I woke up crankier than usual one morning last week after a car alarm had woken me around 1:30 a.m. for the second night in a row. Earlier that evening, a cop had visited our street to follow up on complaints received from neighbors who reported the alarm had been going off all day and all night. The cop let us know that the owner of the vehicle lived nearby and he was on his way to speak with him. He also mentioned that leaving threatening notes on the vehicle was ill-advised. Noted.
So when the alarm sounded again that evening, I knew I wasn’t the only one on my block who was fantasizing about blowing the offending vehicle up. Soon after, I heard a loud crashing sound and peered out my window to see two hooded figures surrounding the car. Then, the beautiful sound of silence.
Admittedly, I was grateful to the people responsible for making it stop, until I came across the car the next morning and found it destroyed. Someone had not only smashed in the side window, but also etched a threatening message on the windshield and damaged the hood of the car in an attempt to disable the alarm. I shook my head and proceeded to take my step-daughter to school. I called Car’s Cash For Junk Clunkers at 201 Mason Cir #320, Concord, CA 94520 (925) 515-2151 to ask their cash for cars offer on this kind of damage. When I came back, a solemn-looking man was halfway inside the car, clearly trying to make sense of the mess.
I mustered up the courage to go and speak to him and said, “I’m really sorry about your car”, because, I was. He looked gutted. He replied, “I’m sorry (for keeping the neighborhood up), but this is really just going too far.” I had to agree. After a minute of silence he said, “It is what it is.”
We got to talking and he introduced himself as Christopher and revealed a few things which are important to the story. Christopher moved to Seattle about a year ago from Philadelphia and works from home – an apartment building around the corner that is not within earshot of the vehicle (he typically parks closer to his building when possible). He only uses his car about once a week to go exploring outside of the city. When the cop visited his apartment the night before, Christopher was surprised to hear that the alarm was going off, although he mentioned that for the 11 years that he has owned this vehicle, the only problem he had ever had with it was electrical issues. In fact, the alarm had caused some problems in the past, but he thought the problem had been resolved the last time he had work done on it. Because the cop visited him late in the evening before, he didn’t have much choice but to wait until the next morning to take it in.
I asked Christopher if I could interview him for the blog, and he agreed. I fetched him a cup of coffee and brought out several brooms, a shop vac, work gloves and garbage bags and we began to clean and chat. What was very clear was Christopher’s remorse for the incident. He wanted to convey to the neighborhood that he was genuinely very sorry for causing so much disruption, and had already arranged for the car to be brought into the shop later that morning.
When we were finished with the cleanup, I asked Christopher how discovering his car like this made him feel. “To be honest, at first I was really PO’d. I thought, (expletive) this city, (expletive) these people, but you’ve helped restore my faith in humanity.”
I was touched, although I honestly had no goals of being a martyr. I simply saw a neighbor in need and had the helpful clarity of the morning sun to see the full story. I am genuinely happy that I was able to be there at the right time to help Christopher see that his neighbors did not, in fact, think he was a bad person or that he was unwelcome in the neighborhood. It was obvious to me that the incident was not due to some kind of gross negligence or vindictiveness.
I can’t say I was left feeling quite as generous about my neighbors, who in their rage and sleeplessness, took matters into their own hands. I’m sure they have their own side of the story too—it’s easy to feel helpless when being kept awake all night by matters outside of your control. Like I said, I benefited from the fact that someone seemed to locate the wires that finally made the noise stop. But the violent, threatening notes, the extent of the damage to the vehicle, and the seeming intent to teach Christopher a lesson is where I think the question of who is the real victim in this story comes into question.
Absolutely horrible. Please consider- you saw the criminal neighbors.. can you describe anything? Height? Color of hood?
Car alarms are probably the most obnoxious invention of all time. Is there not an app these days that can notify our phones of a car prowl, instead of waking up all the neighbors?
A casual web search does turn up some car alarm apps. Various approaches, I would think the most promising is an adaptor that connects it to the onboard diagnostic port, which would work with anything after ’96.
