Herriman homeowner says he believes car thief may have used technology to hack garage door
Feb 3, 2024, 10:30 AM | Updated: Feb 5, 2024, 12:22 pm
HERRIMAN — A homeowner was hoping someone would be able to identify a car thief he suspected may have used technology to open his garage door early Friday morning.
Luis Camara Manoel said he woke up to a red 2020 Hyundai Santa Fe missing from his closed garage.
When he checked the video recorded by his surveillance cameras, he spotted a man somehow triggering his garage door to open at 2:58 a.m. and then entering, casing the space for valuables, testing the door of his SUV before moving over to the Santa Fe where he was able to get inside, start the vehicle with some keys apparently left inside, and then drive away — all in about a minute.
It appeared the man had arrived in a different vehicle and a woman was briefly captured on the surveillance footage entering and exiting the garage as well.
“To watch how calm and collected, but quick, they were is really shocking,” Camara Manoel told KSL TV.
Herriman police were at the home investigating Friday afternoon.
While it was unclear exactly how the suspects accessed the garage, Camara Manoel believed it was potentially a device that hacked into his garage door’s radio frequency.
“We can only speculate they used some kind of modulator to get into the garage,” the homeowner said. “We know they’re driving down the street, trying these modulators to see what, if any, garages will respond and they hit the jackpot here.”
He said the Sante Fe had a large Portuguese shield sticker in the back window with Utah license plate number T70 7JT.
Camara Manoel said he was grateful his surveillance cameras captured clear images of the man and he hoped someone might be able to recognize him.
He hoped anyone with information about the burglary and theft would contact the Herriman Police Department at 801-840-4000.
“It’s so difficult today to protect — to truly protect — your home,” Camara Manoel said. “You see a lot of this happening in movies and to someone else on the news and you never expect it to happen to you.”
