wefunction wrote:
I'm an aspie that loves NT social interaction. I'm not very good at it but I like arbitrarily wishing people a nice day, saying hello to strangers, making eye contact, hosting BBQs, being touchy-feely and all that stuff. It does make me feel good. I even moved my family in an apartment community so that we'd be surrounded by all kinds of different people. And it's been really fun for the most part.
But my upstairs neighbors have a smoke alarm that goes off often. About once a week, it'll go off for hours on end. I never smell smoke. It'll go off until one of the residents comes home. I've complained to the office about it because I have sensitive hearing and the beeping KILLS my head. But they won't do anything. They say that the residents have to call in a work order. They got really rude with me when I pointed out that this is a noise nuisance so I expect that there's something they can do. Send a letter, you know, SOMETHING. They say no.
I'm not into having a confrontation with the upstairs neighbor. I'm afraid I'll say something to offend and then our lives will be miserable because they'll do things to purposefully make noise. I've been in a lot of positions where I try to make things better by addressing a problem, only to be called a princess and then treated like crap from that moment on. I'd like to stay as anonymous as possible.
So, I was thinking of just calling the fire department the next time the smoke alarm is going off for over an hour. Let them bust down the door to check it out. The expense of replacing the door is on the apartment complex, not the neighbor, and both of them learn the lesson of making sure smoke alarms aren't allowed to beep for hours on end. And chickenshit me gets to stay anonymous.
What do you think?
The noise would make me crazy, too. But there is a downside if you do it this way. The fire department can identify the caller who phones in the alarm. If they put their heads together with the people who know you've complained about this before, they'll know that you knew there was no fire. Thus, you could be charged with calling in a false alarm. I don't know how likely it would be to make such charges stick in a situation like yours; I'm not a lawyer. I do know I wouldn't want to risk it.
Also, I know if it were me, and I figured out what you did, I'd be a lot more annoyed by my door being broken down than by anything you could say. It isn't just an issue of who pays to fix the door. What might get wrecked as the firemen rush in? How quickly would the door get fixed, and might anyone manage to steal anything in the meantime? And it would be a huge inconvenience. Nothing you could possibly say to me would annoy me as much as all that.
But there is another answer. Don't call 911; call the fire department's business number when it's going off, tell them this keeps happening, and you're worried there could be something wrong which
might erupt in a fire someday. So, you've been honest with them, you didn't call in an alarm for a fire you knew wasn't happening, and at the same time, they'll probably respond. I doubt they'll break the door down; they're more likely to get a key from the office. But still, this may force the issue. And it wouldn't be as annoying as having the door broken down.
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AQ Test = 44 Aspie Quiz = 169 Aspie 33 NT EQ / SQ-R = Extreme Systematising
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Not all those who wander are lost.
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In the country of the blind, the one eyed man - would be diagnosed with a psychological disorder
05 Jan 2011, 1:18 pm