At the very least it seems like you should be able to program them to turn off after a minute or so.
higher end car alarms allow for paging…including silent paging.
I can lookup where my car is on my phone or online as long as the car has cell reception. It was, surprisingly, a standard feature. You can even tell it to send you a tweet when it’s turned on.
Firstly I want to say thank you for your generosity to Christopher. And, I am left wondering if that level of kindness had been offered in the beginning how different all this could have turned out. And, thats’s not from a place of morality but just a love of people. What if a note on his car said “your alarm goes off all night long. Do you need help figuring out what’s wrong with your alarm? Call me if you need help.” If we all came from a place of discovering what we can do to help and be kind to our fellow human beings what could be possible? I totally get it that we need our sleep and that it can be upsetting to be woken up night after night. Nothing good ever comes of being concerned with our own selfish needs and offering nothing but anger to another person. Perhaps the person who actually did this to the car would like to respond to my post about what had them be so upset that they chose to do that. What’s next when someone’s pissed off? I’m left with no doubt about why we are in a world full of anger and raging war when we feel we have no choice but to take matters into our own hands like this.
An alarm that goes off over and over, especially at night, and this 2 nights on a row, can lead to great anger and exasperation in even the most peaceful people. It happened in my neighborhood and I was crying from exhaustion after 2 similar nights. Happily, in our case the neighbor found our notes in time but if it had gone on for another day, someone on our neighborhood likely would have done something similar. Reasonable people can be pushed to extreme actions when exhausted and shocked over and over again by a raging alarm. At the same time, thank you to Kim for showing kindness.
I would have hated it and been sick from tiredness. I would have been very assertive about asking the police to use his vehicle info to contact him directly after the first night. I thought those things going off repeatedly warranted a ticket and fine of some kind( I would have demanded the police do that also). I do not believe that smashing his windows is legal and/or an appropriate measure. Jeepers- there are people in this neighborhood who know how to open doors without breaking wwindows to steal cars and rifle through glove compartments.. why didnt someone trry nondamaging entrance to turn it off? Vicks Nyquil works for sleep as do earplugs.
I agree! Etching a warning message in the windshield served no purpose and did not aid in turning off the alarm.
I agree, BeckyB. It is called an “alarm” for a reason. It is designed to create an alarmed state in people. We can’t just “decide” to not let it bother us. Multiple days and nights of being “alarmed” would surely elicit the intended response.
Car alarms should be illegal.
As for the notes left on the windshield, it’s so laughable, so “Seattle” to be offended by those notes! They are totally deserved, more so knowing the problem was ignored for many weeks [see cozmotion comment below].
The article says the neighbors tried leaving notes but Chris didn’t hear the many alarms because he lives around the corner and he also doesn’t check his car very often because he only drives it once a week. I think the best answer is the cops should have responded early in the day after the first night to give Chris time to fix his car or the city should have towed it.
Check out the pictures of the notes left!
There is a probably a good reason his car alarm went off. With the high rate of car prowls someone was probably trying the door. The car prowler moves on to the next block while the neighbors move towards the alarm.
That is a very good point, regarding a good reason it went off. It could be a combination of things.
Thank you, Kim, for reaching out to him and being kind. Rachel’s comments are worth thinking about, that is for sure.
I am sad to say that I think it most likely was a neighbor. I do hope they fess up, but that seems unlikely.
If there is a way I can reach Chris, I would like to tell him that he is welcome here, and I would like to fix a meal, or contribute to having his car repaired. Please advise.
I was kept up by this car alarm the first night. It went off for hours and hours. There’s no way that it was caused by a prowler every time.
Had I been at home the second night I may well have been one of those people that wrecked the car! I can’t describe how infuriating it is to be kept awake all night. It is literally a form of torture.
Saying that, I feel bad for Christopher. I met him last week and he’s a nice guy. You are welcome in the neighborhood, really!
I live on the street close enough to the offending car to have been affected and will offer a perspective of one of Christopher’s victims. We never though it was vindictive, just clueless or thoughtless.
