What do you do when the same car alarm continues to drive you absolutely bonkers every single night but you just can’t discern the source? Such is the case for a couple of new residents to our fine neighborhood:
My roommate and I just moved to the lovely intersection of 21st and San Carlos. We are both new to this illustrious city and are proud to call ourselves residents of the Mission. We have, however, one single complaint and were hoping you and other residents might provide some assistance into the matter. You see, we are fully aware that living in the city comes with some city noises (we’re from Houston and Chicago respectively) so the odd siren or car alarm is only a temporary nuisance. Yet, there exists a car alarm which is audible from our intersection that goes off approximately every hour or so.
Our assumption is that it’s triggered by pigeon farts, clouds shifting or someone thinking about buying a Brooks saddle. It’s very identifiable, because instead of your typical car alarm it has an odd series of chirps and squeaks. It’s the only alarm of it’s kind I’ve heard. Both my roommate and I work long hours, and any attempts to triangulate its position have been so far fruitless, yet we know it can’t be too far off. We figured others in the area must hear it all the time. Day and night. Beeping. Blaring. Driving us mad. Any who our end goal is to locate it and either place a note for the owner, or submit a noise complaint to the city of SF. Or pay some guy $20 to rip the cable out from under the hood. Whatever works.
Well, at least it’s not a mockingbird car alarm! And before you give ‘em the old “Durrrrrr, welcome to the Mission motha-fuckas!” comment that I know you’re just dying to submit, perhaps you can come up with something a bit more clever? Or, God forbid, constructive? And I’m not talking about employing something that shares its namesake with our friend from the photo above!
Previously:
When I lived on Alabama there was a white ranger that started chirping every 15 minutes. It was beyond annoying. I finally left a note on the windshield informing the owner that if she didn’t get it fixed I was going to give her a reason to have a car alarm. She got it fixed.
In the meantime, this entire movie on the subject is on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nioohq1CUwE&feature=mv_sr
i heard that same damn car alarm last night from my hovel. i think it was going off more than once an hour though (unless it was a differnt, competing car alarm), as i actually looked outside on several occasions to be sure that the neighborhood wasn’t on fire or that we weren’t experiencing the zombi apocalypse. i have two things to say about car alarms that would suggest having one is pointless. neither comment is a solution to the problem posed above, but if the person whose car alarm goes off repeatedly happens to read this, perhaps that person will voluntarily dismantle aforementioned car alarm.
1) no own pays any attention to them in terms of crime control or abatement. the only acknowledgement of a car alarm is in conjunction with it being annoying. your car is still going to get broken into and no one is going to care or notice. in fact, some of us might applaud the car thief who breaks into your car because then you will be tormented the same way we are tormented by your annoying car alarm.
2) they are triggered by wind and san francisco is notoriously windy. if your car alarm could be programmed to function only between about 9 am and maybe 1 pm, when the wind is usually not so strong, maybe we can talk.
I’m dealing with an a-hole neighbor whose car alarm is constantly going off and someone around here has resorted to busting his car windows. The guy knows the residents hate the car alarm going off so he purposely sets it off himself along with leaving the alarm on sensitive settings. On a regular night, it goes off about 11 times from 9pm-8am. I hear the next step this person is going to take is break the windows of the cars that belong to the other tenants who live in that unit.
If that doesn’t get anything solved, at least the person was able to vent their frustration.
Perhaps one of these devices could help you locate the offending vehicle.
http://www.ggsmark.com/store/spy-listening-devices-audio,category.asp
I personally wouldn’t risk the bad karma associated with this approach, but your situation sounds extreme: When I lived on a busy street in Berkeley, this was a MAJOR problem as people would park in front of my house and then leave to go shopping for hours, to a bar at midnight on a weeknight, etc., and just leave their alarms behind to blare. More than one person told me that if you take a personal defense “taser” to a car’s metal frame, it will short out the electrical system (including the alarm). No idea if it actually works (or how dangerous it is).
I feel your pain, I’d leave a couple of notes if that doesn’t work karma be damned.
Why do people still have car alarms? Do they think this will actually happen?
Excellent usage of the Onion–let’s hear it for the “special Car Alarm Alert Squad”.
I heard my car alarm go off at 430 am and went outside to find my window broken and some dude in the drivers seat pulling out my fuses. I had the dog, which started barking. dude got scared and starting saying sorry as he scrambled to get back on his shitty mountain bike. If I hadn’t had that alarm, that dude would have had time to jerk off on my steering wheel while i was upstairs snoring.
Make a recording of the alarm sound and mix it into a dance track, enjoy it with your summer.
Call the police, of course. Someone is obviously trying persistently to steal or break into that car! As a transplant from the Midwest I’m amazed at how indifferent you big city folk are to these incidents! When you hear a car alarm you should obviously call 911. Wouldn’t you want your neighbors to do the same for you? It’s not your responsibility to attempt to determine whether a crime is in progress or the alam is accidental. That’s why we hire and train a police force, after all. Surely if the police didn’t want to be notified they’d work with the legislature to pass prohibitions against false alarms. They could, but for example, if simply ticket the vehicle the same way they charge businesses for false security and fire alarms.
