Dear Yahoo,

[wowie]

another one from the gmail page I clicked on...


What are the odds that someone will be able to open my garage with their opener?

Thursday March 23, 2006

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Dear Yahoo!: What are the odds that someone will be able to open my garage with their opener? Joe Cumberland, Rhode Island Dear Joe: You needn't worry about strangers stealing your old paint cans. According to this article by Mary Jo Harrod, the odds of two garage door openers using the same frequency are about 65,000 to 1. Additionally, some openers change frequencies constantly. That said, garage door openers aren't infallible. We learned they can be affected by a number of outside influences. This article explains that the United States military is currently in the process of installing a new radio system in 125 military bases. This system uses the same frequencies as 90% of garage door openers. Because the military's radio signal is so strong, garage doors located near bases often don't work like they should. As far as the criminal element, this site on home safety explains it's possible for burglars to clone your signal, but it's highly unlikely. Most garage door openers use a signal scrambling device that makes breaking in very difficult. So instead of worrying about your garage being breached, why not fret over something more likely to happen? For example, nationwide, the odds of your car being stolen are about 1 in 194.

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Comments

[pusspower.livejournal.com]

That's great news. If I actually had a garage to use a garage door opener on, I'd be even more enthused.

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

LOL

Now we had a garage door that would lower and stay closed when we pushed da remote...

[redminerva17.livejournal.com]

Don't have a garage, but my car was stolen -- from a dealer's lot where it was waiting to be repaired!

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

stolen when? recently or a long time ago?!?

[redminerva17.livejournal.com]

September 2003. It was found about 4 weeks later on a parking lot in Hershey -- about an hour away. A bit worse for wear, it was never quite the same. Fortunately the dealer was eager to make amends and gave me a very good deal on my next car! (Really odd that the thieves stole an oldish car parked on a new car lot, but maybe it was easier to break into it. Thought to be teenagers, they weren't very good at removing the best bits, just roughed it up....)

But speaking of garage door openers, after my Dad passed away, my stepmother had a strange problem with the garage door. One evening she moved the car out, used the remote to close the door, and drove off on an errand. When she returned, the garage door was standing wide open. She was really afraid to go into the house -- understandably. A neighbor checked the whole house, but everything was okay, so they checked the garage door control, but it was fine.. A couple of days later, it happened again. Turns out the control had some sort of malfunction -- sometimes. First it would close the garage door, then some seconds later it would open again. Needless to say, once we figured out what was happening, it was immediately replaced. I don't trust the dang things....

[wwowie.livejournal.com]

Oh that's terrible about the car!

My neighbors has garage door issues - theirs would open mysteriously in the middle of the night. Come to find out it was related to something similar to the wireless signal a computer network generates his next door neighbor had in his house. He shut this thing down, and the neighbor's garage door would open.

Spooky!