AUSTIN — It’s a time of year when garage door break-ins usually increase. One gadget called the Garage Shield aims to prevent these break-ins.

“When people want to get into the garage from the outside, what they’ll do is they’ll come up and they’ll shove the hanger through this opening right here,” said Don Grenier, owner of Cedar Park Overhead Door.

He sells a product that can help prevent break-ins.

The rope he’s talking about is basically an emergency exit for a garage, but it’s meant to be used from the inside. Grenier explains this is a common way thieves break into garages.

We wanted to see how it works, so we enlisted the help of Grenier’s coworker, Matt Gray.

“I’ve never done this before,” Gray said.

We didn’t want to explain how to break into garages, but take our word for it, it wasn’t that hard.
It took him a few tries.

This can help block thieves from breaking in. It’s a piece of flat plastic called “Garage Shield” that attaches to the door’s mechanics. It blocks anyone on the outside from pulling the rope to open the door.

When we tried to break in again, it was much more difficult.

“We don’t want to scare people,” Grenier said. “This doesn’t happen a ton, but if you feel like it’s a big issue and many people know about this problem now, this is a good way to do it”.

Grenier admits this isn’t a common problem, but isn’t taking any chances.

Here are some tips to prevent a garage break-in:

• Don’t leave the garage door remote in your car
• Cover the windows in your garage door or get one without windows.
• And make sure both the garage door and door from the garage to your house are locked.

For more information about Garage Shield, go here.

Source: Preventing garage door break-ins