Man Fires Gun at Car to Silence Alarm

[dwarven1]

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. - A man annoyed by a noisy car alarm fired at least three bullets into a Toyota Camry, silencing the alarm and bringing out police who hauled him away in handcuffs, authorities said.

David Owen Rye, 48, was arrested and booked for investigation of reckless discharge of a firearm and felony vandalism, Sgt. John Adamczyk said. Rye allegedly told officers he grabbed his handgun and went out to put a stop to the car alarm.

The owner of the Camry, a sailor whose ship the USS Theodore Roosevelt just returned from an eight-month cruise, was visiting a friend when he heard the gunfire at about 10 p.m. Tuesday, KCAL-TV reported.

"I mean, that's not a safe guy. I mean, you get upset over an alarm, over a noise like that, (then) there's some little kids making too much noise and he decides to do something awful," sailor Nicholas Moreno, 25, said.

Police were called to the Yosemite Avenue apartment building and Rye was ordered out of his apartment by an officer with a bullhorn. A Los Angeles Police Department helicopter also responded and Rye was arrested.

Neighbor Ken Davis said he heard gunshots and looked outside to see Rye holding a gun.

"It was little scary," Davis said. "I didn't know what kind of mood he was in. I didn't want to say anything to him."

 

[YogSothoth]

Having lived in many apartments with parking-lot facing bedroom windows, I can sympathize with this guy's reaction. He's an idiot for acting on his anger like that, but I can understand why he was so pissed off.

Back when I was living in Allston, we had car alarms going off many times weekly, and always at 3 or 4 in the morning. And of course the people who were paying for the parking spots behind my building lived no where nearby, so they never turned them off.

I remember one night when this guy's alarm kept going off all night, time after time. The police were called by the third time and when they arrived, the entire population of the lot-facing side of the building was hanging out their windows, watching the show and offering commentary (no one could sleep, anyway). At some point, something heavy came flying down from the top floor to land on this guy's hood. Oddly enough, there were no witnesses (I lived on the first floor, btw)

The guy who owned the car finally showed up while the cops were getting ready to tow the car (it's amazing what can happen when 30+ people are yelling out of their windows). The guy actually yelled back at all of us claiming that we were the ones who kept setting off his alarm, and that it was all our fault. Needless to say, this was greeted by a chorus of guffaws and derisive laughter. If the cop hadn't shut him up, I think another heavy thing might have dropped from the top floor.

Someone should have told this guy that anonymous heavy things are better car alarm resolution materials than a handgun.

 

[KMaurer]

Ditto that. When I lived in L.A., we were in a second floor apartment at the rear of the building, with our bedroom and kitchen overhanging the parking area for the building. One of the people who lived at the very front of the building had an alarm that went off very regularly, again usually at 0 dark hundred. Of course he could never hear it from his unit. Everybody in the building had complained to him without effect. One morning I was once again awakened by the alarm going off about 20-25 feet from my bed. After a couple of minutes I head some really loud noises for a minute or two, and the alarm stopped. When we went out the next morning, every window in he guy's car had been smashed, the hood, doors, quarter panels and trunk lid were all dented and severely scratched, and the hood had been opened and every wire in sight ripped out. We never had the slightest hint who had done it, but none of us were particularly interested in finding out (except maybe to give them an Attaboy).

Ken

 

[SiameseRat]

I have to say that audible car alarms are one of THE most ineffective inventions of mankind. It doesn't stop your car from being stolen. If you can hotwire a car I'm certain you can disable an alarm. My idea is that cars should have high voltage current running through them.

Silent yet very very effective [twisted]

 

[dwarven1]

I had a similar experience to LenS' once.

I was part of a big group of friends - we were more like a big family, that's how close we were. Well, one of our people was killed, along with his entire family, in a house fire.

We'd just gotten back from the funeral - we'd all gone back to an apartment that faced the train station to just be together. There was a car in the parking lot who's alarm kept going off every 10 minutes or so. So at one point, I see one of the crew (let's call him Morgan) coming up the stairs, his hands bleeding from the knuckles. I asked him what happened, and he replied, "I gave that car something to really yell about." I dragged him over to one of the other people there who was an EMT and asked her to bandage him up while I went to see what he'd done.

EVERY window on that car was broken - there were outlines in the safety glass where he'd slammed his entire arm into the windows! He'd even punched out the headlights, taillights and side view mirrors!

And the alarm kept going off... and no one cared.

Ross