Even though most of us have a romantic idea of car thieves in our minds a lot like Nicolas Cage in Gone in 60 Seconds, the truth of the matter is the overwhelming majority of car thieves – especially those that have been at this game for a while – aren’t stealing cars off of the street, but instead right out of garages.
This comes as quite a bit of a shock to most people, especially since they consider their garage to be an extension of their home – one of the safest places in this increasingly unsafe world. To have a vehicle stolen right out of the garage is a tremendous shock to anyone, and is enough to get them a lot more serious about home security (not necessarily a bad thing, after all).
But if you would like to avoid having your car lifted from your garage in the first place, you’ll want to check out this quick guide and get your hands on some Garage Door Armor.
“Why do you rob banks?”
There’s an urban legend that legendary outlaw Jesse James (or was it Pretty Boy Floyd, John Dillinger, or Bonnie and Clyde) was asked why he robbed banks. His response was absolutely classic:
“Because that’s where the money is”.
Professional car thieves have the exact same mentality, and this is why they go after vehicles that are parked in garages. After all, they know that homeowners are going to garage vehicles that are worth putting in the garage in the first place, and it’s a lot easier to track high quality vehicles home and into a garage than hope you come across them out on the streets.
Thieves also know that once they get into a garage the security systems INSIDE garages are almost nonexistent. People depend on their front-line defense (locking the garage door and making sure that the big bay doors are already down), and then they kind of relax.
Usually they don’t lock their vehicles inside of an already locked garage – and that only makes it easier for professional thieves to go about their business. A lot of people are also known to keep their keys in the garage so that they don’t lose them – a big bonus for criminals that don’t have to spend any time hotwiring or rustling through the house searching for a set of car keys.
Getting into the garage is no trouble whatsoever (most of the time, anyway)
On top of that, getting into garages is usually no trouble whatsoever for professional thieves – at least most of the time, anyway.
Thieves have uncovered a simple and straightforward way to get into almost any garage without any real extra effort (or causing a lot of noise along the way). They simply push in a door panel, throw in a hook, grab the Emergency Release System, and then lift the door manually – just as slowly and silently as they can.
They're able to do so because there’s nothing blocking their access to that Emergency Release System, unless of course a homeowner has done the right thing and installed Garage Door Armor. If that’s the case, they are out of luck!