Garage Door Openers (parents got robbed)

Pininfarina_

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So my dad just told me that the lawnmower and a couple tool kits were stolen from their garage today. The entrance did not have any signs of a break in and was locked when he got home. (like who steals shit and locks the door again?)

So I'm thinking the thieves somehow managed to open the main gate/door with their own remote. You can't lift one of those doors without breaking the chain right? (it still works)

As well, the stuff that was stacked on top of the lawnmower was thrown aside towards the walk-in entrance so I really think the thieves somehow managed to remotely open the big gate.

Is this possible? Are there scanner type remote things out there that can access the a garage door motor like that?
 
To my limited knowledge, motorized garage door opener remote systems are not exactly secure. So I agree that the thieves probably just used an opener of their own. I hope your parents' insurance will play ball...
 
So my dad just told me that the lawnmower and a couple tool kits were stolen from their garage today. The entrance did not have any signs of a break in and was locked when he got home. (like who steals shit and locks the door again?)

So I'm thinking the thieves somehow managed to open the main gate/door with their own remote. You can't lift one of those doors without breaking the chain right? (it still works)

As well, the stuff that was stacked on top of the lawnmower was thrown aside towards the walk-in entrance so I really think the thieves somehow managed to remotely open the big gate.

Is this possible? Are there scanner type remote things out there that can access the a garage door motor like that?

If it was an older garage door opener, it may have had as few as 8 codes. Easily opened.

More recent ones include rolling code systems, like recent car alarms. They are much more difficult to break for amateurs.

Was it an older home with an older opener? If so, you need to replace that unit at once - likely they'll be back in the future to see if you did (and rip off your replacement stuff if you didn't).

And yes, there are scanners. You can build one yourself. http://hackaday.com/2009/10/03/garage-door-packet-sniffer/
 
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It shouldn't be too old, it was replaced about 2 years ago. What determines the level of security the garage door has? The number of "codes" as you have mentioned?

Right now that is just my initial suspect, I'm not 100% certain that was how they got in. Really can't think of any other way though, the windows have wooden bars placed in the pane that haven't been moved....
 
I don't know about doors in Canada but here in NZ you can disconnect the door from the chain and open the door manually with a pull cord or lever. Supposed to be there for power failure so you can still get the door open. The point is I have seen how those can be used to get a door open from the outside, with the help of some sturdy fencing wire and a bit of patience. Once they close the door again it clicks back on the chain and no one would be any the wiser, till you opened the door to find all your stuff gone. Any gaps around your door, especially at the top of the door? Are there windows in the door itself? (that may sound silly to some but there are some out there that would put clear see-thru glass on a garage door:blink:)

These may sound like silly questions but obviously I haven't seen the doors.
 
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Hmm, that's curious. The windows are not near the gate side of the garage, only on the wall opposite it and adjacent. There IS a manual override function but that's on the inside and it's a little red rope that you pull I believe.
 
It shouldn't be too old, it was replaced about 2 years ago. What determines the level of security the garage door has? The number of "codes" as you have mentioned?

Right now that is just my initial suspect, I'm not 100% certain that was how they got in. Really can't think of any other way though, the windows have wooden bars placed in the pane that haven't been moved....

Number of codes and how it's controlled are pretty much it, yes. The cheapest/crappiest ones today (along with ones from ancient times) could be as crappy as just having an 8 position dial on the controller and the remote. You simply selected which of the eight you wanted that didn't open your neighbor's door and made sure they matched on both remotes. And yes, they were the same eight on every single unit.
 
You simply selected which of the eight you wanted that didn't open your neighbor's door and made sure they matched on both remotes.

What, you don't want to randomly open your neighbors garage door every time you come home? I would, then again, I'm still a child.
 
This is the exact model.

http://www.liftmaster.com/lmcv2/pages/productmodeldetail.aspx?modelId=396

Now that you have mentioned it, I am worried that they may come back again. Is it really necessary to swap out the entire unit? Is there perhaps a known flaw/loophole in the design of this particular motor?

Really though, the lawn mower was the most expensive thing in the garage besides the cars. The bikes are in plain sight and they probably knew from a glance that they weren't worth that much.
 
That model has the rolling code security, so it's less likely that the thieves got the code. But do you have a keypad for opening the garage door? Those only supports four digits, so it could've been compromised.
 
Again, don't know what the keypad is. The opener my parents use is just 2 buttons: open/close and I think a lock button.
 
My garage is so full of clutter and junk I do not even bother locking it. If some stuff was nicked it would avoid me taking it down the tip at some point.
 
I have a rolling code lifter and two remotes. I made the mistake twice of hitting the button in my pocket that raised the door as I was driving away and not noticing until I got home. I therefore reprogrammed the remote I take with me to require two buttons to be pushed to open/close the door. I also changed the static one to another button, the small one that's not easy to tap.
 
I have a rolling code lifter and two remotes. I made the mistake twice of hitting the button in my pocket that raised the door as I was driving away and not noticing until I got home. I therefore reprogrammed the remote I take with me to require two buttons to be pushed to open/close the door. I also changed the static one to another button, the small one that's not easy to tap.

This is most likely what happened. The whole remote cloning thing seems a bit too much trouble to go through for a lawnmower. Even if the opener was an old model without rolling codes, it would still be an exercise to go through. It'd be worth it if you knew they had something of real value in there like a exotic car etc.

If your folks were sure they closed it upon leaving, I bet they didn't actually wait for the door to close before leaving, just saw it closing and continued on. Not blaming them it is easy to do, I don't have a remote door, I have to do mine by hand but I'm sure if I did I wouldn't wait till the thing was closed every time.
 
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This is most likely what happened. The whole remote cloning thing seems a bit too much trouble to go through for a lawnmower. Even if the opener was an old model without rolling codes, it would still be an exercise to go through. It'd be worth it if you knew they had something of real value in there like a exotic car etc.

If your folks were sure they closed it upon leaving, I bet they didn't actually wait for the door to close before leaving, just saw it closing and continued on. Not blaming them it is easy to do, I don't have a remote door, I have to do mine by hand but I'm sure if I did I wouldn't wait till the thing was closed every time.

I suspected that as well; my dad doesn't want to admit it but he is pretty derpy :rolleyes:

But again, who would close the door after robbing someone? O.O And how would you close it? You can't press the button and run out because my parents have the sensors set up that stop the door if anything is in the way. (what kind of thief would even do that to begin with though)
 
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I have seen it where we got to the very end of the driveway, when we looked back and the door was opening back up. That one time out of a thousand, something just didn't track right, it mistook it for an obstacle, and opened back up. Thankfully we caught it before we left the driveway.

Most people I know also don't lock their doors between the garage and the house. So, if they closed the garage door, is it possible they went out through another door? Also, some garage doors only have a sensor near the bottom, so if you ran out, you just "hop" over the line-of-sight sensor, and the door could still close.
 
It is one of the bottom mounted sensors so you could definitely hop over it. The "people entrance" was locked as well when my dad got home.

Still very curious as to why someone would close the door after stealing stuff......regardless of how they got in.
 
Probably to make it look like they were supposed to be there. If you saw someone coming out of your neighbors house and they didn't close up, what would you think?
 
I know of a guy that has a ham radio and an amp that would overload the newer systems and it would just open. I won't reveal it all, but it wasn't much.


Edit: He was not stealing, just found out by accident, then showed us later.
 
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