Safegaurd valuables in your garage

With our unusually warm winter, our community experienced an increase in thefts and burglaries from garages. Thieves' have little difficulty, finding things to steal. All they have to do is drive up and down alleys looking for open garage doors, or look through windows to see what's inside worth stealing.

Items frequently stolen from garages are bicycles, lawnmowers, snow blowers, tools especially power tools, sports equipment and sometimes your car. Preventing these losses, or at least reducing your odds of becoming a victim is relatively simple.

Keep garage doors closed and locked when you aren't in the garage or working in sight of it.

Cover any garage windows with opaque material so people can't see what's inside to steal.

Treat the walk-in-door as you would a door on your home. InstalLa solid core or steel door with a good dead-bolt lock with a one inch throw. Use a 7-10 inch strike plate secured with 3 inch screws. This is critical if your garage is attached to your home. Access to your garage can mean access to your home.
Lock your vehicle when it's in the garage. Don't leave valuables in the vehicles, even CDs. Lock them in the trunk or better yet take them inside with you.
Invest in a rolling code system for your automatic garage opener or entry key pad rather than a fixed code.

Leave outdoor lights on overnight, or install photosensitive lighting that operates from dusk to dawn, mounted high enough to be out of reach.
Consider fencing the property along the alley.