How To Break Into A Garage Door - 24/7 Home Security

Have you ever locked yourself outside because you forgot your keys?

Learning how to open garage door manually from outside without key will not only save you during emergency situations but will also help you learn how to deter burglars that might try to do the same to you!

Here's what we'll cover:

Your Garage Door Could Be Your Biggest Liability

Before we discuss how to break into a garage door, let’s look at how your garage door could be one of your weakest links in your home security system. 

First and foremost, garage doors can be easily kicked open (by a desperate criminal) because they are structurally weak. 

Second, people often neglect securing the interior door of the garage thinking that taking care of the outer doors is enough to deter burglars. 

Finally, getting into the garage gives everyone access to tools like drills, snow blowers, and air compressors, even criminals. So if you’re on a trip and nobody is in your house, it may be just as rewarding for criminals to break into your garage if you haven’t installed additional protection to your doors. Burglars can even exploit the emergency release of your garage doors in a matter of seconds.

Ways On How to Open Garage Door Manually From Outside

Breaking in By Pulling the Emergency Latch

You can easily exploit the emergency latch of the garage door to gain access inside if you haven’t put any precautions in place. To break into a garage, you simply need to thread a coat hanger through the top of the garage door until you reach the emergency latch. Then, hook the cord and slowly pull it to disengage the safety release.  Now, you can roll the door up by hand. 

You can also use a hooked wire if you don’t have a coat hanger on-hand, just make sure it’s stiff enough to do the job.

Watch the video below on how to do this trick:

Picking the Lock On the Garage Door

If you have the right tools and a garage door with an exterior handle, you can easily open the lock on a garage door (unless you install a garage door lock like this). They are generally cheap locks that are simple to bypass.  All you need are a diamond pick and a L-key. Simply place the L-key at the bottom of the lock hold. At the top of the hole, secure the diamond pick and lift the tumblers in the lock until you are able to rotate and open the lock.

This method is demonstrated on the video below:

Ways to Keep Burglars Out Of Your Garage

Now you know how you or anyone else could manually open garage door from outside, you can do something to prevent that from happening and protect your property. These tips are summarized below:

Use A Zip Tie to Secure the Emergency Release

You’ve just learned how easy it is to exploit the emergency latch of the garage door using a hooked wire or a coat hanger. You can use a small zip tie through the holes in the release lever and to another hole that slides the door open. This will create resistance when pulled using a coat hanger or hooked wire but still allow you to use the emergency release if there’s an emergency by breaking the zip tie.

Install A Door Devil On the Side Door

If you are willing to spend some money, you can purchase a Door Devil or other similar products to prevent the side door of your garage from being compromised. The Door Devil screw into the ground making it more difficult for burglars to kick open your door.

Install Motion Sensors and Alarms

Installing motion sensors that will alert you through your smartphone will help a lot in keeping an eye on your garage. You can even include motion sensing lights and a loud alarm to deter thieves.  Plus, automating your garage lights with a motion sensor could really come in handy. Take a look at our home automation ideas article for more useful ideas.

Install Automatic Deadbolts For Your Garage Door

It can be a bit pricey but will help you increase security on your biggest door. Deadbolts for garage door make your door more secure and difficult to be opened from the outside.

You can also check out our other post on garage security tips for more details.

Wrapping things up

Learning how to break into your garage door can be a helpful skill when you need to access a house without a key. If you have other suggestions on how to break into a garage door not listed here, leave a comment below!

References

https://www.safewise.com/blog/8-ways-keep-thieves-garage/

https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/crime/criminals-find-new-way-to-break-into-your-garage-cheap-ways-to-prevent-it

https://www.corporatetravelsafety.com/safety-tips/how-thieves-break-into-homes-by-the-garage-door/Christy

Hi, I’m Christy, and I’m an electronics engineer by profession. I have taught in a university for 2 years while pursuing my master’s degree in cognitive radio and worked for a company to develop wireless medical devices. Currently, I’m doing research for a doctorate degree in engineering using a wireless sensor network for smart agriculture. I’ve been active in our local IoT community, IoT Cebu, where I participate in conducting talks about Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and DIY home automation using Wi-Fi and ZigBee devices.

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