If you’re a gearhead, you’ve probably got a lot of stuff in your garage.Expensive stuff. Collectible cars. Bikes. Tools and equipment. There might be more value in your garage than inside your house. But ironically, the garage is often the least secure part of the house. Thieves are well-aware of this.
You should be, too.
Here are some suggestions to avoid coming home – or waking up to – a cleaned-out garage:
[amazon asin=B004ULM18E&template=*lrc ad (left)]* Be discreet about what you’ve got.
Keep the garage door closed unless it needs to be open. Don’t flaunt your stuff. Thieves are opportunists. When they see an opportunity – your toolbox just sitting there, for instance – they may decide to take advantage of that opportunity. Or, they’ll make a note to come back later – having seen what you’ve got and wanting to make it theirs. If your door is closed, there’s nothing to see. Probably, they won’t give what’s inside much thought – and will move along to the next – the obvious – target.
Related: If you’re getting ready to build a new home, think about locating the garage in the back – or locating the door/entrance so that what’s inside isn’t readily visible from the street when the door is open. If you’re stuck with what you’ve got, use landscaping – shrubs, trees and so on – to obscure the view. Keep pricey antique cars covered when they’re not being worked on. Get one that’s big[amazon asin=B004YK66NM&template=*lrc ad (right)] enough to hide the wheels, too. They’re a dead giveway to something other-than-Camry underneath.
If the garage has windows, get blinds.
* Secure what you’ve got.
When we bought our current house, it had a side entrance door to the garage that a burglar could have defeated with an elbow. Because the upper half was glass-paned. Just smash the glass, reach in, unlock the door and in like Flynn. One of the first things I did after we moved in was to get rid of that door. I replaced it with a solid metal door – with a heavy deadbolt in addition to the normal lock. For even more protection, add slide-type deadbolts at top and bottom – with the mounts drilled with heavy duty screws into the frame surrounding the door.[amazon asin=B004D8NZ52&template=*lrc ad (left)]
Though not impervious, this door will require a lot more time and effort to defeat. The average smash-and-grab thief – who is often a teenager – will likely not bother. And that probably means your at-risk profile is cut by two-thirds.
For similar reasons, I also replaced both garage doors. The old ones had windows – which not only let in sunlight (bad for the paint and chrome of collectible old cars) but could also let in a thief. The new doors are solid – and they have a physical lock on the side rails I can use for an additional layer of security. I recommend such a system – which many new garage doors offer or which you can easily rig up yourself to an existing door using slide-lock hardware available at Lowes or Home Depot or any hardware store. They make it[amazon asin=B002P6EQPW&template=*lrc ad (right)] all-but-impossible to manually raise the door from the outside. This countermeasure is particularly important if you have an electric opener. Keep in mind that it’s fairly easy for a thief to obtain a door opener with the right code (or hack your system, especially if you have an outdoor keypad). A physical lock will thwart anyone trying to open the door with an ill-gotten remote.
Adding cameras – in particular, obviouscameras – to the outside perimeter is also a really good idea. Even if they’re fakes – they have deterrent value. Ideally, get ones that have a blinking red light or something similar, so that anyone prowling around will see that they’re being seen.
Bright flood lights with motion sensors are also good. Mount them up high, so that it’d be hard for someone to get at them at – and turn them off.
