For those with attached garages-Do you leave your garage door open?

[princesspumpkin]

I remember an Oprah show about safety and burglars. Something was said about people leaving their attached garage doors open all day long and how this was unsafe (since mosts people left the door leading into the house unlocked too). Does anyone leave theirs open (like my DH)? I don't feel safe when it's open and I'm constantly going behind him and closing it.

 

[GlennandAnn]

We always close our garage door. Even when we lived in a house with a detached garage, we still closed it.


Ann

 

[jimmiej]

We keep ours closed most of the time to keep away door-to-door salesmen.

 

[floridaminnie]

Keep ours closed here too...I also look the door connecting the house with the garage at night with the double lock.

 

[tc]

I always close ours. Shuts as soon as I am in. There was a crime spree in Denver where burglars were taking cars right out of the garage if left open. Also, getting in the house via the inside door, and burglaring it. When I am home alone, I lock the interior door. When Stephen is home, we leave that door unlocked.

 

[monarchsfan16]

We have our garage door up when we're home. But at night it goes down, and the door in the garage to the house gets double locked. We live in a pretty safe neighborhood, and my cousins tend to drop by unexpectedly in the summer (they're my next door neighbors) so we leave it up. Besides, there's usually someone outside.

 

[CEDmom]

No, although we live in a very safe neighborhood we've had problems with things being taken out of garages. One neighbor went to the grocery store at lunch time and came home long enough to drop the stuff off. She pulled into the garage and in the 5 minutes she was in the house someone stole 2 bikes from her open garage.

 

[BedKnobbery2]

I used to leave it up during the day when I was home and knew I was going to be in and out. I always would shut it when I left the house. However, after a bad experience with a door-to-door salesman actually walking through my garage and to the interior door of my house (rather than going to the front door), I now shut it as soon as my car is in or out of the garage.

An added benefit of always closing the door is less mice and other critters in your home! I never even thought about that before, but I had far less mouse problems this year than in years past, and I'm sure that's why.

 

[Beauty]

I leave it open while I'm home during the day. The UPS man and Mailman always leave my packages under the garage (Thank goodness since its been raining for a MONTH!).

We close and lock it at night and we also lock our door.

 

[tiggersmom2]

I always close ours, I just feel naked when it is open.

 

[JayCT]

Ours is usually open during the day when we are home, but we do shut it if we leave the house and at night. At night we make sure to lock the door into the house from the garage so if someone does get into the garage they won't be able to get into the house easily. You should also lock that door when you leave because burgulars have been known to drive around neighborhoods and use garage door openers to see if they can open any garage doors.

We live in a pretty safe neighborhood and haven't had any problems, but if I ever did I think I would get angry enough to move.

 

[Simba's Mom]

We always keep ours closed. We live in a very high crime rate part of the country, and people are forever getting things stolen out of garages they've left open. Often it's when the people are even in the house in the middle of the day and have left their garage door open for only a few minutes. Or the ultimate, I thought, was when our neighbor was up in his attic-the attic access is through the garage, and while he was up there, he actually heard them taking stuff, thought it was his wife (who was in the house) moving things around. Wow, that would really freak me out!

 

[Annette_VA]

We always keep our garage door shut, unless we're outside playing or doing yardwork, etc.

We also always keep the door from the garage into the house locked.

 

[pkasbohm]

it depends on the day. most of the time it is closed unless we are home and outside doing things. I am home all day so it varies from day to day, but it is always closed at night

 

[Bob Slydell]

When we're home during the day, we leave it open.

 

[Eeyore1954]

Never ('cause we have a cat who thinks it's fun to explore the garage). It's always closed and locked.

 

[shelbyjosh]

No. DH thinks we are in a high crime (NO!!!) neighborhood. He thinks we are the only one with power tools and such. The lady across from us always leaves hers 3 quarters open for her 2 dogs.

 

[piglet too]

Ours is kept closed, and the interior door is bolted! I used to never lock that door, but after our car was broken into....

We do not use ours for our car. It is a very small one car garage and most of our neighbors don't park their cars in them either. It seems that most people use it for storage, and we have an extra fridge in ours. (along with stuff we just don't keep in the house)

 

[chager]

We keep ours closed. A couple years ago there was a crime spree in some close by neighborhoods. The criminals would enter through the door in the garage and wait for the owner to come in. They then would tie them up, beat them up, and rob them. Once it was a mom and her two small children and another time was an elderly woman. They weren't discriminate any open garage would work. Once all the woman did was open her garage and put her trash can at the curb. In the couple minutes that took someone got in her house. So although we live in a "safe" area I wont take any chances.

 

[Dolphin_Girl008]

We keep ours closed all the time.