Last night I got a call from my wife asking me to pick up my mother-in-law from work. My father-in-law was to have driven her home but was an hour late and no one could find him. Upon arriving at their house we discovered the problem. Apparently there had been an accident in the area that had knocked out the power and phone lines. With no phone, he couldn't make or receive calls.

Now here is the best part. The reason dad-in-law couldn't go anywhere was that the landlord had installed an electric garage door opener a few months ago. When the power went out, the opener obviously wouldn't work. And, since the roll up door is the only access to the garage, there was no way to pull the release rope and rescue the car locked inside. Needless to say, he is working on a back up system to release the rope!

There is a lock that you can get for just such occasions. It installs into the door near the top and the release cable is attached to the back. When the power goes out put in the key, turn it and pull back and lift the door. You may have to go to an overhead door company to find one, it has been a while since i have seen any at one of the large home improvement stores. HTH

That reminds me of a buddy who claimed that he always had defroster spray for the car locks with him. I witnessed one occasion , where he needed it. On that ocassion he realized that storing it in the glove box wasn´t exactly a smart move. At least he learnt that lesson.

I fabricated a device to enable my wife to easily open the bathroom door privacy lock (the kids were forever locking themselves in ). My wife stored the device in the bathroom medicine cabinet.

Thanks for the info. He has since extended the release rope and secured it to the bottom of the door so that it can be used from outside. Security is not an issue as the push button control was mounted outside as well. Basically, the garage keeps the snow off the car and thats it.


Chris