Today, I broke into my own house. Ok, not really. When we bought the house, we inherited an ADT security system. What we didn't inherit were any codes for said system. I found a normal ADT installer code online with some instructions, and it worked, so I was messing around with the system this morning. I also found a paper that was left in a kitchen drawer with a code on it and it seemed to work as well. I was trying to figure out how to use the system when I heard a knock at the door.
When I answered the door, there was a cop with his hand on his side (gun) against the wall next to the door. I greeted him and he said that they had received a distress call. His partner was around the corner, maybe giving back-up or checking around back. I invited them in and explained that we bought the house and I was messing with the security system trying to figure it out. They asked for my ID, called in the licence number, and I was clear, so they left. I noticed that they walked all the way to the end of the cul-de-sac (about 5 or 6 houses) where they were parked.
It turns out that the code I found was the distress code and I had activated it. ADT tried to call the previous owner's phone number and couldn't get ahold of anyone so they called the police. We have been trying to get ADT to give us a code, or reset or disable the system. They have been horrible about returning calls and any service whatsoever. They pretty much won't do anything unless we agree to their 3 year, $40/month monitering agreement. I called about the police coming out and they said that the account is still active under the previous people and we can't change anything without the authorization code (the owner of the house was not the person that lived here - the account is under the owner's son's ex-wife).
So, what did we learn today? 1) Don't enter the distress code unless you want the police to really come. (It was actually reassuring that they were pretty quick and were very professional and thorough.) 2) A complete stranger is paying for our security system.
2 comments:
Paul set our alarm off to see what would happen and all of the sudden we heard a voice over head asking for our code...uh....we explained that we just moved in...it was crazy! If you have the guy come out to give a "free" evaluation of the system, they will reset it for you, and then you can jsut "think about it." Then you know your code and it will still go off if someone comes in! Good luck with that :)
We had a similar problem, but were not as smart at Tami. We just unplugged our whole system because we also kept setting off the house alarm in the middle of the night (I think the battery was just low).
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