Should I Report This?

[Chewy65]

This would be a non emergency report and even then I wonder if any report should be made. Yesterday morning I found one of the three garage doors open, when I went into the attached garage to get a screwdriver. I thought that my wife had accidentally pushed a button on the wall when she hit the garage light switch the day before and reminded myself to check that those doors are empty when we go to bed.

Today I found that large Swarzkopf was knocked over It was growing in the planter located immediately to the side of the garage door that yesterday had found to be open.

The garage is the type that is opened with a remote.

I have looked around the garage and do not think that anything is missing.

When I go to bed I set the dead bolt for the entry door from the garage. Given all the tools in the garage, I would think that anyone but a kid would have been able to pop the door open in a second if that was the plan.

I now set the sliding bar lock on that garage door so that it cannot be opened remotely.

I don't want to waste law enforcement's time. Should I just forget it?

[Skip_Dog]

Set up a camera. Change your garage door opener signal. Someone may have stole yours or a neighbors is the same as yours.

[Devilock04]

[Chewy65]

I never thought of how easy it is to trip the release mechanism. What I have done is to throw a steel bar so it slides through a cut out in the metal door rail. I can than easily slide it back and open the door by either pushing a button on the wall, using the remote, or pulling the rope tied to the emergency release. I don't worry about someone entering through the garage door while I am gone as we don't keep the cars in it. I can keep the door locked from within and open it when needed, such as when I work in the yard.

I am pretty confident that the garage is relatively secure, but what of my primary question. Is it worth bothering the sheriff's office?

Tomorrow I will get up on a ladder to see if there are any marks indicating that the emergency release mechanism was tripped with something like a coat hanger or a slim jim.

[Bobby Ricigliano]

If you believe that someone trespassed on your property and entered or attempted to enter your garage, you have every right to request a report. If you want to get it done faster, you can go to your local station and request a crime report right there in the lobby.

It won’t trigger a massive investigation or a CSI rollout, but it can’t hurt. Sometimes it takes several incidents to create a profile of certain crime trends in the area and to figure out who / what / where to focus investigative resources. Sometimes a whodunit report will yield valuable information to investigators.

I’d forget about the notion of “wasting their time.” As long as you are patient, it isn’t a big deal to take that type of report. It is exceedingly common and burglary / property thefts are by far the most common calls for service.

[Oxnard_Montalvo]

Some years back I had my car broken in repeatedly and it was always the same, I'd find no obvious marks on it where the perp[s] jimmied the doors, just that the doors were open. So I did a little research and found out that there's a phone app that sends out a signal to your key remote so that it tells the car to unlock the doors. This explained why it was only the one car that was 'broken' into, because the other car I owned had a remote with a very weak battery. So...this might be a case where someone is going down the street with the same kind of app and seeing what cars or garage doors open and then seeing if there is anything that they can grab quick and sell for some meth...

[003]

There should be an on/off button on the door switch. Turn the door switch off at night.

[Surf & Turf]

A report for what?��

[WOODY2]

Only if you want to hear a voice on the other end of the line yawn.

[Chewy65]

Thanks. Since this may not have even been an attempt to get into the house or garage, but may have accidentally been tripped, I won't bother the sheriff's department. It is certainly busy enough.

[esy]

I've told many people making a report isn't a problem. Reporting crimes is something that comes up in every department's annual budget meeting.

"There's x number of crimes and x number of officers. We need more on the streets, the jails, the courthouse, etc. or we don't need that many officers."

This also comes into play with how officers clear calls and type paper. Did a crime happen whether or not the victim wants to cooperate? If the answer is yes, a report should be made.

[Rivers]

Old school is pretty hard to defeat: slip a screwdriver into one of the holes on the door track to block the wheels from advancing along the track. Or use a wide-jawed vice-grip to clamp onto the track right above a wheel. Either way, the only way the door is opening is to remove the obstructions from the track, or literally rip the door from the garage framing. (But I think the neighbors might notice that...)

[Chewy65]

I ended up reporting it by phone. Kept it simple, nothing apparently taken, did not a "report", and no need for a deputy to come to the house.

[lmcc0072]

You can probably file a police report online. Most of the local PDs don’t have the time or the manpower to come out when an entire car is stolen. For a possible B and E they probably won’t come out.

[GizmoSD]