This was not the first night this alarm was going off repeatedly. On this go-around it was the second night in a row, and was going off intermittently during the day. But a couple of weeks ago there was the same scenario – days and nights of it That time notes were left on the window, much nicer than the ones pictured here. Back then, same thing: days in a row.
So when it happened again, the perpetrator had been warned, but came back and set the alarm again, and left it for days. Something had to be done. I had my window-buster ready. Not sure I would have done it, but turned out somebody beat me to it anyway. The alarm had to stop and my plan was to do the least damage possible to get the job done. And that’s what somebody did. And I am sure glad of it.
You really think days of car alarms AFTER being asked not to do it again is such a small thing? It’s maybe not vindictive and he’s probably not a bad person, but that’s not what this was about. It’s about knowing how to live in a city and being responsible for your actions. The man was clearly informed weeks ago about the problem and here it was again. And the police were notified about it. They did nothing, probably not much they can do. We were faced with the possibility of yet more nights of this.
I’ll say a broken window is small compared with keeping a whole block up for several nights. By rights he should be paying a fine of more than the cost of a window.
“criminal neighbors”? It might have been a crime, but you are blaming the victims here. What was done was the least damage to solve a problem. It didn’t happen the first time we were tortured by this car, but he was given notice and a couple of weeks later here we were again. I thank the people who stopped the alarm, next time maybe I’ll be out the with them.
I am sorry it had to happen, but like I said he was previously notified and asked not to do this.
And BTW, there was nothing “etched” in the window. There were notes on paper and the note pictured which looked like some kind of pen, certainly removable with less work than it took to stop the nuisance.
It is a crime to damage property.
Well, as this incident shows, there are worse things.
It’s also a crime to torture a neighborhood for 2 days. If he had been told about his car before, the civil thing would have been to turn the alarm off until he’did had it fixed.
I wish he did, so it wouldn’t push what I thought were kind, law abiding, thoughtful neighbors over the edge and become vandalizing, hateful vigilantes.
It’s actually not a crime to have a broken alarm. He should have pulled the fuse, but damaging the car is a far worse crime. Call the police again; that’s what people who live in a city do. Though, as another former Philadelphian, maybe I’m nuts thinking they’d actually show up and give that advice, as they did to one of my neighbors in Philly.
Car alarms, people get pissed about. The fact that you can’t even get a cop to come after a burglary, people don’t do sh!t. That’s Seattle.
I agree!
its a crime to rush into a city council meeting, uninvited and shut it down. seattle allows it.
laws are selectively enforced in a Liberal environ.
..there were no prowlers at any time. I stood and watched it just go off repeatedly. Not blown by cars going by, no movement, no touch, obviously faulty alarm. Besides – that’s your plan – if there’s a prowler you wake up the whole neighborhood? And you can’t even hear it yourself? That plan is not welcome here. Though I’d say he is still not unwelcome, but his car sure is.
Sounds like you don’t really feel sorry about what you did.
While I was ready to do this, I can’t take credit. Sorry? About fixing an egregious wrong in the least damaging manner, a small crime to prevent a bigger one? I am thankful for it and ready to do it next time. BTW, did you read everything here?
It is more than just clueless to get notes posted on your car over and over again and not get the problem taken care of immediately and effectively .
The way I read the story was that the car alarm was malfunctioning for only two days. ?
Cozmotion explains that it was not just the two nights and he/she lives within earshot of the alarm. That makes this a whole different story.
If he uses his car only once a week, I would encourage Christopher to get rid of it and start using car share and car rentals. City streets are not meant for car storage.
To set the alarm (assuming it was set instead of somehow just malfunctioning when not actually set) when the owner is not close enough to hear it is negligent and rude.
If the owner truly did not drive it but once a week and never moved it otherwise, it is liable by law to be towed after 72 hours and the police certainly could have done so.
Well, that is pretty dicey. Almost everyone has two cars. I don’t. And I park in my garage, freeing up space not he street. I have neighbors who never use their second car. Their vehicles are always on the same street, usually in the same place, and for reasons unknown, they are never ticketed. On our street, there is generally room for everyone, except people shopping on N. 45th. Ironically, I got a ticket for parking my car in front of house long enough to unload a bicycle, and while I was wheeling it up into the yard, I WATCHED the parking person write a ticket. Car was there about 4 minutes. Go figure. I actually did go to court to explain what happened. The magistrate chucked, and reduced the ticket to $5.
