How likely is it that someone else's remote would open my garage door

[atommom]

AND trigger the panic button on my minivan? Yesterday the garage door opened and shut itself, twice. About 60 seconds later, my van started honking and flashing its lights (the alarm wasn't on at the time ... it was reacting as if I'd hit the panic button on my keychain). This went on for about 15 seconds, then stopped. I know where all of our remotes are, and no one was messing with them at the time. Suggestions? :think:

[radwriter0555]

1. Aliens.

Only possible explanation.

Or a ghost.

[atommom]

6. The nice aliens or the evil aliens? Or the evil government agents

that cover up the evidence of the aliens? I should have paid more attention to the X-files when it was on...

[Catherine Vincent]

2. What have you been saying about Bush on this message board?

:-)

[atommom]

3. Only really NICE things. You know, like everyone else on DU!

:tinfoilhat:

[Demeter]

4. It Can Happen

It happened to me--a neighbor and I had the same openers, and the same frequency--just change your frequency, and the problem should go away.

As for the car alarm, perhaps from having the door open?

[atommom]

5. Maybe, but I didn't even have the alarm turned on. It has never gone

off before. I've heard of the garage opener thing before... it just seems strange to have both things happening at once!

[seafan]

7. I remember some weird things w/ garage doors in FL recently too:

Just googled for these.... not quite your problem, but it is interesting. Do you live near a military base?


http://gadgets.engadget.com/entry/1234000167022830/

The US military has declared war on your garage door opener. At least sort of. If you live close to a military base, you might come home one day to discover that your automatic garage door opener doesn’t work anymore, since between now and 2008 the military is implementing a new radio communication system that just happens to use the same frequency as the one used by something like 90% of garage door clickers (to be fair, the military has owned that slice of the spectrum for over 50 years, and just hadn’t decided to use it until now). The best part about the military potentially punking thousands or even tens of thousands of people is that they probably won’t even know what the hell is going on, and will assume they’ve got a dead battery or a defective unit on their hands before they’ll suspect that they’re just the victim of RF interference.


and....

http://www.volubis.com/blog/archives/000037.html

May 20, 2004
USAF in secret garage door jamming trials
The USAF has successfully deployed a two-way radio garage door jamming system at its Eglin Air Force base in Florida, according to the state's news-journalonline.

The $5.5m Motorola system is apparently keeping garage doors firmly shut in the surrounding Niceville, Valparaiso and the Crestview communities. Although technicians have said they will try and address the issue by running the system at "slightly different frequencies from those used by garage door openers to try to eliminate or reduce the interference when another test is conducted Friday through Monday", the Air force is unrepentant and insists it is in compliance with its licence.

Federal Communication Commission spokeswoman Lauren Van Wazer confirmed that "if the Air Force is running the system within its licensed frequencies, users of garage door openers may have to change theirs".

Alternatively, we suggest that they could exit their vehicles, walk six feet and operate the garage doors manually.

[atommom]

9. I think the nearest base is about 40 miles away. But that's very

interesting information!

[phusion]

8. Sounds like RF disturbance...

Or something...Was there anything else in the neighborhood acting up? TV or radio messing up at the time?

That's weird!

[atommom]

10. Unfortunately, I didn't have the TV or radio on at the time. I was

wondering about that, too. It was very strange...

[ucmike]

11. is anything missing?

maybe someone used another opener to open your door then bumped your car on the way out with an armload of your stuff.

[atommom]

12. That's a good guess, but I was close to the garage when it started

acting freaky, and got to watch part of the show. The door didn't fully open, didn't stay open, and nobody came in. I'm not feeling particularly secure about that door now, though. :shrug: