Why is my garage keypad mysteriously open sometimes?

June 18, 2020 12:28 PM

Sometimes the flip-up cover for the garage door keypad is completely open. It's not us: the garage door is broken so we haven't used it in 4 months. Could the wind be responsible? If someone is doing this, why?? I found it open again today & it's starting to freak me out.

I think this has happened 3 or 4 times since March. Not sure of when exactly, since we usually pay almost no attention to it. My husband says he is not accidentally opening the keypad & leaving it like that (it's "his" garage door). I close it when I find it flipped open.

So if it's not him, the next suspect would be someone checking to see if people are home, right? Like seeing if the paper has been picked up or not. I can't imagine why though, since my husband's car is parked in the driveway and gets moved almost daily. We don't know anyone who would do this as a prank.

The keypad cover is pretty light, so maybe wind could do it if the wind was going straight up? I don't know how likely this is.

Obviously I need to catch it opening/being opened on camera for a definitive answer, but I'd really love some opinions and ideas.

Speaking of cameras, we have a doorbell camera and a back porch camera, but nothing covering the garage, driveway, or that side of the yard in general. I have one nest camera I'll put up, just not sure it'll be possible to get a sightline.

posted by Baethan to Home & Garden (13 answers total)

FWIW, I have a similar keypad on the outside of my garage and the wind has never opened it, as far as I know.

It could be someone occasionally seeing if you still have the default key code set on it, so if you do, you should change it.
posted by bondcliff at 12:41 PM on June 18, 2020 [2 favorites]

Very odd. I have one too but I would think that only tornado-style winds would be able to raise it. Still, I'd start by lightly taping it down with a piece of duct tape or painter's tape to rule out environmental factors and see if gets tampered with.
posted by anderjen at 1:20 PM on June 18, 2020 [4 favorites]

My dad had one of these on his garage and at some point the lip on the cover that would catch at the bottom of the keypad kind of... stopped catching. I don't know if it wore down a bit or chipped or what, but it wouldn't stay closed consistently. It didn't bother my dad so he never did anything, but I'd try the painter's tape option suggested by anderjen and see if that works to keep it closed.
posted by bedhead at 2:39 PM on June 18, 2020

If my memory serves, my father glued a piece of metal to the cover of ours to weigh it down when I was a kid. If it doesn't latch tightly, wind could be lifting it.
posted by whatnotever at 3:04 PM on June 18, 2020

My guess was that it may not be catching...possible to show us a similar model so we can see how closure functions?
posted by kapers at 3:17 PM on June 18, 2020

We have a flip-up cover and it does not come up unless lifted. We also have people who wander in and steal things from the garage or from inside the car if the door isn't closed and/or the car isn't locked at night. (The garage door was broken and left open for a while; I lost a bike, a power cable, and some nice sunglasses on separate occasions.)

My guess is that someone is trying to see if they can open the garage door to steal whatever you keep inside the garage.
posted by gideonfrog at 3:39 PM on June 18, 2020 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Here's the actual keypad, in the position I found it (hope imgur is okay).

I'll definitely try the tape and/or metal suggestions if I can't set up a camera, thank you!

Related question to maybe someone trying to steal stuff: the other three visible houses on our street keep outside lights on at night. We have motion lights near the doors and garage, but I keep the garden lamp off overnight. Should I keep it on? I'm not a fan of adding to light pollution.
posted by Baethan at 4:27 PM on June 18, 2020

There’s no way wind would move the cover fully vertical like that. You either have a ghost or someone is trying codes to try and get in.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:32 PM on June 18, 2020

I have an almost identical keypad on my garage and can confirm that the cover has never flipped open in the wind like that. One possibility comes to mind, however--do you or your husband ever leave the cover open when you open the garage door, assuming you will flip it down when you close it, and then later close the garage door from a different keypad inside the house? I do this occasionally, and it means the cover stays up until whenever I notice it.

Otherwise yeah, it sounds like someone is messing with it, and better lighting is not a bad idea.
posted by Jemstar at 8:07 PM on June 18, 2020 [1 favorite]

It would not be uncommon for potential thieves to go around trying car doors, door knobs, fence latches, garage keypads, etc to find places to break into, now or later. I could also see this being the work of a bored teenager just messing with things in the neighborhood. It’s not the wind.

Either way, a motion light is a great idea and this is an excellent moment to check the security of the locks on the doors and windows on your property.
posted by gnutron at 8:52 PM on June 18, 2020

Yup, someone's trying to get in. Change your code monthly, and get a motion-sensitive light closer to the keypad if you can.
posted by pdb at 8:53 PM on June 18, 2020 [1 favorite]

Nthing that it's likely someone trying to get in. We have the same model and the wind has never forced the cover to open even in the slightest way.
posted by Vek at 12:08 PM on June 19, 2020

We have a similar keypad and have found it flipped up occasionally. We’re pretty sure it’s not people doing it, we live up a 1/4 mile driveway and have outdoor cameras and an alarm.

Our best guess is our own carelessness.
posted by lydhre at 6:51 PM on June 19, 2020