Alarm silenced with hammer — $60 fine

Press, 2 September 1981, Page 17

Alarm silenced with hammer — $60 fine

PA Auckland A man who hit a burglar alarm box with a sledgehammer because he had ' had enough" of alarms ringing for hours has been fined $6O in the District Court at Auckland . Douglas Stuart McKnight. aged 33. a salesman, of Mount Albert, pleaded guilty to a charge of wilfully damaging a burglar alarm box.

Sergeant W. A. F. Brown said that on August 30, McKnight took a step ladder and a sledge-hammer to a laundromat in Dominion Road, where the . burglar alarm had been ringing for about five minutes. He climbed up the ladder and hit the alarm box once with the sledge-hammer, causing damage worth $lOO. Sergeant Brown said that McKnight told the police that he was tired of alarms constantly being set off and left to ring for hours. McKnight told the Court that it had been an irresponsible act, but that he had “just had enough." “I think that people have the right to protect their property with these things, but we have the right to insist that they work properly." he said. Judge .Mitchell order McKnight to pay $lOO compensation. but told him that he could have his sledgehammer back.