Sunday, September 2, 2012

Car Alarm in the Middle of the Night

A couple years ago, TJ and I woke up in the middle of the night because a car alarm was going off in our driveway. TJ went out to investigate. After a few minutes, I went to see what was taking him so long to disable the alarm. Our SUV was sitting in the driveway, behaving like a spoiled child in the stuffed animal aisle of the Toys R Us. (Stuffed animals: every child wants another one, no matter how many they have at home, and every parent hates them because of their ability to overtake closets, rooms and homes.) The car alarm was altering the sleepy peacefulness of our quiet street, and the flashing lights were sending an SOS message through our neighbors windows.

The problem was that SUV doors were all locked and the keys were hanging in the ignition. We desperately searched for the spare keys. It was complete chaos, and we couldn't get it to stop! And then...it stopped. We were starting to calm down when it started back up again. I'm not sure if this kind of thing has ever happened to you, but a car alarm going off in the middle of the night sounds ten times louder than it sounds in daylight hours.

As we were waiting for the locksmith, the alarm would alternate every few minutes between off and on.TJ was pacing around the living room and peeking out the window watching for the locksmith. Lights were coming on in our neighbor's homes as our little emergency disturbed their sleep.I was on the computer desperately googling things like "car alarm keys locked inside" and "car alarm won't stop." The only advice I found was to disconnect the battery, but we couldn't even open the hood without the keys.It was a helpless feeling!

Finally the locksmith arrived. He lifted the door handle of the SUV, and to our surprise, it opened right up! TJ took it for a little drive and parked it inside the garage to deaden the noise if the alarm went off again.

We solved the mystery the next day. TJ had put a load of laundry in the dryer before going to bed. The laundry included a little stowaway. The missing spare keys! All the buttons were getting hit in the dryer, which explains the alarm, locking and unlocking. It also explains why I couldn't find a solution on google.

1 comment:

  1. That is funny! I bet not so much in the middle of the night, but dang....this stuff only happens to you guys. I think you should tell that story about that physco cat you guys had at the house in Urbandale. The one that would hpo on the screens and scare the poop out of TJ.

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