Iowagirl, that seems really weird you got a ticket for being parked in front of a house for four minutes. Were you blocking the driveway? That doesn’t make sense. Was it a zoned area?
The irony is rich here. His car got broken into BECAUSE his car alarm was going off. Sympathy goes out to all affected, including the car owner. I’m going to look into how to disable our car alarm.
They are totally useless, anyway. First thing I did was disarm the alarm. Try being on a ferry on any crossing! the alarms go off right and left.
So true! I don’t even lock my car at night anymore. It costs more to replace a broken window than whatever change they take from the ash tray.
A nice conundrum. Kim, you witnessed a crime in progress; a call to the cops would not have been out of line, even tho we all sympathize with the situation. Maybe shout a warning first, then call. Christopher, a car alarm out of your hearing is useless. Nobody hears one and says, “Zoinks! Some poltroon is breaking into some poor fellow’s car! Let us summon the constables post haste!” We all think things not printable in a forum such as this. Disable the thing or upgrade it. As for the cops, there are noise ordinances. Maybe a ticket would have gotten Christopher’s attention and avoided this mess.
Thank you Kim for talking to Christopher, helping him clean up and for (hopefully) restoring some of his faith in our neighborhood. I wish the neighbors would have called the police again instead of vandalizing his car. The way it was done seemed violent and unnecessary. Glad I don’t live on your block.
The police don’t bother to show up when we get our cars broken into. I say this from experience. Or, for that matter, when pretty much anything short of a murder or home invasion in progress happens. So what makes you think they give a rat’s rear end about some moron’s car alarm going off every night?
IDK Hayduke, but do you think they might investigate who vandalized Christopher’s car? Or better yet, respond to a crime (yes, it’s a crime to smash windows and rip out wires, etc) in progress?
Not with any energy, no.
“vandalize”? Kinda judgmental and shaming isn’t it? Breaking that window was the least damaging way to prevent a worse crime. Whoever did it deserves a reward.
“but also etched a threatening message on the windshield”- ETCHED-with the hood damage, broken window, and windshield replacement, our neighbor may be out $500-1000 in addition to repairing the alarm. Not helpful. Sucks, but this is a crime.
I agree Allucaneatsushi!!! That’s what I was talking about!
Did you read the previous postings before jumping in? There was nothing etched, as I explained yesterday. Kim is mistaken about that. I was curious about the note scrawled on the windshield and touched it — it smudged like maybe wax and there was no etching. Please read my longish posting before you jump in again. Kim did an excellent job of presenting an interview with the owner/perpetrator and it is not surprising that he left out some very key information. But she apparently did not know the history of this thing. I don’t hate the owner, didn’t do anything worse than things I’ve done, but he screwed up and it cost him a window. That is a lot less than the damage the faulty alarm did. What if he had to financially compensate say a dozen people for maybe four or five days of serious sleep deprivation each? He’s getting off light.
these guys do not think it is a crime to smash a window of a car whose alarms is a nuisance. I hope no ones’ dog near them barks soem lonely night… what will be their justified action?
Certainly smashing a window for no reason is a crime, in this context not so sure. But if it is, this is an example of a case where committing a crime is a good thing. And there was a dog like that here. Nobody hurt the dog or the offending humans.
Sure, it’s probably a crime. But if I was the judge I would give them the lightest sentence possible.
It’s not like Chris wasn’t warned about it, and he didn’t do anything about it when the cops spoke to him. He could have disabled the alarm the second night, but he chose not to do so.
He woke up dozens of people night after night because of his stupid car alarm that he couldn’t hear. So I have no sympathy whatsoever for him. I guess you could call it “carma.”
Wish the police would have helped him disarm it when they stopped by his apartment to give him this warning.
