I had to contact my alarm company yesterday to run a test to see if the back up system to communicate with them, in the event someone tampers with my phone line, was functioning as it should.

That entailed disconnecting my phone line from the alarm and then intentionally tripping it and letting the siren go off for over a minute.

While a minute sounds like nothing, try counting 60 seconds with a glaring outside siren, while a second equally as loud or louder inside one is also going off. It seems like forever!!!

While the siren was going off, I went outside as I was concerned having a police officer next door, that was at home at the time. Didn't want him to come with guns blazing. Turns out that as I looked around, I noticed at least 7 very close by neighbors that were at home, including the police officer. Of all these folks at home, only one (the guy across the street from me) bothered to open their door, go outside and wonder what was going on at my home. I yelled across the street that I was doing a test and thanked him for being concerned. Today, I went over and handed him a Cuban cigar to thank him for being the only person interested in my home's well being.

All I can say is WTF??? That pissed me off. How can people be so accustomed to alarms going off that they no longer care and ignore them. This, while not nearly as bad, reminds me of the many videos we see on TV where folks are being assaulted and bystanders pass by and do nothing to assist. What is this world coming to? As much as I may want to not do anything in return for these neighbors should the same happen to them, I don't have that in me and it is not the example I wish to set for humanity.
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Sad state of affairs, Carlos.

People in Texas are much friendlier (and more likely to shoot when they hear sirens). You should come here for another visit :-)
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That makes me sick. What if someone was really in harms way, people could not be bothered to get off their lazy asses and check it out? Nobody is asking them to run in the "burning house", but they can at least see if their is anything they can do.

Losers. :-)
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The neighbor that came out wasn't just annoyed at the noise and wanted to make sure whose ear to chew on for interrupting his nap? I have very little faith in the general population, and of all my neighbors, I would only trust one of them to have/show concern over my home. It's just the despicable cynic residing in my instinctual animal brain.
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Hell, some of them grab a video to post on YouTube. :-)
I came to the conclusion a long time ago that most people suck. It's a shame that more people can't be like Asylum members, funny as that sounds.
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How do you know they didn't call 911? Or, what if it were a home invasion? It would be kind of foolish for your neighbors to go outside and become nice, soft targets for the bad guys.
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Well, as far as 911, no police ever showed up at my home so I think we can rule that one out.

As far as a home invasion? Sure, not saying that any of them should come running over, but what about the police officer? Isn't his job to serve and protect? The neighbor that came out told me today the reason he did it was his concern for what was going on. He didn't see me outside at first and was ready to go inside and call the police.

I guess there are a million "what if" one can ask. I guess my problem with understanding this is I am the kind of person that would have run over and would have tried to do something if one of my neighbor's homes was being compromised. I guess not everyone thinks the same and from my perspective, that is a sad state of affairs when human beings don't look out for one another.
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Carlos, keep a gun on you. :-) Take care of yourself :-) Your neighbors just proved that they only care about theirselves.
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That tent peg ought to teach him not to meddle in your affairs. :-)
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Remember Carlos, when seconds count, the Police are only minutes away..
The other thing to remember is that we all have our personal perspectives (legal/moral/ethical) on putting our own selves in harms way with protecting a neighbor versus a defensive stance with your own family.
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I am not surprised in the least Carlos.
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:-)
Actually, I gave him a Partagas PSD4.
I gave my other neighbor, who wasn't home at the time of my alarm test, and who always grubs cigars from me and rarely gives some back, who doesn't know what a good cigar is unless it comes from me, one of the Boli PC's that I left in my truck per my thread on the Habanos section.:-)
He was also outside and I felt bad giving one a cigar and not the other.
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Totally agree Pete.
However, one would think that at minimum, from the safety of their front door, they could stand there, look over to my home, see if my truck was in the driveway, wonder what was going on, noticed other neighbors standing outside also scratching their heads, without walking over to my house, run to the police officers house instead and get his ass out, or even call the police on their own and keep an eye to see if the see anyone leaving my home with half of my contents, all from the safety of their own home?
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I know that with my alarm company they will not call 911 until they have tried to get in touch with me to verify the event. If they cannot get in touch with me then they would call 911. In your case since the alarm company knew it was a test they would not have called 911.

As for your neighbors, I find that the only neighbors that seem concerned about me are those that I am friendly with -- which is not all of my neighbors. The few times our alarm has gone off it has only been for a short period (even when we test), so they ask me about it later, but figure that it was an accident...

