Cloning An Old Garage Remote Control

[smurfchops]

Garage door was up overnight, our mistake, someone took my small change out of car and moved a few things around in the car. The garage door remote control which is around 20 years old appeared to be missing but we found it elsewhere in the car. Would an opportunist be able to clone this remote control before leaving it behind, or is it too old and am I worrying unnecessarily? Thanks all. The remote doesnt have a Make on it, still works though ...

[Old_Geezer]

Unlikely IMO.
An opportunist would surely have nicked whatever they wanted last night.

[Kidas]

My gut feel is similar to Old Geezer.

However, there are apps that you can get for a smartphone that will mimic any infra-red remote.

http://www.prophethacker.com/2014/06/control-and-hack-any-type-of-remote-control-device-from-android-mobile.html

Many Garage door remotes are based on radion frequency (RF) at 433MHz.

If the thief had a clone device similar to this (below), then it would be possible to clone your own door remote:

http://www.easygates.co.uk/universal_remote_control.asp

So, to answer your question, yes, that is possible. However, it sounds more like an opportunistic thing and opportunists are unlikely to carry that kind of cloning device.

[Hopkirk]

I agree, it is extremely unlikely this opportunist would have such a device with him.
If he had, he would surely have left the remote where he found it, to avoid arousing this suspicion.

However if you are worried, just lock the car when you park it in the garage.

[Tilly2]

Not answering your question here but I wanted to know if they damaged your car at all, or was it not locked?

[smurfchops]

Tilly we forgot to put the garage down so the car was unlocked inside. No damage, few items not where they should be,they had had a good look around but nothing was in there thank goodness except some small change which they took. Bit worried they could put the garage up at some time in the future as a door leads into our kitchen. At least I had locked this door on that night which I always do. I dont like to think about it though, but at least no one came into the house.