Burglar Alarm

Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young is calling for increased scrutiny of the city's False Alarm Reduction Program, which he says is partly responsible for the city government's seizure of thousands of homes. "People [can rack up] thousands of dollars in false alarms," said Lester Davis, Young's spokesman. "The city can seize your home over unpaid bills. You want the city to have some teeth, but you also want to be smart. If someone is not paying, does it make sense to take someone's home and now the city is responsible for another vacant property?"

Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young is calling for increased scrutiny of the city's False Alarm Reduction Program, which he says is partly responsible for the city government's seizure of thousands of homes. "People [can rack up] thousands of dollars in false alarms," said Lester Davis, Young's spokesman. "The city can seize your home over unpaid bills. You want the city to have some teeth, but you also want to be smart. If someone is not paying, does it make sense to take someone's home and now the city is responsible for another vacant property?"

Police checking a burglar alarm at St. Claire Elementary School Saturday morning arrested a Glen Burnie youth.The boy, 16, was charged as a juvenile with fourth-degree burglary, trespassing and destruction of property after admitting breaking into the school, police said, and was released to the custody of his parents.Officers found him standing in front of the school when they drove up about 1:15 a.m., police said. He told the officers he had smashed several windows to get into the school, in the 900 block of Blue Ridge Road, police said.

FINKSBURG - The Carroll County Sheriff's Office reported Sept. 21 that twin brothers from Howard County had been arrested and charged with a pair of burglaries last month in the county. Timothy Brian Feick and Matthew Dean Feick, 26, of Clarksville, were charged in the August burglaries of pharmacies in Finksburg and Woodbine. On Aug. 4, sheriff's deputies responded a burglar alarm at the King's Pharmacy in the Woodbine Shopping Center just after 2 a.m. Investigators found the pharmacy's front window shattered and more than $13,000 in medications missing.

POLICE LOG* Windy Knolls: Burglars stole $26,000 worth of jewelry from a house in the first block of Larbo Road sometime between Thursday morning and 9:45 a.m. Friday.* Old Mill: Someone threw a rock through the window of the Soda Pop shop in the 600 block of Old Mill Road at 4:50 a.m. Sunday and stole several cartons of cigarettes. County police said they were called to the store when its burglar alarm went off, but they arrived too late.

Police investigating the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old Pimlico-area youth in the kitchen of his foster home say the victim apparently activated an interior burglar alarm while being chased by his killer.Northwestern District police, who responded to the alarm about 10:11 a.m. yesterday, checked the house for signs of forced entry and left when none were found. The victim's body was found about 3:18 p.m. when a resident of the house returned home.Other residents of the house last saw the victim about 8 a.m."

Call it a bad sequel -- The Burglar Alarm From Hell Part II.That's what some Timber Grove residents thought when a vacationing neighbor's burglar alarm went off three days ago and kept going.Luckily for them, Garrison District police officers and a Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. electronic technician took care of the problem yesterday afternoon before things got nasty -- unlike a similar Randallstown incident in May when neighbors suffered through six days of almost nonstop whoop-whoop-whooping and continuing media coverage.

The recent episode of the Randallstown burglar alarm that wouldn't shut up isn't your typical false alarm story. Indeed, many people (none of them Randallstowners) found it a mildly amusing tale.To police departments nationwide, though, false alarms are no laughing matter. As the fear of crime scares more homeowners into buying burglar alarm systems -- 8 percent of U.S. homes were wired in 1992, a figure expected to approach 20 percent by 2000 -- the number of false alarm calls has consequently increased.

FINKSBURG - The Carroll County Sheriff's Office reported Sept. 21 that twin brothers from Howard County had been arrested and charged with a pair of burglaries last month in the county. Timothy Brian Feick and Matthew Dean Feick, 26, of Clarksville, were charged in the August burglaries of pharmacies in Finksburg and Woodbine. On Aug. 4, sheriff's deputies responded a burglar alarm at the King's Pharmacy in the Woodbine Shopping Center just after 2 a.m. Investigators found the pharmacy's front window shattered and more than $13,000 in medications missing.

Baltimore County police today will seek a court order to get permission to enter a house on Forest Garden Avenue in Lochearn to turn off a burglar alarm that has been blaring off-and-on since yesterday evening.Police said the owner of the house is out of town and that efforts to contact him have not been successful.However, a neighbor who reportedly has a key to the house had not been located last night.The incident is similar to one in Woodlawn several weeks ago when an outside burglar alarm kept neighbors awake for several days while the owner of the house was vacationing in Asia.

