The Stamina of Some Car Alarms
At roughly 3am this morning I heard a car alarm. I didn’t bother getting up for several reasons. First, I knew my car was in the parking garage under my building. Secondly, my car doesn’t have an alarm. And finally I could tell from the sound it was a block or more away.
This alarm persisted for a good four hours. It would stop for a minute every 20 minutes or so but then it would resume again, for at least four hours!
Earlier I went down two floors to our party room & gym on the other side of the building facing East. There on 16th was a VW Touareg SUV with the alarm sounding.
After a couple of hours of no alarm I heard it again. So back to the East view I went:
The VW is still on 16th (next to the garage) but on the opposite side of the street from earlier.
I feel for the folks on the East side of my building as well as folks in surrounding buildings that heard the alarm more directly vs. my hearing it bouncing of buildings. Had the SUV been stolen we wouldn’t have been bothered as much.
I had a neighbor one time that had an overly sensitive alarm — passing motorcycles would set it off. I’ve had three cars with factory installed alarms and one was a bit sensitive. Motorcycles wouldn’t set it off but I could not leave the sunroof open or the sensor would set off the alarm. Most factory alarms and perhaps newer aftermarket alarms are activated by locking the doors with the remote. So unless someone has their alarm disconnected by the dealer their only choice is to leave the vehicle unlocked. These alarms might have an adjustment to them. Having an alarm cry wolf doesn’t help when someone really is breaking into the vehicle — annoyed neighbors will just be thankful when the thief drives away taking the offensive alarm along for the ride.
In NYC many have called on the ban of car alarms (see article). Of course in NYC I think they need to ban most vehicles except taxis — at least in Manhatten.
I just wonder why it went off for hours. Was it being tripped up again or was it just very persistent?
Back in college, I had a roommate that was from a prominent Chicago family heavily invested in the sanitation business, if you know what I mean.
Car alarms would drive him over the moon. Whenever he heard one going off for more than a few minutes he would storm out of dorm room and come back about a half hour later. Oddly, after he got back the alarmed car in question was always missing from the lot.
I never did figure out where they went, and I figured it was prudent not to ask. 🙂
Incidentally, this is not a recommendation, just a remembrance.
G
Did you call the police? I’m guessing not.
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Where used to live, a car alarm went off all night. The next day, the headlights were broken out and the paint job was heavily keyed.
Ooops! I wonder how that happened? 😉
this is why the good lord invented hammers. to remind people of the absolute pointless nature of a car alarm and how we have all become desensitized to their plea. do they really work as a deterrent?
lo-jack and GPS make some sense but the rest is annoying BS.
some states have time limits on how long they can go off, before it was in effect in CA there was a rattletrap going for 36 hours once and before that a jack-assy ‘talking’ alarm kept parking in front of my house which just provoked even more idiot response.
“please step away from the car” yeah great strategy parallel parked on a busy street with lots of foot traffic. right outside my house.