Honk, Whoop, Flash

While I was walking down the street, I heard an audible alarm coming from the next block. It had been going off for a while and would keep doing so until the cops called the key holder and got it turned off. So I did my civic duty and called 911.

Later this evening, someone’s car alarm went off on the street in front of my house. I closed my window so the noise would not bother me; these things happen so often that it’s not worth looking to see if someone actually is trying to steal the car. It’s the boy who cried “wolf” too often and I think these car alarms have gone off so often that they are disregarded most, if not all, of the time.

Case in point: A friend of mine was road testing a new car. She came around to my house and we were looking at it when the supposedly non-existent car alarm went off. We could not find how to turn it off, so she drove it back to the dealership, just a few minutes away across the river. The alarm was going off, her lights were flashing and not only did nobody try to stop her, but other cars even got out of her way.

I happened across a car you did not even have to get into before the alarm went off. All you had to do was get near it. Then a woman’s voice, a stern one at that, said, “You are too close to this vehicle; move away from this vehicle.” I told the mechanical stern woman’s voice to shut up and stayed where I was.

When Mom heard an emergency vehicle’s siren (cop, fire truck or ambulance), she’d say, “Someone’s day was just ruined.”