NATO Jams Garage Doors

NATO recently put up new radio towers in the Denver as a security measure for an upcoming defense ministers’ conference. Suddenly, no one?s automatic garage doors work anymore.

Eileen Kelley writes in the DenverPost.com that the Overhead Door Company of Colorado Springs received hundreds of phone calls on a single day from people who couldn’t get their garage doors to open. People with computer keypad entry systems were even locked out of their homes. Overhead Door employee Tina Oetken says, “With over 600-plus calls, it’s hard to believe that it can be anything but” NATO.

Garage-door transmitters work on radio frequencies. NATO also needs to use radio frequencies but they insist they?re not using the same frequencies as remote-controlled garage-door openers. “We’ve double-checked our system, and there’s no technical reason that we should be causing the problem,” says Army Lt. Col. Gary Keck.

Resident Debbie DeYoung says, “?I thought maybe it was the battery. My garage door has been wild.” A nearby Radio Shack sold out of 12-volt batteries, which are used for garage-door openers, and a new shipment sold out in 90 minutes.

“It was one customer after another asking if we had batteries for garage-door openers,” Radioshack’s Janell Fowler says. But when people brought the batteries in to be tested, they all turned out to be good. Fowler says, “Now when people come and say, ‘I need a battery for my garage-door opener’ I say, ‘No, you don’t.’ It has been pretty crazy around here.”

Stealing our garage door frequencies? What else is the government up to?

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