That would have been the best thing. But it’s not hard to turn off an alarm if you have the keys to a car. He should have strolled straight over and done that. And if he knew that it might go off even when turned off, he should have disconnected the horn, also probably very easy to do.
You can’t open the hood to cut the wires without first getting into the car.
Yup, you’d have to break his window first to get in there and restore peace and quiet. Consider it collateral damage.
If the people who did this in the middle of the night (I understand your frustration and anger) feel they were completely justified and were doing ‘the right thing’, then why did they have to wear hoodies and conceal their identities? Since you guys were doing what was good and right, you should be proud of your work and leave your business card and/or contact information for all to see (including the police). I’m guessing the reason why you did not, was because inside you knew what you were doing was wrong and you were driven by desperation and anger to do something you normally wouldn’t do. I’m sorry for all parties involved.
I feel lame for not having been out there helping disable the alarm. I was ready to go but it stopped before I took action. The reason I was planning to hide my identity was the obvious one: As they say, no good deed goes unpunished. Even if, as is likely, a judge lets you off, the process itself is punishing. If, say, you jaywalk to help an elderly person cross a street, do you turn yourself in? Why should I have to pay when I have done nothing wrong? And really, why the hangup on legality? This was not civil disobedience. I might not say it was “doing the right thing” like shutting down a pipeline, but I would say it was doing something that was OK.
But, again, did you read my first posting? A month ago this guy left his car parked on the block for a week (itself an infraction, where is your criticism of that?) The alarm was going off intermittently for days (another infraction). Notes nicer than the ones shown here were left and that was all (though the police were notified). So, last week here we were again. The police were notified and the car remained. The solution involved no more damage than was necessary to disarm the thing. It is a little disappointing that there is so much criticism of the victims of the guy’s negligence.
It’s the internet. The medium makes it very easy to judge other people comfortably from home. I do it too. I’m doing it now. I did read your full post, and I thought it gave a clear picture that this wasn’t a one time forgivable slip. I wouldn’t have advocated the remedy. I wouldn’t have done it myself. But it also seems very karmic.
I will say I have been Christopher. Blind to my own actions to a ridiculous degree. The thing is staring me in the face and for whatever reason I’m in denial and completely clueless. I’m sure he’s gotten an awakening, and that awakening isn’t pleasant, but he can’t be all that bad for the fact that he is capable of awareness. Many in his position would not feel bad after having their window destroyed, but would only feel like the victim. In the end he was a victim too. You owe him that status.
We can disagree on the merits of the remedy, no problem. I’ve been in his shoes also. I don’t hate the guy, wouldn’t do anything else. He screwed up and got a slap on the wrist. We can also disagree as to whether that is an apt metaphor.
I read your previous posts Cozmotion. I appreciate your response. I’m guessing if you were out there to disable the alarm you wouldn’t have permanently etched in the windshield a threatening “or else!” I don’t think that was necessary for disabling the alarm, do you? Anyway, this sucks all around. Hope it doesn’t happen again.
Again, nothing was “etched”
I’m just going by the article: Someone had not only smashed in the side window, but also etched a
threatening message on the windshield and damaged the hood of the car in
an attempt to disable the alarm.
That is what Kim wrote. I gather she is referring to the black message “CAR ALARM AGAIN! “Next Time, real damage” in the photo above. I saw that message and was curious about it. I touched it and it was clearly done with a wax pen or grease stick or something and there was no etching involved. I saw only that and the notes on paper, all shown above. I think it would be appropriate for Kim to chime in on this. I am guessing she was simply mistaken about the etching.
I think you’re really missing something basic here. They wore hoodies because even a monkey would know bashing a car up is illegal – so they don’t want to be punished. Did they think what they were doing was wrong? Uh no.
I am not sure what your point is? My point was they knew what they were doing was wrong, but because they were pushed to the edge due to disrupted sleep, frustration, anger they did it anyway under the cloak of hoodies and darkness.
Also, leaving anonymous notes and not owning up to the disarming of the car alarm is similar to internet trolling. It is easier to act in a more uncivil and unkind way when you can do it anonymously. That’s why I thought it would be great if people would have signed their notes with their first and last name.
