House Alarm - what to do when it goes off ?

G

GreatDane

Registered User
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681
Hi

An offshot from the topic about which alarm to get installed in your house guess, but something I'd very much appreciate a few views on ....

We have a monitored alarm on our house....

Recently, it went off (in the middle of the night) & frightened the living daylights out of the two of us ... the phone rang, it was the monitoring company. Suffice to say, while still half asleep, upstairs trying to get some clothes on & calm ourselves down, I've got this guy telling me how to turn it off, via the phone.

The alarm panel is downstairs, he tells me to go downstairs and turn it off. To then press a particular button on it, which will tell me which sensor has activated the alarm ... its the one to the back door into the kitchen, there's a closed full wooden door between me & whoever / whatever set off the alarm.

The guy at the monitoring system says do I want them to call the gardai ? ... have I checked the house etc ... What am I supposed to do ?

A) Risk a false alarm, getting the gardai out and then be seen as a time waister & probable coward. ... possibly risking a repeat, if it later proves there is a fault in the alarm system & ending up being "the boy who cried wolf" with the alarm company & gardai ?

B) Hide upstairs until morning time, with the alarm having gone off & me having subsequently turned it off ... door bolted into the bedroom & all my fingers & legs crossed, that there is not a number of intruders (firstly) stealing all my stuff ( & secondly ) considering breaking into the bedroom to assult myself and my "better half" ?

C) Accidently "find" a weapon which might just happen to conveniently placed and then proceed to investigage, risking the possibility of a confrontation and injuring either myself or the intruder(s) in the process ?

All comments appreciated

Cheers

G>
http://www.rpoints.com/newbie
 
I think that you turn on the lights and come down stairs with a weapon of some sort. Most of the time it's a false alarm and you can go back to bed happy. On the rare occasion it is a burglar, they will race off most of the time when they see you. Leave your better half on the phone to the alarm company just in case she needs to get the Gardai in an emergency.

I imagine if there are burglars in the house, they will have rushed off when the alarm went off.

Brendan
 
Good point Brendan - turn on the lights. We have two control panels - one upstairs and the other downstairs. When the alarm goes off during the night, there is usually a tendency to rush to turn it off so as not to awaken the kids, neighbours etc. Mistake! Ease off on the rush and wait until you are sure that nobody is in the house before you turn off the bells. So what if the monitoring company call you! At least you know they are doing the job you are paying them for. In effect get awake and be aware of what is happening around you. More often than not its a false alarm and you can safely go back to sleep - once you can get your heart rate down to a manageable level. :D In the event that its a real alarm, the continuous ringing and sudden turning-on of lights should help rid you of the unwelcome visitors. And yes bring your hurley - you never know when you have the urge to hit a sliothar :eek: in the wee hours of the morning.
 
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hansov said:
...More often than not its a false alarm and you can safely go back to sleep - once you can get your heart rate down to a manageable level. :D
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Ain't that the truth, sadly its not a plesant feeling is it :(



... And yes bring your hurley - you never know when you have the urge to hit a sliothar :eek: in the wee hours of the morning.
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No offence here, but chances are if you bring a larger item with you, such as a hurley for example, you won't get a chance to swing it, given you may well be in the hallway or another room without space to move it etc.

If your going to take a weapon & if per chance you happen to have one, bring a gun & shoot to kill is my personal view ... that way, the criminals can't tell lies in court when they take a civil action against you etc ;) - failing that, something like a knife which can do harm, but where you dont need the same amount of space to use it, if forced to do so.

I hate to say it, but sadly the only language that criminals understand is violance

... I watched Veronica Guerin on Sky Movies again recently & near the end, it shows clips of the gangs of people dragging the drug dealers out of their houses (no doubt, giving them the odd kick along the way ;)) & running them out of the area .. it worked, didnt it ! (sadly achieving more than the Gardai could, in many cases)

Sad that we have to have such conversations in this day & age really, ain't it :(

Cheers

G>
http://www.rpoints.com/newbie
 
Garrettod said:
... I watched Veronica Guerin on Sky Movies again recently & near the end, it shows clips of the gangs of people dragging the drug dealers out of their houses (no doubt, giving them the odd kick along the way ;)) & running them out of the area .. it worked, didnt it ! (sadly achieving more than the Gardai could, in many cases)
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The Hollywood version of the story didn't show the fact that the vigilantes were being fuelled and supported by republican groups who were very keen to keep the drug-dealing business for themselves.
 
You seem very definite on this Rainyday, got some inside knowledge here or access to some info the film makers did not have etc ? :)

... not that I know for sure if the movie was correct & be assured, I do appreciate that movies are written to entertain an audience etc.

Assuming your correct, its still a form of control which was not necessarily a bad thing imho :)
 
Garrettod said:
Assuming your correct, its still a form of control which was not necessarily a bad thing imho :)
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So drug-dealing is OK when it's controlled by republican groups - right?
 
Garrettod said:
You seem very definite on this Rainyday, got some inside knowledge here or access to some info the film makers did not have etc ? :)

... not that I know for sure if the movie was correct & be assured, I do appreciate that movies are written to entertain an audience etc.

Assuming your correct, its still a form of control which was not necessarily a bad thing imho :)
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I thought this was common knowledge at the time? (On a related theme in the North there were even implications for the peace process as the IRA were supposed to be on ceasefire at the time and there some killings of drug dealers by their cover group Direct Action Agains't Drugs).
 
House alarm was going off persistently the other night - neighbours from 6pm to about 10pm.

Called the gardai as the neighbours weren't there (in the UK) and we're not keyholders but they could do nothing as there as no apparent entry. Things got more and more fraught as it got closer to bedtime. In the end the gardai suggested cutting the box off the wall.

What an effective way of policing the situation, who would be liable in the case of subsequent break in. Us for turning off the alarm (if a little inappropriately), the homeowner for not having an alarm that cuts out and driving us to have to cut it off or the garda for recommending that we disconnect it?

Incidentally, we managed to get it shut off when the next door neighbour a door down realised that it was their alarm going off and not the house beside. Pity they had been sitting in their kitchen listening for 4 hours, and cursing the house next door!
 
My husband works in the industry and he says that robbers often bang the door/window, to make you turn off alarm. They may continuosly do this so as you think alarm is faulty and turn it off for the night and pop back to bed at which point they will come into the house.
You should keep resetting your alarm through the night and if necessary get it serviced. If you alarm very rarely goes off your neighbours shouldn't be too browned off.
 
There was stobear, but it's a terraced row and it was a bit unclear because the box was straddling the two houses!
 
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