[Taffycat]

Perhaps incorrectly, I always thought that these things were supposed to sound for no more than 20 mins or so, before switching off?

Today, a house alarm from somewhere nearby, has been sounding continuously since 8 am! No breaks. No cut-offs. So that makes five hours, as I write.

Normally, we don't pay much attention when alarms go off in the area. They tend to do so fairly regularly, and mostly, they seem to trigger in response to everything other than intruders... such as a momentary power failure/surge, etc.

Anyway, after 3 hours, we decided to call 101, Plod's non emergency number. Hmm... that was a bit of a laugh. The woman who answered the call was quite snippy, insisting that if the alarm had been going for 3 hours, then burglars were unlikely to still be present.

Well duh...!

We were hardly imagining that they would be. But as neither she, nor we, have any way of knowing what the circumstances might actually be... surely it couldn't have hurt for them to take a look? Just to rule out the possibility of someone actually being injured, or in trouble...

But no, miss snippy decided that this was really a "noise nuisance" problem, nothing at all to do with them. Why was I not surprised?

I decided to speak with someone in the Environmental Health office. Explained the situation to a very helpful young woman, who promptly wondered aloud...."Ooh, I would've thought that the Police would be interested, seeing that it's been going on for such a long time..."

Yes, agreed.

Anyway, after noting relevant details, she told me that the matter would now be passed to their area inspector - Council sort that is. I was given a case number, and that, as they say, was that.

Blasted alarm is STILL going though......

[muckshifter]

yes, aren't our police wonderful ... to be fair, you probably didn't actually speak with a real police person (I'm being politically correct) but rather a highly trained police receptionist ... you should have said there were dead bodies all over the place.

[TriplexDread]

Typically the battery can last upto a couple of hours. Depending on the system, however most of the alarms I have had experience with usually last about 45mins too an hour or so..Certainly not all day unless they have somehow been bridged inside to run continually on the mains supply

[Taffycat]

Well - it's now been almost 7.5 hours! It's still going strong. That alarm has to be running on the mains - unless they have a truly ginormous battery!

@ Mucks... oh yes indeed, we've encountered the civilian staff before... what a total waste of space some of them are.

[crazylegs]

I think a polite letter through there letterbox wouldn't go amiss here, otherwise they will be none the wiser on just how long its been going and what a real nuisance it has been!
Just incase there is a fault with the unit which the owner doesn't particularly want to fork out for as it could happen again..

[floppybootstomp]

I think the most likely scenario here is that an intruder or a pet set the alarm off or a fault on the systerm set the alarm off. It's probably still going as charging volts are still present to the sounder enclosure. It will likely continue to sound until the panel is reset or the battery & charging volts disconnected in the external enclosure.

Note through letter box good idea.

Next time you call police tell them you've just seen a man dressed in crepe soles, black trousers, a black and white long sleeved horizontally striped T-Shirt, a black eye mask, flat cap and carrying a sack on which the word 'Swag' is emblazoned, climbing up a ladder to the first floor window.

That may work, it may not

In the meantime:

[Taffycat]

Ring-Ring.... Flopps, you know how to torture a person

Just received a call from the Environmental Health chappie. He says he came out to investigate and has established which house has the alarm.

It seems the owner is working in Cardiff, so "will be home soon" to turn off the alarm. Apparently, the owner intends to take a look at it this evening.... oh good..! Let's hope he knows what he is doing and doesn't make things worse!

The note idea was good CL, and if it happens again, we'll certainly be trying that - because now we know where he lives!! Mwahahaha ... just joking, that isn't a threat.

The EH department seems to have a bit more gumption than our local Plod. So to them!!

[muckshifter]

Originally Posted by Taffycat

The EH department seems to have a bit more gumption than our local Plod. So to them!!

It seems it is their gaff (The EH department) to "fix" noisy alarms, not the police.

https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/environ...ar-alarms.html

... just one example.

[Taffycat]

Originally Posted by muckshifter

It seems it is their gaff (The EH department) to "fix" noisy alarms, not the police.

https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/environ...ar-alarms.html

... just one example.

That's a jolly good article Mucks, thank you - I looked for something similar on our own Council's website this morning, but found nothing remotely like that. Going to bookmark it for future reference.

This person caused one heck of a nuisance a couple of years ago. He had dogs at that time, who used to spend the whole day barking, poor things, which upset a lot of the neighbours.

It took the EH department almost 3 years in total to sort that situation out... I think they might be a bit in awe, because the fellow in question lives in a very nice, absolutely huge house. So lots of warnings, and extended "28-day chances" to comply with noise abatement orders, etc. Bit of a farce really.

[EvanDavis]

There is a car that parks in our buildings parking area who's alarm goes of at least 3 times a night for absolutely no reason every single night. Recently I got so fed up I wrote a little note to the owner and stuck it under the wiper blade.

Note went something like " Sort your ****ing alarm out before I smash the windows out and give it reason to go off "
Needless to saythe alarm no longer goes off at night