Last night at around 3:15 AM, a car alarm went off in my suburban neighborhood. I could tell it was some distance away, but it was also one of the loudest and most piercing alarms I have ever heard. After 20 minutes I called 911 and asked if they could do something; the operator said that they could send an officer, but if the officer couldn’t locate an owner there was nothing they could do. I waited another ten minutes, and then began looking for my old work earplugs, which I mercifully was able to find. They worked fantastically, and I went back to sleep.
When I woke up in the morning, I pulled out my earplugs… and the alarm was still going! It is now 11:38 AM and the alarm shows no sign of stopping. I am still wearing my earplugs.
I haven’t sought out the car in question personally because:
A) if the owner wasn’t aware of the alarm within the first minute, he is never gonna be
B) Many other people must live closer to the source of the alarm and are both in a better position to do something about it and more likely to be motivated to
C) all it seemed I could do to stop it is break a window, pop the trunk, and disconnect the battery. Obviously such property damage is unacceptable.
Questions:
How do people in urban neighborhoods deal with this sort of thing?
Just how long is this alarm likely to keep going?
Why can’t the police do anything about something which is so clearly disturbing the peace?
You could also get a slim jim, or a tool used by tow companies, locksmiths, etc, to pop open the door. A slim jim slides down between the window and door and engages with the mechanism that locks the door, allowing you to unlock the door.
Afterwards, pop the hood and disconnect the battery.
The best part is, the alarm is already going, so no need to be worried about that being set off!
I should imagine the alarm would stop when it runs down the car battery, or do they have some separate form of power? (Maybe eternal, supplied by the devil himself).
Sanity check: has anybody other than you heard this alarm? This might be a sign for you to start building a giant Space Ark or something.
I call bullshit on not being able to do anything if they can’t locate the owner. Cracking the hood and disconnecting the battery, possibly after first towing it away somewhere, is clearly an option.
I suggest calling the local precinct directly. Again and again until they do something about it.
Even for alarms that use the car’s electromechanical horn, that will take hours, and toward the end, it will start getting comical as “BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!..” degrades into “ehrrrp ehrrrrp ehrrrp…” five hours later.