Growing up in small town NC in the 70s/80s, the garage doors were always open during the daytime when we were home. The door from the garage was effectively the front door to the house, kids were always coming and going. Now, I live in a pretty similar situation, relatively affluent neighborhood, suburban, low-crime. But not zero. We've had cars broken into, random sketchy people driving through. I don't leave my doors open except when I'm in the garage or out in the yard (yes, they may be unobserved for a time, but its more convenient than keeping an opener on me when mowing). The house is always locked, the door in from the garage is and exterior class door and deadbolted.
As an aside, I recently changed the door openers to Chamberlain wall mounted openers, which are super quiet (I work evenings and often come home after my wife is in bed, our bedroom is directly above the garage, now I don't wake her up when I get home late.) Very happy with them, and as a plus, they have automatic locks which pin the doors when down to they can't be lifted.

If I'm in the garage or working in the yard, it stays open, but if we are inside it gets closed.

Chris

quote:

Where it starts to wander into me not minding my own business is wondering if perhaps two houses in the same cul de sac being open to anyone and everyone starts to look inviting for shitbags who case neighborhoods. I don't need our house targeted because I have neighbors who are far more trusting than I am, but that only just occurred to me.

This is similar to our current situation. We are in an upscale-ish neighborhood, but not gated. Well, it's gated but they open for anyone who drives up, separate issue. About 1,000 homes.

Our neighbors love to put out and announce on neighborhood FB page "curb alerts". Basically stuff they are done with but may be useful to others before being picked up by trash the following day. This has led, as you might expect, to all sorts of non-residents driving the neighborhood in evenings and overnight day before trash day looking for treasure. They don't need the FB page, they know a ton of useful stuff will be piled up at curbs starting midday Sunday for Monday pickup.

On more than one occasion folks have found them in their garage, headed up their driveway or actually taking a bike or golf car out of garage. It's actually gotten to the point where some will rummage through actual garbage cans instead of just the curbside treasure and in some videoed cases take a bag or two out, rummage through that on the way to next house then deposit there.

It seems nuts, but attracting that sort of activity on purpose is certainly a bad idea, IMNSHO. However in the OP case, nothing you can really do other than keep on with your tendency of closing up.

I'm definitely in the closed/locked camp when not in garage or house. Even our lake cabin in a much more rural and isolated area, same. Just don't want someone walking in on us there, or if we are away. Keypads are the key for us there. With codes unique to each permanent or one-time user, never have shared our master one.

No. Stupid birds fly in, then can’t figure out how to get out.

No, Closed at all times unless actively going in or out.

FWIW, I used to be a Det. Sgt. in the big city. One morning, one of our detectives got a call from one of our undercover officers, asking if he knew where his golf clubs were. Detective replied they were in his garage. Undercover officer assured him they were not, and indicated he just bought them from a burglar. Detective forgot to close his garage door when leaving for work. That fast, burglar discovered open garage door, stole golf clubs and was already selling them to whom he likely thought was a fence. I could go on with other open garage door incidents, but you get the idea...

I think this thread has gotten a bit off the track.

It wasn’t about if you keep your garage doors open or closed but do you concern yourself if your neighbor doesn’t close theirs…

I made the mistake of leaving the door open about 6 inches for flow-through ventilation. That releases the cantilever that locks the door.

As a result, at 3:00 am a sneak thief got in my home, was in my bedroom closet (I lived alone) with my rifle in his hands. I pulled my 1911 and invited him to lie on the floor.

Police came and took him away.

Needless to say, I leave it closed completely!!

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
I think this thread has gotten a bit off the track.

It wasn’t about if you keep your garage doors open or closed but do you concern yourself if your neighbor doesn’t close theirs…

You made it to the third paragraph of the OP, for which you admonished him right away, but you didn't make it to his 4th where he asked if others did the same. Or his thread title asking the same.

Interesting.

I guess I am going to be the outlier here, but I leave my garage door and/or shed doors and/or house doors open/unlocked all the time. It can be during the day when I am inside or outside, but sometimes I leave them open at night, or when I am running into town on errands.

I also never lock my cars (I am usually annoyed when I go out to get something out of my car, and it is locked, because then I have to go back inside to get my keys). My wife leaves her keys inside her car whether it is inside the garage or outside (it is unlocked in both locations).

While a few of my less-used doors to the house are locked sometimes, the ones we regularly use are never locked. Once again, when my kids lock the doors I get annoyed as they are not all keyed alike, so depending on the lock they flipped, I can't even get in that door with my keys.

Now, before you all think I am completely crazy, I will add the context that I do live in a fairly rural location (there are 10 houses in my "neighborhood", and while it is not gated or restricted at all, it is a private road that dead-ends, so no traffic that is not from the neighborhood). All the neighbors I have met are good folks, who are more than equipped to handle issues, if you know what I mean.

