Fighting Back Against Car Alarms Ever since this site went online, I've gotten dozens of emails saying "There's a car on my block with an alarm that won't stop. It's driving me crazy. What should I do?" First you need to identify the alarmed car. If you hear an alarm, look out the window, and see a car with its headlights flashing, that's your car. Usually, it's more tricky -- you might not be able to see the car from your apartment, for example, and by the time you get dressed and go outside, the noise has stopped. Once you've identified the car, here are a few things you can try. 1. Leave a note on the offending car's windshield. You might say: "Your car alarm keeps going off. It's aggravating and also illegal. The police can tow your car if the problem doesn't stop.* Thanks!" *This is true. 2. Call 311, the New York Quality of Life hotline. If you tell them a car alarm is sounding, they'll treat the call as a theft in progress and transfer you to the police. Perhaps this will work. Sometimes, the police will come, hear the alarm, and issue a ticket. They have the power to try pushing the car to see if that sets off the noise -- if it does, they can issue a ticket. But in some areas, the police are much less responsive. After all, alarms are extremely poor indicators of a potential theft. Perhaps 6 hours after you call, a police car will drive by, notice that no alarm is going off, and keep driving. So when you call 311, you might try saying "I want to speak with the Department of Environmental Protection about a noise complaint." That agency also has the power to write tickets for noise. Unfortunately, there aren't very many DEP enforcement agents. 3. As a last resort, you can get a copy of the vehicle's registration information from the DMV. Fill out form MV-15 (download here), and check the box saying you want the information for "Use in matters of motor vehicle theft." Send the form in with $10, and within two weeks they'll mail you the owner's name, address, and possibly the phone number. From there, you should be able to call the owner in the middle of the night, when you hear the alarm, and tell them you're worried for the safety of their car. Before going through with this, please read about driver privacy laws here and here.