The "False" Alarm
You would have laughed at this one Dad! I was just about to leave Mum's place to go home. She opened the door for me and suddenly a loud siren went off. "It's the burglar alarm!" I thought, but I don't know why it would go off, as it wasn't set - must be faulty. No outside siren going though, which should have been a clue.... but it didn't register.
We frantically looked for the alarm manual, finally found it and read through it, trying to figure out how to reset the alarm. No joy. OK, let's ring the alarm technician's cellphone. Voicemail. OK, let's try his home phone. Voicemail. OK, so what now?
Ah ha! The landlord's son (the landlord is overseas on holiday right now). We phoned him (nice guy by the way) and he phoned his parents. They didn't have a clue how to make it stop. Hmmm, what now? It was making a very annoying loud noise and we just wanted it to stop. He said he would jump in his car and come and take the battery out until we could get hold of the technician to service it. Great!
By the way, we were very impressed at the appearance of the concerned neighbours (NOT!).
In between reading the manual and punching numbers in to try and reset the alarm I kept on thinking...that siren sounds like its coming from the floor - how come? On a whim, I bent down and looked under the dining room table. Oh My God! Couldn't believe it! My personal alarm is lying on the floor with the pin out! I grabbed it and put it back in again - blessed silence. Felt like a total idiot!
Mum said "quick, ring the landlord's son and stop him coming!" Caught him just in time - I had to come clean and he was really nice about it. He is going to come up some time in the week and check out how the alarm actually works, just in case it happens for real.
So, that was our little bit of excitement for the night. I can just hear you laughing about it and telling all your mates at the harrier club Dad! Hey, it was an assumption that anyone would have made okay?!