An alarm has been ringing for half hour

[jedimistress]

It's late and a really loud aarm. (Car or house) hs been ringing for half an hour now somewhere in my cul de sac. I just happen to be on here. Is there anything I can do? It's annoying me now and will it abate? What if the neghbours are on holiday and cannot turn it off, do the alarms go off by themselves eventually? Should I call the fuzz?

[Answerprancer]

Yes - call the (local not 999) fuzz - I bet all your neighbours are doing the same thing, meanwhile, the bloke with the stripey T-shirt, mask and huge sack with "Loot" written on it is having a field day!

[Answerprancer]

(same thing ie. wondering and not doing anything)

[annie0000]

Call the local police, they wont do anything unless you say you thought you saw someone hanging around or something suspicious. Other than that, they will direct you to the council's noise team and you could wait forever

[ttfn]

To be fair answerprancer my local police could not care less about alarms going off. One business alarm has been known to go off all night. Surprised the windows had not been smashed by the neighbours in attempt at entry and de-sensitising the darn thing.

[AlBags]

No reaction ... ?
Poke it off with a washing line prop.
Damned annoying and anti-social to have it doing that.

[Answerprancer]

Yes but it will carry on ringing like in the cartoons ! Even if it's been bashed in with a huge comedy sledgehammer.

[jedimistress]

Glad you clarified that Answerprancer as I thought I would definately not call the 0845 somewhere across the other side of the county to be asked a million questions about myself, especially if all the other neighbours were doing it.

It's still ringing....but it's not crime. Probably just the wind.

[boxtops]

if it's on battery it will run down eventually.

[jedimistress]

It's stopped at last, or having a break. Can open the window again now...

[Buenchico]

If it's a burglar alarm, the law requires that the householder should have ensured that the alarm 'self-cancelled' after 20 minutes. In London there's also a legal requirement to register the names of two keyholders with the Metropolitan Keyholder Database. (To the best of my knowledge registration on local databases elsewhere in the UK is only optional).

It's the job of local council Environmental Health departments (rather than the police) to deal with alarms which don't self-cancel. Under certain circumstances they can obtain a warrant to break into the premises in order to cancel a continuous alarm.

Car alarms should be designed to self-cancel after 5 minutes. Again, it's the job of council Environmental Health officials to deal with alarms which give rise to noise pollution. If required they can tow an offending vehicle to a remote spot where the alarm won't cause a problem for anyone.

Most councils list a 24-hour emergency number in the Phone Book.

Chris

[AlBags]

You gonna go round and tell them that?
Nope.