Are criminals cloning your garage door remote to steal your car? Colo. Springs family says it happened to them
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Homeowners in one northern Colorado Springs neighborhood are now on alert after a car was stolen right out of one couple's garage. Police say they believe it was all done using a scanner device that copied the signal transmitted from the garage door's sensor.
Kristi Escue says she woke up in her Flying Horse subdivision home one morning last month, preparing to go to work, when she was struck by a shocking sight.
"I come down. I had my backpack and everything, open the garage door and the car is gone," she explained.
Escue says her car had been stolen right from inside her garage while she was asleep. She says it took her neighborhood by complete surprise.
"We get lax, we get to thinking everything's okay," Escue said. "You know, you feel violated. It is your safe spot, your home is your environment." she added.
Colorado Springs Police Department says that it was likely a thief who was using a scanner that can pick up the signals that are transmitted from garage door opener devices.
"People with the scanner are hoping to land on the same frequency at the exact same time the signal is transmitted, capturing the signal and then clone it on to their own opener," explained Caitlin Ford with CSPD. "It’s something that requires skill but also a lot of luck."
Escue says her 2012 Jeep Liberty Jet was eventually found nearly three weeks later, but it was un-drivable, with a broken side mirror, and the inside of the car trashed.
From here on, she says that she and her husband are not taking any chances. They have now put a thick wooden board across the side door that opens into their garage, and are locking their garage door manually. They've also become vigilant on taking their car keys inside and locking their cars even when they're inside the garage.
"We need to all work together to to stop this, because I really feel like it's going to get worse," said Escue, as she has encouraged her neighbors and residents across the city to take similar precautions.
She also says that with the help of social media, she has gotten other useful tips from fellow home and car owners, including that some garage door clickers have a switch on them to turn the signal off.
CSPD says that manually locking your garage door from the inside is one way to protect from this kind of theft, even if it is uncommon.
CSPD also says that property theft is trending slightly down in the northeast region of the city, despite having the highest population out of the four quadrants they patrol throughout Colorado Springs. They say that taking similar steps to what Escue has done can help curb property theft from happening to you.
