I was busily going about my household chores the other morning when I became aware of a loud noise.

It was an alarm.

The sound of alarms going off are ten a penny these days.  Car alarms will sound if you as much as look at them, and as I discovered to my cost a couple of years ago, a spider set off my house alarm by walking over a PIR.  Nearly every house nowadays has a house alarm.  It is a far cry from the days when I went down the town and left all the windows open.  Do you remember those days Elly?

Back to the noise.  It was a house alarm and so deafening that it had to be close by.  I went to investigate, but not before I put my own house keys and mobile phone in my pocket.  Closing my own front door I followed the sound…

It was a house across the street.  I knew the couple were at work and the children at school. It looked fine at first glance so I opened the side gate and went around the back of the property.  There was no sign of disturbance, the windows and patio doors all seemed secure.  Returning I closed the gate behind me.

With the way the house is situated both the main front and kitchen/utility room doors face my house.  The latter is in direct view of my window.  It is the door used by all the family.  Only visitors seem to go to the main front entrance.

I walked across the front of the house and it was as I reached the main door that I realised it was ajar.  What to do?  I know the couple well enough for me to go inside their house on such an occasion.  To be extra careful I called 999 and spoke to the Police.  I was told they would send a car, but had no idea how long it would take.

Unable to contact the young couple at their places of employment I phoned ‘granny’ – my neighbour’s mother, for the alarm code.  She did not know it, but would make a call and get back to me.

I decided to go inside and take a look.

There I found a bunch of keys in the lower of two door locks.  I will not describe the locks for security reasons.  The bunch of keys were not the usual that you would carry about in your pocket.  Had an intruder found the spare set and already made off with his booty?

My mind was working faster than an Olympic Sprinter.  Was he/she still inside.  I had nothing to defend myself, so I picked up the nearest weapon I could find.* Sallying forth with new strength I walked from room to room. Nothing seemed amiss to me so I decided nothing could be done until I got the number to switch off the alarm or the police turned up.

The call came with the alarm code, so I was able to shut off the noise.  Almost immediately the Police arrived and were quickly followed by the granny.  We went indoors once more.  The police man and the granny moved from room to room and decided that nothing had been taken and that with the keys on the inside of the door….. it was an inside job!

I secured the house and we all went home.

It was later that evening I discovered the culprit.

No, not really, culprit is the wrong word.  it was my youngest Toyboy (age six) who unlocked and opened the door to let his sister’s school friends in, early that morning.  He pushed the door home but not firmly enough to close it properly. He never thought to tell his mum in the hustle and bustle of preparing for school and work, what he had done.  A strong gust of wind later that morning was enough to open the door and set off the alarm!

Since the family usually exit by the Kitchen door for work, school or play, the mum never thought to check the front door.

It was a good lesson all round without injury or damage to property.

What do you do when you hear an alarm?  Do you ignore it or go and investigate?

* Miss Marple has nothing on me……. Would you like to see the weapon I picked up?

It was one of these.  My Toyboy must have been playing with it in the morning and left it in the hallway. 🙂 At least it made the police smile.

P.S. Elly if you ever need to call the Emergency Services to scrape me up off the floor, please give concise directions!  The Police had to call me back to find out where to send that car, since we didn’t show up on their map or whatever they use…..  other variations did!  You will know exactly what I mean.  I have only lived here for 33 years, the listed places were still green fields back then!