Dear Residents:
In the last note I sent out in October (Neighborhood-Watch-Prevention-Steps) I mentioned that Garage Security is a topic of its own. The reason is that the garage is generally the most vulnerable part of your home and mostly likely the easiest for criminals to enter. If you have an attached garage that also means easy access the living areas of your home. Of course the most common way for a bad guy to get into your garage is when it is open. There are many scenarios where is can happen but an example would be a home owner opens their garage, takes out some lawn or gardening tools, and then goes into another part of the yard to work leaving the door open. Some criminals specialize in this type of burglary. They cruise a neighborhood shopping for open garage doors, stop when they find one, run in a grab something valuable, and then drive off with their bounty. To give you an idea how fruitful and quick this can be VPD caught one guy that had hit 40 garages in one afternoon.
The other reason the garage is vulnerable is the locking mechanism on many garages is easy to defeat. With a piece of coat hanger wire a thief can get to the emergency release latch on the door opener and quickly open the door. The YouTube video above below shows graphically how easy this is.
In the video they refer to the little strap used to secure the latch as a twist tie. It’s actually called a cable tie and can be found in electrical section of Lowes or Home Depot. They come in different lengths and strengths (rated in lbs.) . Make sure the strength is not more than you could break in an emergency. I need to thank Lois Azbill for sending me this link to the video.
So, if you have an attached garage, that brings up the question of how to keep the bad guys out of your living areas. The door between the house and garage should be treated like any other outside door. It should be locked most of the time, it should have the same type of lock(s) on it your outside doors have, and it should be a solid core door and not a hollow core door.
These few steps should help increase the security of the home, its contents, and the inhabitants. Questions? Let me know.
Scott Leigh
Woodway Neighborhood Watch Coordinator
408 Woodridge Dr.
361-578-3900
Victoria Police Department
For Emergencies: 911
Non-Emergency Call for Assistance 361-573-3221
http://www.victoriatx.org/police/