Many know to keep their doors locked at night and while their away. Many know to keep their windows locked when they aren’t open, and bolted especially when they are not at home. Many know how to take up additional security measures when they go on long trips. Still others invest heavily in complex security systems. These are all excellent things! However, they may be overlooking the most obvious entry point any thief would take--the garage door.
Garage doors are heavy, but they are components of garages, sections of a home that are either partially or wholly separate from the main structure. This keeps car noise down, but it also means that intrusions into the garage itself are more difficult to detect.
Garage doors are often not locked. This means that, unfortunately, the garage door is not secure. While garage doors are often heavy, their weight simply means they are slow to open. They are not necessarily louder, and they are not intrinsically more secure. If you are leaving for more than a few hours, padlock it.
Make sure you’re using a modern garage door opener. Garage door openers used to have static codes, not unlike license plates–every one would be different, but they would be unchanging. More recently, they transmit different codes, the openers and internal workings of the door interfacing to alternate from code to code, so the same is never used twice. The most modern use this shifting code in addition to a static redundancy. This last version is the one you should look for if you have a choice, to keep the cleverer burglars out where they belong.
Make sure if you do employ a garage door opener that your door does not move. If a door can be forced open, it is not as secure as it needs to be to lock out intruders. Stack security methods when possible and employ both a padlock and a secure opener for maximum security. While it is impractical and not always safe for the structural integrity of the door to keep a padlock on at all times when the door might be opened automatically, you should keep it defended as best you can at all times. Perhaps consider locking it with a padlock when you come in for the night and unlocking it when you get the paper. In any case, always padlock it if you should leave for an overnight trip.