What is the location in Wallingford? The retaliation is really quite concerning. The car alarm should be disabled, and repaired. However, with parking at a premium in Wallingford, I know that there are times when people have parked on my block (which is not MINE, by the way! (: live serval blocks away. They park where they can park. Not to mention the employees and customers who are on N. 45th. People do what they can do re parking.
I haven’t lived in Seattle for 25 years, but when last I did, we had this problem to a lesser degree. The guy and his brother were caring for their mother and living in her house 2 doors down. They also thought, until informed otherwise by the Parking Enforcement that it was okay to park a 24 foot boat on the street for weeks and months at a time, on a residential street in Ravenna.
Where I live now the problem is dogs and there are noise ordinances. First they get a warning. Another complaint within 10 hrs brings a fine. It took some weeks, but one offending dog now wears a barky collar. Problem solved until new folks moved in nearby. Here we go again.
The victim? That would be the neighbors. There is no way Christopher’s car was being repeatedly prowled each night and a valid alarm was going off. Christopher obviously ignored or at least didn’t act on, notes asking him to deal with a problem. Personally, I would have been *horrified* if my car had notes from neighbors – that my property was keeping them up at night. What did he do? Sat on his hands. If he really hadn’t seen his car in that long, he needs to ask himself why he has an alarm he can’t hear and he car he doesn’t use. He needs to know his inaction has consequences. Nothing the police could do, as usual, right? People need sleep to go to work more than Christoper needs a part time car for bumming around on weekends.
I’ll say it again…wish the police when they talked to him would have walked him to his car and helped him disable his alarm. I was hoping the good citizens of Wallingford would be above vigilante justice. But then again, I also didn’t think Trump would have about 45% of the popular vote.
Where is your sympathy for those of us who suffered through the nights of car alarms? Why do you simply ignore the car owners’ infractions? How is a broken window worse? In any case, when you brought in Trump, you jumped the shark.
Sorry, not familiar with the phrase jumped the shark.
Well, I have no sympathy for people who write anonymous threats (regardless if it was permanent or not) on other people’s property. Cozmotion, I did say I felt sorry for all involved.
I just wanted to point out that being anonymous seems to give people a pass to act in ways (usually worse) than they would if they were held accountable for their actions and words. I think that is why NextDoor lists your ‘true’ name and your address.
Anyway, I’m tired of talking about this. I am sorry it happened and Christopher, if you are reading this, I am really sorry. The people who did this are not representative of our community. I’m also sorry (again) for the people whose sleep was disrupted.
I can understand taking issue with anonymous threats. But breaking a window to disarm an alarm maybe should not be done without a warning first, and I can imagine writing “If it happens again I’m going to break your window to get in and try to figure out how to disarm the alarm” is too long for a window message. I think you should rethink your lack of sympathy for the unfortunately worded message given how hard the people on the block were pushed. I am also wondering how, if you have read everything here, you can still have such sympathy for the car’s owner.
Cozmotion, I guess it’s not only sympathy for the car’s owner, but it’s respect for the law and for other peoples property. I am very sorry you and others on your block were disrupted by the alarm. I know how hard it is to go back to sleep after being woken up in the middle of the night. It must have been even harder for the people who smashed the window and disabled the alarm to relax and go back to sleep. I appreciate you not name calling and for being thoughtful.
The police have enough to do – not their job to help this man-toddler deal with his chronically faulty car alarm. He’d had issues with it in the past, right? Never occurred to him it might actually be a problem for others? Pretty inconsiderate. Plus the notes… No action? Clueless stoner maybe? I’d have to be on a weekend bender to not notice hate mail plastering my car. I know what it’s like to have my blood pressure spike when it should be at rest, listening to junk like this knowing I have to work in the morning. I’m glad the prick’s weekend junker got it. If it’s so precious it has to have a full body alarm, it’s too precious to park on the street.
