Ever get woken up by your house alarm in the middle of the night?

[simple girl]

I just did. Wowzers, such a scary experience! Hubby is on the road for work, so it was even more frightening to deal with this by myself.

Being startled out of your sleep by the alarm at 4:30 a.m. and hiding in your bedroom with mace while you call the police and wait for them to arrive to give the all clear and sweep your house is not my idea of a great way to wake up. UGH!

Talk about an adrenaline rush!

Still have no idea why the alarm went off. But I'm awake for sure.

I will be calling an alarm company today to check the system. The alarm is just for the house, it isn't monitored by any company. The police officer said sometimes a power surge will set them off. No clocks blinking or tripped circuit breakers, so who knows.

And let me just tell you...it is WAY harder to dial 911 when you are petrified than I could ever imagine...! Wowsers, boy did I fumble with my phone.

So thankful for the 911 operator who stayed on the phone with me, and thankful for the wonderful police officer who was so very kind and checked every single closet for me before leaving.

I sure do hope this never happens again!

 

[Badger]

I had this happen with a fire alarm that went off in the middle of the night. Nothing like what you experienced but it did rattle my nerves until I dismantled the alarm.



We don't have an alarm for the police since our house is old, small, and "slim pickens" in a neighbor hood that is filled with new and large homes worth between 2.5X to 3.5X the cost of ours and filled with expensive stuff.



I hope your alarm gets fixed so you can avoid that experience a second time.


Cheers!

 

[big-papa]

I just did. Wowzers, such a scary experience! Hubby is on the road for work, so it was even more frightening to deal with this by myself.

Being startled out of your sleep by the alarm at 4:30 a.m. and hiding in your bedroom with mace while you call the police and wait for them to arrive to give the all clear and sweep your house is not my idea of a great way to wake up. UGH!

Talk about an adrenaline rush!

Still have no idea why the alarm went off. But I'm awake for sure.

I will be calling an alarm company today to check the system. The alarm is just for the house, it isn't monitored by any company. The police officer said sometimes a power surge will set them off. No clocks blinking or tripped circuit breakers, so who knows.

And let me just tell you...it is WAY harder to dial 911 when you are petrified than I could ever imagine...! Wowsers, boy did I fumble with my phone.

So thankful for the 911 operator who stayed on the phone with me, and thankful for the wonderful police officer who was so very kind and checked every single closet for me before leaving.

I sure do hope this never happens again!

Yes, several times, and it scared the bajeezus out of us. Ultimately we traced it down to a squirrel that had gotten into the attic and had chewed through a wire....

 

[Aerides]

wow that would freak me out, especially if I was alone that night. When alone, I lock our bedroom door as an extra measure. We have an exterior door off our master bath, so I have often thought if I suspected a break in while alone I would make a quick exit that way, and get away from the house until the cops came.

 

[simple girl]

Yes, several times, and it scared the bajeezus out of us. Ultimately we traced it down to a squirrel that had gotten into the attic and had chewed through a wire....

Oh my gosh! I'll be sure to talk with the alarm company about possibilities like that! Thank you for sharing!

 

[Dawg52]

I had one installed when I built a house many years ago. Not monitored. It was designed to shut off after 5 minutes but one time it didn't when I was at work. Got an angry call from a neighbor(don't blame her) asking me to get it shut off. I wouldn't trust the darn thing after that so I unplugged it. Got a dog for my alarm system.

 

[simple girl]

wow that would freak me out, especially if I was alone that night. When alone, I lock our bedroom door as an extra measure. We have an exterior door off our master bath, so I have often thought if I suspected a break in while alone I would make a quick exit that way, and get away from the house until the cops came.

I always lock my door, and I even put a chair up underneath it for extra measure. I know that's bad if firemen need to rescue me, but it's the only thing that helps me sleep at night when I'm here by myself.

I can tell you I was never so happy to have that extra chair under the door! While on the phone with the dispatcher I kept watching that door SOOOOO close for any attempted movement of the handle...but then I also thought - gee - someone might shoot me through the door...so I stepped out of the possible line of fire but kept an eye on it.

It's interesting, the dispatcher asked me if I had a gun/weapon. I said I had mace (which I keep by my bedside and grabbed as soon as I was able to get through to 911). Once the police cleared the house from the outside noting no break-in, the dispatcher told me to put down the mace before going downstairs to let the police officer in.

What a scary, scary morning. I can only imagine how I'd feel if someone had actually broken in.

 

[Ronstar]

Our silent alarm went off by itself one night when I was getting ready for bed. I happened to be walking by the front door and looked out the door window and saw a cop with his gun drawn. I opened the door and asked him what was going on. He asked for my id. I only had my underwear on, so I had to find my id. He followed me through the house until I found it. Then he explained how monitoring company had called them saying that our alarm sent out a distress signal. This was in our old house that had a wireless system and it was finicky.

 

[REWahoo]

The police officer said sometimes a power surge will set them off.

Yep.

After a couple of middle-of-the-night heart stoppers due to power surge/thunderstorm activity, I decided I was in far more danger from the alarm system than any potential intruder. Haven't set our alarm in years.

 

[simple girl]

Yep.

After a couple of middle-of-the-night heart stoppers due to power surge/thunderstorm activity, I decided I was in far more danger from the alarm system than any potential intruder. Haven't set our alarm in years.

