The movie is “Noise” with Tim Robbins. Quite good, strangely, considering that it revolves around car alarms. He is a one man enforcement squad, constantly refining his technique.
Not to be confused with “Noise” of the Australian variety, also a very good film about a murder case (if you can handle the tinnitus sound effect).
Update: It’s going off again. And has for about ten minutes so far.
All the comments about lifting the front end of the car make me wonder if you could just jack up the front until it shut up, and then set it back down (carefully) on some cinder blocks or something.
I’d really check your local noise laws; they should be available on your municipality’s website, assuming it has one, of course! Mine does, and the noise bylaw is this one.
My translation: “Specifically prohibited is noise originating from useless or abusive whistles, sirens, or horns in an automobile”.
Call the non-emergency police number - they can probably tell you what you can and can’t do, and who to call if there is any recourse.
It shouldn’t be too difficult to find out who the owner of the car is. The police might even help you there. Once you know who it is you can go knock on his door or ring his phone at 3 o’clock in the morning just to let hin know his car is okay. 
I think this is the other thread y’all are remembering:
Thats it!
I was remembering it going on for days. 25 hours and a bit is enough to just squeak by. I am sure it felt like days to the victims.
I also note that in that case the alarm made the lights flash. Making light takes way more energy than making sound, so if in this case the alarm isnt making the car lights flash, the OP here could be in for a long haul.
Home burglar alarms can cause the same type of problem. And there’s no option to tow it away.
I believe some home burglar alarms shut off after a fixed time, perhaps 30 minutes, but there are others that continue until shut off.
I recall a few cases in the area where the police made it clear neighbors could not take any action.
I just want to take a second to defend car alarm owners. Not ALL alrms serve only to annoy.
We recently had our alarm fail in a way that it kept going off. Within 3 minutes we respnded, within 30 we had it disabled down to chirping, and within an hour and a half, Becca had it completely shut down and the brain box removed, silencing it for good. We replaced the damaged alarm with a unit that has Nuicanse Control Programming. It goes off for 60 seconds when tripped. If the same sensor trips it repeatedly (such as if a door isn’t shut right, or a sensor fails), the alarm shuts down that sensor. On windy days, or if there is contruction, we set it with the bump sensor disabled. Should it go off and no one is home, it would stop in 60 seconds unless someone is ACTUaLlY stealing the car. If it’s being stolen, either the cops will come or the car will be stolen and not bothering tennants. If they give up, the car will stop going off.
Not ALL car alarm owners are dicks!
-Mia
Jeez, for a minute there I thought, “Holy crap, that car alarm has been going off for three years now!” :eek:
The alarm was loud enough to wake the living dead! AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR BRAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINS!!!
zombie or no
buying the heavy duty battery can have its benefits.
Ok, so I didn’t check the date.
-Mia
Aside from the stale nature of this thread, car alarms are useless. They became so annoying and pervasive during the 90’s and early 00’s that nobody pays attention to them. I don’t know of anyone that would get up and go check out a car that had one going off, especially if it’s not their own car and even people that think it’s their car assume that someone must have just bumped the car and it’s inadvertantly going off.
The only thing that is useful is low-jack or something similar so they can track your car if it’s stolen.
Don’t all new cars now come with alarms as default?
I’ve always worried that if I got a car and stayed in an apartment, my alarm might go off and I wouldn’t know. Or if I were away from the car.
Umm its against the law here past 10 pm for any loud noise im in orlando florida its called noise orderance law past 10 pm resedential areas
I have had this problem in NYC, LA and another Southern Cal city–each time, I called the cops, they came by, did something, and the alarm was stopped. Obviously YMMV; and in my experience this is less and less a problem because fewer people have these alarms, or turn them on, but there is something that can be done.
I’m pretty sure none of the comments were directed at you or people like you. You act the way we expect all car alarm owners to act and justify our outrage over the other folks irresponsible behavior (you can do the right thing, why can’t they?). I’m sure you’ve been on the giving end of generalizations a few times too (e.g. noisy bikers, rabid gun owners, religious zealots, etc.)
note: the examples cited above are examples of highly visible members of a group that actually represent exceptions to the general behavior of that group.
Just to alert you , the person you quoted hasn’t been on the boards for the last 11 months. They bumped a zombie from 2009 which in turn was bumped again yesterday.
My main reaction to your question is why doesn’t the noise bother you? Isn’t that the whole issue with alarms that keep sounding, bass, leaf-blowers and the whole mess of noise pollution? People who say the noise doesn’t bother them are as troubling as the noise itself in many ways. In my experience, they tend to be rationalizing the impact just to get along with neighbors, which doesn’t solve anything. I lived in a fourplex with a major bass (stereo) nuisance from one unit, and a neighbor who obviously felt the bass lied when questioned by the police. There was a “no snitching” aspect to it that really annoyed me, and I moved out shortly after.
As for what can be done about unattended car alarms, calling the police or a tow truck are the main legal options. I think such cars should be towed.