If disarming his car alarm was so easy and quick to do, I don’t think it would have been too much trouble for the officer to do. I’ll forward this link to one of our North Precinct Officers and see what they think. I’m guessing taking an extra ten minutes to prevent neighborhood disruptions and anger would be worth it to SPD. Have you been on ride along or worked with the police? I think it would have been beneficial, even ‘crime prevention’ for the Officer to ensure the alarm was taken care of. I’m sorry Christopher didn’t take care of it sooner for all parties involved.
I’m friends with officers from Bothell, Bellevue and Seattle. Firefighters from Tukwila, Lynwood and the HR attorney of the Seattle fire department. Yeah send your queries – this isn’t the call they signed up for. Christopher needs to grow up.
I was considering forwarding it myslef. I wonder what city officials or police will say. My guess is that different folks will say slightly different things. Having just recently been on hold for the nonemergency polic enumber for over 15 minutes( and gave up) I know thepolice are oft over-loaded.. and prioritizing who/how/what to do first may be necessary which could have impacted time for helping the car owner.
Please forward something too! Maybe having the car ticketed and towed would have been better? I wrote the Sgt., the head of Crime Prevention and Tim Burgess a letter and attached the link. I’m sorry you were on hold for so long. Sometimes hanging up and trying again works. Wish they had a system where they told you how long your estimated wait time was and also an option to be called back instead of being on hold. Thank you wildnwonderful!
Kris, I have done a lot towards crime prevention etc.. to the extent that by asking for parking lot lights for my apt and lights over doors to be on during dark hours as well as communicating with Community Action Police etc.. waste of time w/ police and got yelled at by manager. I choose peace. I choose to ultimately move from an overcrowded city which brings in homeless people to live on streets, steal cars( mine) vandalize places, remove parking places so people have to park further away, have inaccurate bus schedules and overall let growth and big money developers root up trees and skylines etc to create buildings with less parking and no green around.. it is the sign of the times…. Money and anti-cars rule in this city. Police are overworked. I have to listen to the tide of change. I resign from making calls re problems or asking for securty at my apt.
That really sucks! I’m really sorry to hear that. All of the Officers who have responded to our calls in the past have been really helpful and proactive. You’d think your manager would be doing as much as possible to help reduce crime and help make his/her tenants feel safe.
Th eofficers were fine..
James, I worked in public service for 18 years and I worked above and beyond for my clients and the public. If I was working as an Officer and could have persuaded Christopher to do something right then and there when I made first contact with him, I would have. Problem solved. No more rude awakenings in the middle of the night. No more pushing neighbors over the edge out of desperation. No vehicles damaged.
What’s with all the name calling? Man toddler? Clueless stoner? Prick?
Yeah because he charmed some blogger doesn’t mean he’s not a prick. For all the times I’ve had to just deal with an inconsiderate douche in this city, I’m glad somebody let him have it. You’ll never change my mind on that.
You boned for him or something, Dershowitz? Hoping Christopher might be boned for you, too? ?
If SPD had been doing their jobs here, the offending car would have been towed away as a public nuisance.
If Christopher had been responsible, he would have disconnected the battery of his seldom-used car during the day. If that had set the alarm off, at least he could have let it scream during waking hours until it ran its internal battery out.
Sorry, he totally deserved it. And I didn’t do it.
“revealed a few things which are important to the story…” I am still waiting for the ‘things.’ That bit of text does not shed any light on why Christopher is so unconcerned about the neighbors. That is, until someone gave him a virtual slap upside the head.
I guess he cares now and perhaps has elevated the need to be a good neighbor to a higher level.
he deserved everything he got. he knew the alarm was going off from day one-did nothing.disconnect the battery cable.
I heard back from Councilmember Tim Burgess’s office and also from SPD’s Crime Prevention Coordinator today. Tim’s office said our Officers will often ask and even help people disarm their alarms. There is certainly no reason why an Officer couldn’t do that. The Crime Prevention Coordinator said there’s a big difference between a car alarm going off and damaging the car. One is a noise infraction, the other is a crime (property).
and the folow-up? Did the car get fixed? Di the police do anythign abotu the smashed window and property damage? Is the alarm disabled?