How Garages Actually Get Broken Into

Published August 20, 2026

Almost nobody forces a garage door. They open it. Here is how, and what each method costs to stop.

The Emergency Release Cord

Every automatic garage door has a manual release so you can open it in a power cut. It is the red cord hanging from the trolley on the ceiling rail, and pulling it disconnects the door from the opener.

The problem is where it hangs. On a lot of doors that cord sits within reach of the gap along the top of the door. A stiff wire with a hook bent into the end goes through the weather seal, catches the cord or the release lever, and pulls. The opener disconnects, and the door then lifts by hand from outside.

It takes well under a minute, needs nothing you cannot buy in a hardware shop, and leaves no damage at all. That last part matters, because a break-in with no forced entry is harder to notice and harder to claim for.

The fix is a shield fitted over the release mechanism, or repositioning the cord so it cannot be reached from the gap. Either is inexpensive. If you want to check your own door, stand outside and look at how much daylight shows along the top edge, then look at where the cord hangs relative to it.

Fixed-Code Openers

Openers from before the late 1990s send the same radio code every single time you press the remote.

Anything that records that code can send it back later and your door opens. The equipment to do that is not exotic and has not been for a long time. It is why the industry moved to rolling code, which generates a new code on every use so a recorded one is already spent.

The fix is a rolling-code opener, or in some cases just a rolling-code receiver on the existing motor. If you are replacing the unit in California it will also need battery backup, which has been required on openers sold or installed here since July 2019.

The Door Into the House

This is the one that turns a garage break-in into a house break-in.

Most people leave the internal door between garage and house unlocked. It feels like an interior door, so it gets treated like one. But once someone is in the garage they are out of sight of the street, working on a door nobody can see them at, with your tools to hand.

The fix is a deadbolt. It is the cheapest item on this page and the one most often skipped.

Flexing the Corner

On doors with worn rollers and loose hinges, the top corner of a panel can be pulled outward far enough to get a hand or a hook inside. It is more work than the release-cord trick and it leaves marks, so it is less common, but it happens on tired doors.

The fix is ordinary maintenance. Tighten the hinges, replace worn rollers with sealed nylon ones, and check the track alignment. The door gets quieter at the same time.

Old Remotes Still Paired

Worth a thought when you move house or after work has been done. Remotes stay in the memory of the receiver until they are cleared. A previous owner, a former tenant, or a contractor handed a spare may still have a working remote for your garage.

The fix is clearing the memory and re-pairing only the remotes you hold, plus resetting any keypad code. It takes a few minutes and costs nothing but the visit.

What an Empty Driveway Says

Two habits worth more than any hardware.

Do not leave the remote clipped to the visor of a car parked on the driveway. A car is easier to get into than a house, and the remote is a key to the garage.

Close the door when you are in the garden or working out front. An open garage is an inventory list visible from the street, and it tells anyone walking past exactly what is worth coming back for.

A Sensible Order to Do This In

1. Fit a deadbolt on the door between the garage and the house.
2. Shield or reposition the emergency release.
3. Clear old remotes and reset the keypad code.
4. Replace a fixed-code opener with a rolling-code unit.
5. Tighten the hardware and fit a track lock if the garage is often empty for long spells.

The first three cost very little and close most of the exposure. The fourth is the larger spend and only matters if your opener is genuinely old.

One Thing That Must Not Change

None of this should interfere with the safety systems. The photo eyes at floor level and the contact reversal are what stop a closing door on a child or a pet, and they are required for good reason. Any security work that defeats those has made the door more dangerous, not safer. We test both before we leave, every time.

Call Ahlanart at (562) 993-7756 for a written check of your own door.

If You Think It Already Happened

A garage entry with no forced damage is easy to dismiss as misremembering where you left something. If you have that feeling, a few things are worth checking rather than shrugging off.

Look at the emergency release cord. If it is hanging at a different angle, or the handle has been pulled through and left slack, someone has used it. Look along the top weather seal for fresh scrape marks in the rubber where a wire went through.

Then clear the memory of the receiver and re-pair only the remotes in your hand, and reset the keypad code. If a remote was taken from a car on the driveway, that is the step that closes it, and it costs nothing.

Finally, check whether the door between the garage and the house was actually locked. In most homes it was not, and that is the difference between losing a bicycle and losing everything in the hallway.