I lived in a condo of 26 flats, my bedroom window facing the parking lot. Practically daily an anti-theft car alarm would sound, mostly at night. From my 4-th floor I could not establish, which car it is, because no blinking lights accompanied the siren. Couple of times I dressed and descended to check - and meanwhile the damn alarm would stop! Other neighbors suffered too.

One night I returned home at about 3 AM, heard the all-too-familiar alarm and discovered that it originated from the old car of a neighbor whose windows faced the opposite direction - far enough from the parking lot to be heard without being annoyed. In spite of late hour, I knocked his door and played a role of a well-wishing neighbor: Now, I told him, knowing whose car someone tries to steal every night, I undertake calling his phone whenever I hear a car alarm, so that he can run down and repel with the villains. A sleepy guy mumbled that maybe he should repair the alarm. I replied that he doesn’t have to worry: whenever I hear a car alarm, I’ll call him any hour, day or night, because I understand that his dear old car means a lot to him.

Next day he told me that he had dismantled the alarm. I - and the neighbors from my side of the condo - gained good sleep, and I kept the reputation of caring neighbor.