Call 911 for a car alarm? Are you serious?! 553-0123 gets patrol for NON-EMERGENCIES. Dude.
Of course! 911 is for Emergencies, and a break-in in process certainly qualifies as an Emergency!
LOL, I had a car alarm going off nearby, repeatedly, recently and I went outside to identify the car, when I saw someone getting out of it with the alarm still going. I was so outraged that he hadn’t turned off his alarm that he had clearly accidentally triggered that it took my BF pointing it out that maybe that guy was actually breaking into the car. Just shows how de-sensitized to alarms I am from living in an urban area!
Brilliant trolling!
If it was brilliant trolling, it wouldn’t have been so easily identified as trolling.
Rats!
Unless there is a gun involved good luck in getting a response, let alone getting through in time for anything to be done.. Especially in the Mission. About 6 months ago some guy was walking down 24th smashing rear view mirrors, once I got through to the police (15 minutes later) they said they would send someone over, never showed… Welcome to the Mission.
After an incident a few years ago where a car alarm went off literally nonstop for 18+ hours right in front of our house, I talked to the cops about it, and they said that if you call the non-emergency number, and the cops can’t come deal with it soon, you’re allowed to be a vigilante and do whatever is necessary to disable the alarm. They said that’s exactly what they do when they come out.
I can kinda understand having an alarm if you actually park in your driveway, but dude, my car usually has to be parked blocks away from where I actually live. If I had an alarm I would never hear it.
…installing my whistle tips today…
That’s only in the morning
Wooooo woooo!!
that’s like our alarm clock
/recklessly drives away on wrong side of street, blowing through stop sign as KRON 4 cameras roll
best part.
When you finally DO identify the vehicle, leave a polite but terse note telling the owner to get a handle on it. If they don’t, heat up a tin of shoe polish and smear it on the windshield with an equally polite note reminding them of what happens when they let shit go.
If you really want to drive the message home, pour white pepper into the vents below the windshield. Years ago, pissed off residents of Haight Street worked this “magic” on an alarm; presto-change-o, problem vanished.
I have had very good results with calling the police for persistent car alarm detonations on my block. The last time I called, they looked up the owner of the car, attempted to find him at his home, and when that failed, they jimmied open the door, popped the hood, and disconnected the battery, then left a note explaining what they had done. They could have just had the car towed, but chose this more courteous route instead.
Hell yeah – looking into it.
San Francisco police did that? Wow, I had no idea!
Yep, SFPD did this for a car horn alarm that wouldn’t stop. It took them 2 hours, but they did it, and I was very happy I called the non-emergency police number. That horn alarm was friggin’ annoying…
You don’t like dubstep?
loud car alarms are a nuisance and a rip-off. a steering wheel club is cheaper and more effective. or if you are really worried about your shit get a lojack. i certainly wouldn’t waste police officers’ time with a car alarm. i would say they are set off pointlessly about 10,000 times for every 1 time there is an alarm going off while someone is actually trying to steal the car.
it’s probably just a mockingbird. Hear them all the time.
While we are on the subject of noise, I thought I would throw out a question I have been wrestling with to the community.
I live in a house on a purely residential block in the Mission. Like most of the homes in the neighborhood, we have a zero lot line with the neighbors (ie our exterior walls touch). My neighbor is in a band, and they regularly practice at the house on weeknights until after 11pm. Occasionally they will play past midnight. The sound travels quite clearly into my bedroom.
The music, incidentally, is pretty good. The problem is that I have a job that requires me to wake up before 6am. For me, this means I need to get to sleep around 10pm.
Over the course of 8-10 months, I have repeatedly reached out and asked them to music on the weekdays to 10pm. The response is generally friendly, but the next day I need to ask again, and again and again. They clearly don’t care at all.
I certainly realize that I live in a dynamic neighborhood, but it just doesn’t seem unreasonable to expect band practice to stop by 10pm on a weeknight in a purely residential neighborhood.
Am I out of line? If not, any suggestions on remedies. I would like to salvage the relationship, but am out of ideas.
this is definitely NOT cool. they need to get a practice space. let’s see what the readers have to say…
If they own next door, then continue to attempt to work with them. If they rent get in touch with the owner. Usually they’re also keeping up other people in the building, too. Loud anything that keeps you from sleeping on a school night is not ok.
Hi,
I’m curious if your noise issue with your neighbor ever got resolved.
We have a similar issue and I’m hoping you can share any suggestions that worked for you.
http://www.sfdph.org/dph/eh/Noise/default.asp
You’re welcome.
Regarding the relationship… WHAT relationship?
You need the sleep you need.
Break the window, pour gasoline in and light a match. Of course, don’t get caught!