Having said all of that, I am not sure that I would count on my neighbors if it were a real emergency -- would much rather count on the (armed) Police, Fire and Ambulance arriving quickly...
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In MA, people are too liability scared to do anything. The only thanks one gets in MA for being a good samaritan is a law suit.
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It is a sad state of affairs Carlos when your fellow human being does nothing in response to a neighbor in need.

I call these individuals cattle and sheep. They do not want to get involve, participate, or help. They would rather stand-by inside their little shelter of a box, turn up the sound of the tv/radio, close the shades, and not have to worry period. These individuals can simply go to hell as far as I'm concerned, and do not contribute to a healthy and safe community.

I'm one who stays involved and active in my community by saying hello and chatting with my fellow neighbors. We know one another in my community, and a number of us tend to look out for others where I live. So far, Mr. Springfield has not had to speak up on my behalf. I walk my community at some points during the day, but mainly at nights, armed with my cell phone and Surefire P9. Sometimes, I find dark garages with the doors up and have been able to enlighten my neighbors, who thank me for advising them. You also get to meet new neighbors too.

Being proactive in your community is key to deactivating any potential crime that may occurr. I guess that's why we don't have druggies in my community any longer:-)

Get involved and stay involved in your communities folks...
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Michael, the pisser is these are all folks that I am friendly with. I do so much crap for all these people. After storms, it has been that has helped them with tools like generators or chainsaws, it has been me that has helped with the clean up, have helped them with their insurance claims in getting new roofs, have cooked on my grille for all of them who had no power, and on and on and on. That is what drives me the craziest with this event.
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And, quite probably, you would have become a casualty. Damning your neighbors based on almost no factual knowlege of what they did or didn't do, is I think, somewhat less than fair. Now, your interactions with your neighbors will be be stained by a possibly inaccurate belief about their character(s). Your purchase of an alarm system does not obligate them to do anything. After all, if they know about it and its connection to a monitoring company, what's to make them believe that the police aren't on their way? :-)
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Darren,
Just curious.
Please don't be offended.
Purely me being inquisitive.

Are you one of those that I alluded to that walks by someone being harmed and does nothing?
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Just goes to show most people nowadays are only concerned about themselves. I say this to my wife all the time as it pisses me off. No one has any concern or regard for others unless it will impact them directly. Perfect example is a neighbor of mine had their house broken into about a month ago. Two neighbors work from home and two others are retired. The neighbor whose house was broken into came over and asked if I saw anything. I wasn't home all day so of course I couldn't be of any help but told her I would keep my eyes and ears open and let her know if I hear anything that could be of help. The one neighbor who works from home and lives directly across the street said he noticed a green SUV parked in the driveway and the people driving it looked suspicious. Nice! So it looked suspicious but yet you chose to do nothing about it. I haven't said two words to him since. Not even the neighborly "Hello." Nice to know he could give to sh*ts while his neighbors house gets robbed. Hell don't even go over there at least call the cops as response times in my neighborhood tend to be fairly quick. Worse case scenario is the cops show up and find out they are doing nothing wrong.
There is a home that recently went into foreclosure on the other side of my neighborhood. One day I noticed two guys going through the side window while driving by so I pulled over a couple houses away and called the Police. They showed up and it turns out they were there to do work on the house for the real estate company that just bought the house and they must not of had a key. Sad thing is I saw about a dozen cars drive by while they were doing this and it was in broad daylight in plain sight. After the cop showed up I walked over to talk to him and jokingly said, "Man, how many reports did you guys get for this one." His response was, "Just the one, why was it you who called?" I was amazed but not surprised. Hell I lost faith in my neighbors last year when I participated in a split for Tat Noella Reservas and my mailman delivered the package to one of my neighbors houses by accident but the idiot couldn't remember which one but distinctively remembered delivering a Priority box on my block the day the DC showed delivered. Apparently whoever got it must have been curious to what was in the box and opened it to find a treat and decided to keep rather than walk it over as it it never turned up. After that incident I kind of wrote most of my neighbors off even though it's not fair to judge them all on one persons actions but most of my neighbors except for a handful are douchy anyway. My wife and I love our house but actually can't wait until the housing market improves to sell and move. It's sad when I would rather hang out with some of my buddies neighbors than my own.
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