Oh lordie! I don't ever want to go through this again! However, the alarm has been such a comfort to me since we've had it....until now...hmmmm

 

[MRG]

Last home had a monitored system it never went off. Our new home I didn't bother with a system, better security with our dogs. We did have a nat gas detector go off a few months ago and that was scary as it was for real.

 

[Mdlerth]

Much easier pickin's two blocks over

When our alarm system goes off at night I tell them to stop barking and go back to sleep.

It would take a determined, athletic thief to target my house. We live in a hilly area with a driveway so steep that even in daylight most visitors won't drive down it. I can't imagine a burglar thinking it's worth the effort of trying to run to his getaway car while schlepping a sack of loot back up the hill.

 

[simple girl]

our silent alarm went off by itself one night when i was getting ready for bed. I happened to be walking by the front door and looked out the door window and saw a cop with his gun drawn. I opened the door and asked him what was going on. He asked for my id. I only had my underwear on, so i had to find my id. He followed me through the house until i found it. Then he explained how monitoring company had called them saying that our alarm sent out a distress signal. This was in our old house that had a wireless system and it was finicky.

yikes!

 

[Jerry1]

Once the police cleared the house from the outside noting no break-in

One thing I learned in a self defense class is keep your house keys in you room with a glow in the dark key chain or a flashlight on it so you can throw it out your window for the police to come in without busting down your door.

You did good though. Sounds like you had a plan and carried it out. Some don’t have a plan. You need a plan. Mine is basically to stay in my bedroom behind a locked door. They can take whatever they want but if the bedroom door gets opened, all bets are off. I keep it locked and I would be notifying the person on the other side in no uncertain terms that it’s not to be opened and that the police have been called.

My main plan is to pray that never happens. As you point out, that’s a bad day even if it’s a false alarm. Can’t imagine if it was real. Glad you’re alright.

 

[Nick12]

Our alarm has not gone off but if the burglar ever were to attempt to do some harm in my neighborhood here in Florida, our neighborhood watch is very strong and we all look out for each other and the burglar would not get very far.

 

[simple girl]

One thing I learned in a self defense class is keep your house keys in you room with a glow in the dark key chain or a flashlight on it so you can throw it out your window for the police to come in without busting down your door.

You did good though. Sounds like you had a plan and carried it out. Some don’t have a plan. You need a plan. Mine is basically to stay in my bedroom behind a locked door. They can take whatever they want but if the bedroom door gets opened, all bets are off. I keep it locked and I would be notifying the person on the other side in no uncertain terms that it’s not to be opened and that the police have been called.

My main plan is to pray that never happens. As you point out, that’s a bad day even if it’s a false alarm. Can’t imagine if it was real. Glad you’re alright.

Thank you so much!!!! I LOVE the idea about the keys!!!!!! I'm going to do that right away!

 

[Spock]

Out here the police don't respond to burglary calls. You fill out a report online.
"When seconds count, the police are only 45 minutes away"
The running joke is instead of getting an answer of "911, what is your emergency?" we get "911, please hold".



Police won't respond to alarm calls either. Too many false alarms they say. Can't blame them on that one, my wife used to work at an alarm company... the monitoring station covered a 3 state area... it's amazing how many people spent big $ on a system and then wouldn't disarm it when they came home, left windows open, "forgot it was on", etc. Wife quit working there after the first thunderstorm season.

 

[bingybear]

I would be really startled if I was awakened by my security system since I don't have one.

 

[Luvdogs]

Ours went off while we were at dinner a few years ago. The monitoring company called us and said that they had sent the police because we did not call to let them know it was a false alarm.

Turns out that one of our contacts (they are plastic) had worn out and the contact "failed." It was one on the south side of the house and was about 20 years old. Over the years the sun hitting it just dry-rotted it.

 

[Sunset]

wow that would freak me out, especially if I was alone that night. When alone, I lock our bedroom door as an extra measure. We have an exterior door off our master bath, so I have often thought if I suspected a break in while alone I would make a quick exit that way, and get away from the house until the cops came.

What if they are breaking in through that door ?

 

[Sunset]

Oh my gosh! I'll be sure to talk with the alarm company about possibilities like that! Thank you for sharing!

What alarm company do you have ?

I used to have a wired system , an animal got in and chewed through a wire which set off the alarm.

This house has a wireless system (simpli safe) which works with it's own cell phone for the monitoring, so no cut wires to worry about.

 

[tb001]

We’ve had trouble with wires getting chewed as well as contacts failing as the weather gets cold. Our last house had a door blow open in the middle of the night, with all the associated noise. Talk about scary! Funny though, at no time did it ever occur to me to call the police or alarm company. I’m sure if it had been a real criminal they’d have gotten a kick out of me creeping down the hallway in my nightgown wielding a broom stick!

 

[W2R]

Simple Girl, I am so glad you are OK!

I don't have any hints or tips about staying safe during a break in.

 

[simple girl]

What alarm company do you have ?

I used to have a wired system , an animal got in and chewed through a wire which set off the alarm.

This house has a wireless system (simpli safe) which works with it's own cell phone for the monitoring, so no cut wires to worry about.

We don't have an alarm company that monitors the system. However I have a company I used to help me get the system running when we first bought this house.

I honestly do not know exactly how it works. It has to do with magnets, I believe, which are inserted in the door jam/door as well as in the window/window frame - when they are opened it triggers the internal alarm system to go off in the house.

 

[WestUniversity]

That would really freak me out since we hardly ever set ours...