Lucy L. Glenn has protected her East Baltimore townhouse with a burglar alarm for nearly 20 years. But new city-imposed fees for such systems have her feeling robbed nonetheless. "I have to buy my medicine, I pay my taxes and I pay my mortgage," said Glenn, 72, of North Aisquith Avenue. "I pay $37 a month for the [burglar alarm] monitoring and now I have to pay a $20 registration fee?" The law, which took effect late last year and drew protests from alarm customers, says she has to pay. But City Councilwoman Lisa Joi Stancil introduced a bill last night that proposes to pass along that fee to burglar alarm companies that monitor security systems.

Responding to angry e-mails, letters and phone calls, the City Council is rethinking a program that charges residents a $20 annual burglar alarm fee. Councilwoman Helen L. Holton introduced a bill last night that would make the fee a one-time charge instead of annual. Under the plan, businesses would continue to pay the yearly fee -- and anyone would face fines for repeated false alarms. The bill was referred to the taxation committee for study. "The outcry has been so strong from the citizens of Baltimore," Holton said.

Baltimore County police are crediting the county's alarm-reduction ordinance for a sharp drop in the number of false alarms last year. The department released statistics this week showing that the number of calls for alarms dropped 21 percent last year compared with the year before. Authorities estimate that 98 percent of alarm calls are false. The County Council established fines in 1998 for businesses that experience more than three false alarms in a year. The fines range from $50 to $1,000.

I PICKED UP a flashlight, summoned my courage and told my wife: "If the police nab me, come down to the station house and bail me out." She said she might. With that tepid assurance, I set out on a mission, namely to get in and out of a house without setting off the burglar alarm. I know people do this every day. But most of them are entering and exiting their own houses, punching their own alarms. I was going to try to do this at a neighbor's house. I had inherited this job. It had been passed along to me during morning carpool duty.

A task force is searching for ways to fine-tune Baltimore County's false-alarm ordinance, a law that police say is working, but that some business owners say unfairly penalizes them. The task force, composed of 11 business owners and county councilmen Joseph Bartenfelder, Vincent J. Gardina and John A. Olszewski Sr., will offer proposals that would allow businesses to avoid fines by alerting police to false alarms. "I don't think they are looking to do away with the system. ... We are looking for consistency," said Olszewski.

HOWARD COUNTY wasted $1 million of taxpayer money responding to false burglar alarms last year. Other local jurisdictions wasted millions more. Pets, windstorms and homeowners and hired help who don't know how security systems work are tripping alarms at alarming rates.In 1996, Howard County police responded to 19,883 bogus calls, about 55 a day. The problem is not local. Police departments across the country are faced with significant losses of money and manpower caused by home and business alarm systems.

Lucy L. Glenn has protected her East Baltimore townhouse with a burglar alarm for nearly 20 years. But new city-imposed fees for such systems have her feeling robbed nonetheless. "I have to buy my medicine, I pay my taxes and I pay my mortgage," said Glenn, 72, of North Aisquith Avenue. "I pay $37 a month for the [burglar alarm] monitoring and now I have to pay a $20 registration fee?" The law, which took effect late last year and drew protests from alarm customers, says she has to pay. But City Councilwoman Lisa Joi Stancil introduced a bill last night that proposes to pass along that fee to burglar alarm companies that monitor security systems.

FINKSBURG -- Carol Park received a "Good Citizen" award from the Maryland State Police, and she is embarrassed.An officer was doing a routine check through a neighbor's house where a burglar alarm was sounding, and Park took action when he didn't come out soon enough for her peace of mind.And she gets an award."What did I do?" said Park, who at 42 is a full-time student and mother of two. "I made a phone call, really."The call she made was to the state police Westminster barracks, and her concern was for Tfc. Ronald Cullison, who contends that Park's thoughtfulness could have saved his life in a potentially dangerous situation.

STATE POLICE in Carroll County responded to 2,115 burglar alarms last year. All but 23 were false.Across the nation pets, windstorms and homeowners and hired help who don't know how security systems work are tripping alarms at alarming rates. Ninety-eight percent of alarms are false.Regionally, the cost of false alarms is staggering and continues to grow. In 1996, Baltimore County spent $5 million answering 77,000 false alarms -- 17 percent of all police calls. Howard spent $1 million responding to 19,883.