Sliding Door Improvised Jam

[Neurotic Anomaly]

Okay, on most of my ops I very rarely have to deal with sliding glass doors. And anybody who has had experience with them will testify that they are some of the easiest to work with, given there is no squeaking.

The problem arose today when me and a partner were scouting an empty house. The safest and most concealed place of entry was a sliding glass door around the back. There were no windows.
When we went to open it, it wouldn't budge. We investigated and found it to not be locked, but rather blocked by a long object laid prostrate against the inside of the still piece of glass.

Neither of us could see what it was because the reflection of the concrete porch on the glass made it opaque.
If anyone has ever dealt with this before, please post any advice you may have.
My partner also has an account here and may be able give some more detail.

[Lucian Neo]

I'm his partner! xD

Seriously though, I know for a fact this place is abandoned and it has been for around 6 months, give or take. There was somebody that went in there about 3 months ago and I guess he did something to block the door from opening. It's not too far away from me, so I can go check it out again later. There is 2 sliding glass doors, But only 1 side of it is designed to open. I can see through the door, But I can not see what is blocking the door from opening. I will try to get some pics of the door, and where I think the problem is. I will try to get these pics withing 24 hours of this post.

The top half of the door WILL move, but the bottom will not. If anyone has any ideas please post.

[Ghost]

This doesn't work 100% of the time, but depending upon how smart the homeowner/builder was you may have some success.

When a sliding glass door is installed, it's essentially lifted up, the top is pushed into the door frame at a slight angle, and then the bottom is set into the track. For this to be possible, there needs to be some extra room above the sliding glass door, so that it can be lifted high enough to clear the door frame on the bottom. A smart builder will, after putting the door in, nail a thin piece of wood in the door frame above the door, to prevent it from being lifted out of the track. Thankfully, many homeowners and builders are not this smart. Try lifting the door up vertically. If they forgot to install that thin piece of wood, you'll be able to get the door up high enough to push the bottom edge out of the track, and then it's just a matter of being careful not to drop the whole door into the house.

It's sort of difficult to explain, so if you need clarification i might be able to find some pictures of this method.

[Neurotic Anomaly]

Sounds good, I get the basics of what your saying. As a matter of fact, I think I did that by accident when I was looking at it. I could lift up the top left corner about an inch and a half maybe. I'll try that next time I take a trip to the house.

[Xanatos]

After a bit of Googling lifting up the door is probably the best way to go, unless you don't mind breaking the glass (of which there were many humorous suggestions for doing so). If the door is too hard to grip then you can use a screwdriver or small crowbar to jam under the doorframe for better leverage. You just need to lift the door high enough to slip a bent wire coathanger or similar tool to remove the object that's blocking the door from sliding.

[Lucian Neo]

Alright. Thanks for the tips, I'll probably do a small night op tonight and try that out.

[Nukes]

I think i watched a episode of "To catch a thief" that they came up against a similar problem, they just kept brute forcing the door till the jam popped away, you could try that or bring a prybar for some extra leverage.

[Lucian Neo]

Alright, so I'm hearing a resounding "lift it up." Thanks for the tip guys. I'm going to rendezvous with my partner later and we'll see if we can get it to work. Thanks for the tips!

[Xanatos]

No problem, let us know how it works out.

[Lucian Neo]

Sorry guys I've been kind of lazy with this door. >.> I'm going to try to get my partner down here later today and try and get this door open.

[Lucian Neo]

OK I got my partner down here today, We departed about an hour ago, We were going to check on this sliding door thing. But there was a dog back there that I wasn't familiar with (I knew him but never interacted with him) So we decided to bid our time and do a day recon instead. I will find out about this later

[Xanatos]

Dogs: Man's best friend, operative's worst enemy.

[Lucian Neo]

Dogs: Man's best friend, operative's worst enemy.

lol. truth. I have some sliced ham, I'm going to try to give it today and hope that he shuts up long enough for me to get in and out.

[Illusion]

Dogs aren't always that much of a problem. How does he appear when he see's you?

[Neurotic Anomaly]

The dog's tied in the backyard. He barks at me, but he's more accustomed to Lucian. He'll still bark, but Lucian is able to walk up and safely pet him. Not so much myself.

[Illusion]

The dog's tied in the backyard. He barks at me, but he's more accustomed to Lucian. He'll still bark, but Lucian is able to walk up and safely pet him. Not so much myself.

If he's tied up then he can he actually reach you? If not then he's no threat in that sense. You can make him calm down with ham as has been discussed..

However, depending on the time frame - it may be possible to get him to bark regularly; a la the boy who cried wolf; so by the time you go to do anything they're just fed up with him barking and ignore him. Not ideal, but an idea..

[Lucian Neo]

The dog's tied in the backyard. He barks at me, but he's more accustomed to Lucian. He'll still bark, but Lucian is able to walk up and safely pet him. Not so much myself.

If he's tied up then he can he actually reach you? If not then he's no threat in that sense. You can make him calm down with ham as has been discussed..

However, depending on the time frame - it may be possible to get him to bark regularly; a la the boy who cried wolf; so by the time you go to do anything they're just fed up with him barking and ignore him. Not ideal, but an idea..

Thanks for the idea, I'm not worried about being attacked by the dog. He would probably just lick me to death anyway, I'm more worried about people investigating. Boy who cried wolf: Not always succesful, And if they decide to come put the dog inside so he will shut up. Well I'm right there and there is very few places to take cover, and if I do, The dog will most likely be pointing at me barking in my direction.