area.
Good for you on changing the frequency.
As mentioned, maybe even a switched power supply for the opener.

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.

[dukalmighty]

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... :-)

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

[retsupt99]

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

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.

[Tom G]

I wonder if your garage door opener might be the same as one of your neighbors. If so can you change it to another code or channel? I put a pin in mine and it locks it manually when I'm not home for an extended period of time.

[Guardian]

I wonder if your garage door opener might be the same as one of your neighbors. If so can you change it to another code or channel? I put a pin in mine and it locks it manually when I'm not home for an extended period of time.

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.

[peckman28]

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.