10.04.2008

How many cops does it take?

to turn off a car alarm?

Yesterday I noticed a car alarm going off twice on this car parked in front of our house (and since we were at Disneyland most of the day, who knows how many other times it went off, sensitive to the slightest noise or touch):
I laughed as we drove-by, thinking:
A) why does that car have an alarm?
B) where do you even find a 90s car alarm these days, with all the funny ascending tones and flashes?
C) who wants to steal this beater corolla?

It was all funny to me and Casey until....2:30am
The alarm started randomly going off again. With sensitive mom ears, I was awake in 5 seconds. 30 seconds later, Casey was awake too.
"It's that dumb car."

We lay there in bed listening to the blaring beep beep beep waiting for someone to wake up and turn the blasted thing off. Of course all sounds are louder in the night (such as Owen's crying performance an hour after the car alarm incident.) But seriously, were we the only people woken by this obnoxious sound?

Ten minutes went by and no one shut it off.

So I called the Police station and 5 minutes later, THREE squad cars with EIGHT cops showed up. Casey went out to talk to them and he was immediately tagged as the suspect.
"No, we're the ones that put the call into you."
Three cops jimmied open the car door, popped the hood of the car and tried to find a way to turn off the noise. The other cops knocked on our neighbor's door to see if they would shut off the alarm (I guess they ran a license plate/address match?) But no one answered.
Strangely however, right when the cops knocked on the door and the car-hood was popped open, the beeping stopped. We suspect that someone inside the house finally got up and shut if off from inside the house. We even heard a beep-boop sound of someone locking the car again.
LAME.
Well, that solved the problem for the moment, but what about when it goes off again at 5am? The cops didn't seem to care. The moment the sound was gone, they were gone.

One hour of sleep lost. Thankfully the kids slept through it all.
Oh, the joys of apartment living.

10 comments:

Jen Suman said...

That is sooo obnoxious! I hate car alarms. I hate the ones where the car horn honks when someone locks the doors. So annoying! And honestly, when a car alarm goes off does anyone come running to stop someone from stealing the car? No, everyone is so annoyed that they just try their best to ignore it. Car alarms are so pointless.

La La Land said...

That is so annoying! You are lucky, though. My step-brother had to endure 3 DAYS of his neighbor's car alarm going off. The cops wouldn't do anything about it because they said they had to have a search warrant to "break and enter" the car. Seriously?! Yes, welcome to apartment living.

Jean said...

Oh my gosh, that is SO horrible. I HATE car alarms. They go off in the post office parking lot all the time, but at least the owners can probably hear it inside the post office, so they come out quickly enough and turn them off. But seriously... WHAT is up with that neighbor... shutting it off from inside the house without even coming out and apologizing... LAME. :-P

dietcokegrrl said...

Ok--we had this happen one Saturday or Sunday and it kept going off ALL DAY starting in the morning. By early evening, one of the neighbors called the police. One officer came by (not 8) knocking on doors to see whose it was. I told them it wasn't mine and I didn't know who it belonged to. They never found out whose it was and the police called a tow truck to have it impounded. I thought that was a little harsh (those impound fees are INSANE), but whatever--it was annoying. I still see that car parked on the street sometimes, but have never heard his alarm again. I really wanted to see his face when he came outside and his car was gone.

Nicole said...

I can relate to this all to well. When Jeff & I loved in our one bedroom apartment in AZ this happened. The only problem is we were not smart enough to call the police...so annoying!!!

B Brown said...

So annoying. Our neighbors went out of town once and naturally their car alarm went off for the entire weekend. Cops came but couldn't do much. Thankfully their battery eventually died on their really sweet 80's forest green 4runner with a massive dent in the side. Good thing they had that alarm and the thieves didn't get it.

Grayson Family said...

Kind of makes you want to shut the alarm off permanently doesn't it?

Saunja said...

Bugging. Sorry.

megan said...

yeah, we had an alarm that was going off in the apts next door...all day...all night...I think someone finally did something about it. That's so crazy that many cops showed! Must have been a slower night for them, haha

Sara said...

ANNOYING!!