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Car Alarm Vigilantism
By
Dave Hogarty
Published Dec 2, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Dave Hogarty
Published Dec 2, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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The New York Post profiles a West Village man who's taken to vandalizing cars with incessant anti-theft alarms. Harry Schroder is a retired art director who likes to spend his afternoons practicing the piano in his home on Charlton St. Occasionally, however, he is interrupted by a car alarm. If it goes on long enough, Schroder leaves the car's owner a note in black magic market on an 18-inch by 24-inch posterboard which he sticks to the car's windshield with carpenter's glue. The Post actually witnessed him giving this treatment to a Toyota Camry on his block. When the owner of the car appeared, she sat in her car for two hours unable to figure out a course of action. Schroder places his signs on the driver's side of cars so owners aren't able to see or drive away without scraping their windshields clean.
Three years ago, Mayor Bloomberg initiated a tightening of the city's noise code, enabling cops to crack down on noise like barking dogs and Mr. Softee trucks. The City Council then attempted to ban the sale of car alarms in New York, but that move was blocked by the Mayor. There's a site called Silent Majority that is dedicated to fighting the scourge of whooping alarms. It has a page where readers share tales of sonic torture.
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