Additionally, my house is set off in the woods completely obstructed from all other houses, so if someone wanted to break in, they would just smash a window, and nobody would know.......except perhaps my 2 100lb+ German Shepherd mixes, who do the lion's share of the defense of the house (and who are loose pretty much 24/7 (no fence or leash), so good luck getting near the house without them knowing).

Overall though, it is just how I grew up. While I personally know of folks living in them middle of nowhere who have had their houses burglarized, I just don't live my life in fear. If we are home when anyone tries something, between the dogs and the firearms we have ready, they will have a bad day. If we are out when they try something (and the dogs have run off at the time), the I guess they will steal whatever they want (which, as I said above, they would anyway, just by smashing windows), but I will have less to fix, since they can just walk in instead of breaking the house first.

ever since the neighbor said previous owner found a copperhead in the garage - always closed

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
I think this thread has gotten a bit off the track.

It wasn’t about if you keep your garage doors open or closed but do you concern yourself if your neighbor doesn’t close theirs…

You may want to go back and re-read the OP.

Closed all the time,besides my privacy of what I have there are enough venomous snakes etc that I want to keep them out.. If I notice a neighbors GD open I will close them after a certain amount of time. We all do that here .

I have enough to concern myself with, let alone whether my neighbor has their garage door open. However, if an unfamiliar truck is in their driveway and stowing goods in their truck I would call the cops,

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
I think this thread has gotten a bit off the track.

It wasn’t about if you keep your garage doors open or closed but do you concern yourself if your neighbor doesn’t close theirs…

Good grief, man. No, we're on topic. The only one off track here is you.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
I have enough to concern myself with, let alone whether my neighbor has their garage door open.

I didn't ask about your neighbors, I asked if you do. It was an idle curiosity, to which some are assuming or implying a nannying intent I do not have. It's why I said what I said in my OP.

Ours is typically open if we are home. I live at the end of a half mile road with 11 houses on it, in the middle of Amish country. The kids are always in and out with bikes, and we are often outside if its nice. It is always closed if we leave, or overnight. My wife will typically close it if I'm not there. About the only time I close it if I'm home, is if it is particularly windy, to keep leaves out, or mowing the grass, so my cars don't get all dusty.

BTW, if you have a MyQ opener you can program it to auto close at any specific time you like.

I set mine to Midnight, since I'm always out there doing something or nothing, if the door is open at midnight the system auto closes it. I've got up and found it open a few times, figure that it must have partially closed then went up.

You can also check the door status, have it tell you when it opens or closes, if you have kids coming home from school they can open and close and you'll get a notice

Works pretty good.

quote:

Originally posted by slosig:
No. Stupid birds fly in, then can’t figure out how to get out.

In the late 80's, I had a pet Mockingbird that would fly to the mailbox when I came home from work. I would get the mail and enter the house by way of the garage and he would fly in and set on the arm of the Radial Arm saw.

I would get some raisins and heat them in some water in the microwave. I would place them in the bed of the pickup or throw them on the driveway.

At other times, he would hover in front of the kitchen window to get my attention.

I found him as a baby one summer and placed him in a bush and fed him raisins and other fruit. He hated cats and would dive bomb them when they came into the yard. He was around for two years and then disappeared.

I keep mine closed except for driving a car in or out due to problems with critters.

One day I was changing oil in the truck and just generally cleaning out and reshuffling the junk in the garage. I had the doors open pretty much all day because I was right there, for the most part.

When all done, I put the doors down and went inside to watch tv and take a rest. A little later I heard a crashing sound coming from the garage. First I thought a tree branch fell and hit the house. But it happened again, so now I thought someone was trying to break in.

When I looked, I saw a woodchuck had climbed a shelving unit and was gazing wistfully out the window. Long story short I managed to flush him out, but he had torn up the wires on the electric eyes for the garage door opener, among other ripped up and damaged stuff. He really wanted out.

No more leaving the doors open.

[quote]I didn't ask about your neighbors, I asked if you do. It was an idle curiosity, to which some are assuming or implying a nannying intent I do not have. It's why I said what I said in my OP.
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
ok THAT IS CLEAR. I grew up in the city. Y0u leave your small garage door open say goodbye to your goods. Everyone had a DETACHED one car garage which served as an endpoint for the clothes line. No one had a clothes dryer in those days let alone a lawn bigger than a postage stamp.

If I'm home during the day, yes if I'm working on the house or a car. If I'm just hanging inside no. Too many expensive tools that could go missing in a heartbeat. (Snapon, DeWalt, Milwaukee, etc.) FYI, when my better half and I can't do our own work our kids are going to be very happy