Tulsa Burglars Used Garage Door Openers To Get Inside Homes, Police Say

Several Tulsa homeowners slept through home burglaries and car thefts that started with someone using a garage door opener to get inside.

It's prompting neighbors to take new precautions.

Two people got in using garage door openers left in unlocked cars.

"That's new, and many of us have already pulled our garage door openers out of the cars we park outside; it's not worth the risk," said resident James Deming.

It happened on several streets in the Shadow Mountain neighborhood.

"They were in our house. It had to be for a couple of minutes," said victim Jim Fuhls.

Fuhls had his car stolen, but what worries him most is that the burglars got in undetected.

"They go into the garage, into the fridge and got some stuff. We had spare keys on a rack inside the door, they got all those keys and when we woke up, all the keys were strewn all over the yard," Fuhl said.

A picture from a neighbor's camera helped confirm the burglars continued checking cars and houses down the street.

It's prompted several homeowners to invest in better security.

"Ours was not the only car stolen and not the only people whose house they came into. There were two other people who reported people were in there during that same period of time," Fuhls said.

Fuhls found their car in another neighborhood, but not everything someone would need to get back in their house.

"The key fob is still gone, the remote, the car key still gone," Fuhl said.

It's a new escalation of a common problem in many neighborhoods: burglars looking for an opportunity.

"I think that people are constantly checking car doors, hoping to get lucky, and they got lucky with us," Demings said.

Tulsa police caution people not to leave garage openers in cars.

It's also possible, but another step, to lock garage doors from inside.