A piercing alarm that goes off at all hours, day and night, has been causing havoc for hundreds of residents around a CBD block for over a month. Video / NZ Herald
A loud and piercing alarm that goes off at all hours, day and night, has been causing havoc for hundreds of residents around an inner-city Auckland block for over a month.
Kevin Dooley, building manager for the Statesman Apartments building on Parliament St with 500 residents, said he believed the noise was coming from a building across the road occupied by a payment company with 24-hour security “that thinks it’s Fort Knox”, which has knocked off for Christmas.
“The alarm would be the most intrusive burglar alarm I have heard. It’s loud and impossible to locate.”
He said a frustrated tenant in his apartment complex had finally contacted someone from the building that is the suspected source of the noise this week.
“They said, ‘Maybe it’s us. We will send our facilities manager to go and take a look’.”
Dooley said the alarm seems to have stopped but sounded briefly again yesterday afternoon, which he hoped was just a hiccup.
One resident said the issue had become so bad she had resorted to sleeping fully clothed and with shoes on as part of a bid to run outside when the alarm sounds to try to hunt down exactly which building it is sounding from.
The Statesman Apartments building, which residents could hear a strange alarm emanating from.
She described the situation as like living in a “torture chamber”.
“It’s been really unpleasant. It’s been to the point where I timed it and worked out that I had four minutes to get out of the house to try to work out where the noise was coming from.
“In early November, I slept in my clothes and shoes so that when it went off, I could run out the door and get onto the street within four minutes to try to work out where the sound was coming from – and still couldn’t find it.”
Speaking to the Herald earlier this week, the woman – who asked not to be named – said the alarm suddenly started sounding on November 2 and has been going off intermittently ever since, almost daily.
She and several of her neighbours have contacted Auckland Council, noise control services, fire authorities and even the police in the hope of trying to find where the alarm is sounding from – and turning it off.
“It’s clearly unmonitored. When it goes off, nobody is responding to it,” she said.
“Last night, it started at 11.30pm and continued throughout the night. It runs for four minutes at a time, and then there could be less than a minute’s break or it can be a couple of days’ break – and then it’ll start up again.
“So like last night, it ran for four minutes. And then it [stopped] for 30 seconds, then ran for four minutes, and then it stopped for a couple of minutes. Then it ran for four minutes and then it stopped again.
“Last night, someone called the fire brigade. So at 1.30am, there were two or three fire appliances out on the street trying to work out where this alarm was coming from.”
The woman acknowledged there was a feeling of helplessness among residents. She was losing sleep over the situation and turning up to work tired most days.
“It went on all night. I had earplugs in and could still hear it because it’s such a piercing sound. My apartment also has hush glass and I could still hear it.
“There’s no answer and no end in sight,” she said.
“I’m in the office today and extremely tired. So I think the impacts are on people’s wellbeing ... and productivity. People are getting up in the morning and going to work not having had a good night’s sleep. It’s impacting children.”
Auckland Council has been contacted.
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