How many of you have committed this home security blunder?

F

Futo Inu

New member
Last night I did this for the third time in 2 years - left the garage door open all night. When I went to leave for work in the morning - DOH! All that was between my home and the outside world was that lightweight door between the house & garage. How dumb can I get? Weed eater, lawnmower, and golf clubs all still there, though...
 
My wife is an expert at it. She on at least half a dozen occasions has left the garage door open and the door to the house unlocked as well! Worse when we first moved into the house, but in the last couple of years she has only did it once. Since the last one I make of habit of checking it myself. Since she leaves last for work I am at her mercy in the mornings. I tell I feel sorry for her having CRS and at such a young age.
 
Yup. BTDT. Makes ya feel kinda like an idjit, don't it? I didn't feel quite so bad because we have a regular exterior (steel covered, solid core) door with a deadbolt between the garage and the house. And before we turn in, we do check all the deadbolts (we may forget the big garage door from time to time, but all the REALLY important stuff is inside behind the deadbolts.) So, Futo, I'd recommend upgrading the door between the garage and the house. My sister has one of those flimsy doors like you do and just won't listen to the voice of reason (me) when I talk to her about security...she lives in a "safe" neighborhood, don't ya know.

-sarah
 
I left the Johnny bar out of the sliding glass door to the patio last night. Not really critical, but I also left the door unlocked. That's worse.

Luckily I have two dogs that are very loud when they hear something out of the ordinary at night. They at least would have given me an early alert.

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Beware the man with the S&W .357 Mag.
Chances are he knows how to use it.
 
we left the garage door open all day

One of the joys of suburban living is that nothing was touched.

It is pretty simple to rig up x-10 units to all the doors so the control center shows a red light for open or unjam barred doors

dZ
 
3 times, all in the last year and a half. Once overnight, once while at work during the day, and once during a short trip to the grocery store. No problems, luckily.
 
We've done this as well. However, if you have an electric garage door opener, it could also be triggered otherwise, while you're gone.

Regarding your other entry doors, you can also consider a metal door for more security. We used to have a very weak wooden door to the back side of our garage. It was a natural, fairly hidden place to break in. We had it replaced with a metal door and metal frame, and the metal frame is filled with concrete / mortar. Very solid now.

Regards from AZ
 
Done it. Twice in the four years we've lived here. Also did worse. Left town for the weekend with it up. Neighbors kept an eye on the place. Not a thing was touched (sigh of relief). Still stupid, though.

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"...and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."
Luke 22:36
"An armed society is a polite society."
Robert Heinlein
"Power corrupts. Absolute power - is kinda cool!"
Fred Reed
 
Did one better--left the front door open (I don't mean just unlocked, I mean OPEN) all day. Door knob was locked, forgot to pull the door shut as a left. Was scared sh*tless when I got home that night. Nothing was touched thankfully.



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Kim

NRA Millenium Life Member
 
Oh yeah done it. But I too have a "real" door going into the house. Done it probly 3 or 4 times and every time we have been really lucky. But I have now made it a real priority to make sure it's all locked down before I go. I was still in that false sense of security that comes with Army housing.
 
RugerMarkII: Got you beat on that one. I left for work one morning while my wife was walking the dog. Locked the door, and she didn't have keys. Or a coat. And it was a cold Wisconsin winter day. No nearby neighbors were home.

Can you say "silent treatment?"

Dick
Want to send a message to Bush? Sign the petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/monk/petition.html and forward the link to every gun owner you know.
 
We did that regularly when we still lived in a rural part of the state
of Berne. Well, one evening, coming home with my dad, we hear the dogs
barking (back then, we had three German Shepherds). Two burglars were
nicely cornered in the kitchen, the food bowels behind them. I guess
hungry dogs just to their jobs better.

The police was surprised that the dogs didn't decide the burglars
could augment their diet of fresh meat.
 
I haven't left the garage door open. However, one real concern is this. Most of us have auto garage door openers. We leave the remote in the car all the time. The car also has our registration in the glove box with our name and address. Now if someone breaks into the car, steals the garage door opener and knows our address - guess what. Jerry

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Ecclesiastes 12:13  ¶Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
14  For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
 
Oh yeah, equally stupid - one time about 3 years ago, I was making very little money, so I was living in these semi-crappy apartments. I came home drunk one night (I drank in those days), opened the door, and then shut the door and locked the deadbolt from inside without realizing that my keys were still hanging from the keyhole outside. Left them there all night (3 other apartments shared my breezeway, and all manner of human undesirables walk around these apartments). Anyway, I heard this jingling the next morning - I opened the door, and one of the neighborhood toddlers was playing with the keys as they hung there. DOH! I felt very relieved and stupid, as they could have had access to my apartment, my car, and my office had someone seen and taken the keys. Thank goodness. Yet another reason not to drink. MK86 - out of town the whole weekend, huh? That takes the cake so far.

[This message has been edited by Futo Inu (edited July 15, 2000).]
 
No I haven't left the main garage door open-for too long. The reason being that the wife would literally kill me if her prized 70 Mach 1 were to disappear out of the garage!

That door does have a opener, but I have disconnected it from the door, also the door itself has a deadbolt-style latch that must be opened from the inside. The garage window was replaced with glass block, and the entry door to the garage from the outside as well as the house-garage door have both been replaced with metal windowless doors with metal frames and deadbolt locks.

BTW, if you do have a garage door opener and will be out of town for a while, unplug the opener (the door is almost impossible to open then!) or clamp a pair of vice-grips above one of the wheels in the channel, or drill a hole into the channel just above one of the wheels and put a plain old combination lock through there.

Now I have left the auxillary garage (detached six-car garage) door open on several occasions. If they can carry off my old Cougar from the six jackstands it is sitting on (without any front or rear suspension) then they are a better man than I am. Naahh, they'll probably trip on something in there, injuring themselves, and sue my @ss! That would be my luck!

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Remember, just because you are not paranoid doesn't mean they are not out to get you!
 
Left my garage door open last year and was robbed. Left my tools, golf clubs and every other normally targeted item and took only the spray paint. Within days, the fences and walls in our neighborhood became "canvases of ethnic expression." Ugh.
 
I have to re check the doors around my house all the time! I have myself left a door unlocked or open a couple of times. I remember when leaving a door open would not be a big deal. We used to leave our garage door open all the time, no bad stuff happened.

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And if you hear from my Louise, won't you tell her I love her so?
 
BTDT, twice. The scary part is that at the time I did it, there had been a lot of robberies and one older man had been killed by the teenage thugs in our area! Scared the CRAP outta me.

We also left the backdoor to our old house unlocked several times, in a high crime neighborhood, AFTER having our lawn equipment stolen! :mad:

Now, at our "new" house, IF anyone could open the garage door, I am confident that they'd never find their way into our house: It's a deadly maze in there! :D

Cougar: If your wife's Mach I turns up missing one day: I didn't do it, can't prove it! That's my story and I'm stickin' to it! (furiously wiping drool off keyboard) :D

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"Pray as if your life depends on God, Prepare as if it all depends on you..." -Texas Preacher

Liberty or death, what we so proudly hail... DON'T TREAD ON ME!!-Metallica

"Many's the men who've battled foe
many the number slain,
many the lads have fallen though
Scotland shall rise again."



[This message has been edited by Darthmaum (edited July 15, 2000).]
 
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