Mommy, Where’s My Cornflower Blue Crayola?

By on May 17, 2008 7:06 pm in Brooklyn Heights, News

A car with its alarm blaring on Henry Street near Joralemon was slapped with this note, scrawled with what appears to be a Cornflower Blue Crayola:

Your car alarm was going off for a very long time waking up my child Please don’t park on this block again, ever.

The alarm was wailing when we snapped this photo but stopped a few minutes later.

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  • Peter

    I hate when people have the sensitivity level on their car alarm set to high !!!!

  • http://sarahspy.blogspot.com sarah

    gotta love cornflower blue. and im typing this to the sound of a car alarm on my street.

  • ElvisIII

    Should’ve carved that note into the hood with a sharpened screwdriver.

    The last sentence of that note is priceless.

  • ABC

    the kid may ask his mommy where his crayon is, but this is the handwriting oof a daddy.

  • NahRight

    @ABC – A daddy would have smashed the window and done something far more decisive. A mommy most likely not from NYC probably wrote that note.

  • hmmm….

    “i went to start my car and couldn’t. this guy came out of his house and i asked him if my alarm was going off”

    So you didn’t know you had an alarm, but you asked him if your alarm was going off? Hmm….

  • CJP

    I also don’t get the car alarm thing. Why have an alarm that goes off if the owner can’t hear it? And what are the people who CAN hear it supposed to do? Egg the vehicle? Tear the windshield wipers off? Carve a note in the hood with a sharpened screwdriver? Write a note with a cornflower blue crayola?

    The most rational thing to do is to call 311 and contact the local police precinct. I definitely don’t endorse damage to the car but I can certainly sympthasize with those neighbors who have to put up with that all night.

    And finally in the “what do you do department?” When you do hear an alarm going off and someone, presumably the driver/owner is getting in the car or trying to start it up, what is a rational person supposed to do. Stop and yell “stop, thief. Don’t steal that car!”

    Maybe that’ll get the owner thinking twice about the unnecessary sounding of the alarm..

  • Jonas Von Groucheau

    When I was a boy, I could sleep through anything in this city. These kids today are weak.

  • yo

    Best thing to do is call 311 – cops will come (eventually – alarm complaints aren’t a high priority) and disconnect the battery (as mentioned above). Only problem is when the alarm is going off intermittently for hours and the cops show up when it isn’t going off (happened to me). Then they leave and right on cue the alarm kicks back up again!

  • http://instaputz.blogspot.com Norman E-Mailer

    What kind of car was it, Mrs. F?

  • Andrew Porter

    There is one car with a very sensitive alarm which is frequently parked in the North Heights. The alarm is one of those four different sounds repeated endlessly types. It’s set off by high winds or a passing garbage truck. I always entertain satisfying thoughts of a) pouring Coke on it; b) smashing the windows with a brick; c) pouring milk on it (least harm but looks ghastly when it dries). I’ve never done any of these, but have been Really Tempted. Many times…. Sorry, gotta take my Prozac now….

  • http://adsformyself.blogspot.com Tim N.

    If you have the time… an upper floor stake out with water balloons is a good approach, while you’re on hold with 311.

  • Ethan

    I think we should have a separate posting on what kind of two sentence note would be written in Cornflower Blue throughout all the important moments in history:

    The Nazis: Your guns were going off for a very long time waking up my child Please don’t park on Poland again, ever.

    The fall of communism: Your currency was slipping for a very long time waking up my child Please don’t park on the eastern block again, ever.

  • Homer Fink

    Brilliant!

  • http://www.mad.com MadBH

    Last night / this morning I was awoken to the sound of an ear-piercing car alarm right in front of my building on Montague Terrace. I figured I’d give it a couple of minutes and it would hopefully cease, but after what was probably 5 to 10 minutes of continual on/off of the alarm, I got up to look out the window and see what the situation was. It was 3:11 am.

    People come from far and wide and often park on and around Montague Terrace, especially on weekends and evenings, so that they can hang out on the Promenade. This would generally be fine with me, except for the resulting car alarms and the blasting of their music, often with huge subwoofers installed in their vehicles.

    These guys were no different. There was a dark red minivan and a silver Mitsubishi coupe, and I couldn’t really tell which one’s alarm was the culprit. The were parked one in front of the other, the owners/occupants milling about, looking like they were getting into their cars and were about to leave, but no such luck.

    I called 311, who transferred me to 911. I gave them a detailed description of the situation and they said they would send a unit over as soon as possible.

    The alarm went on and off for a short while more, but thankfully subsided eventually and I got back to sleep.

    Until 4:50 am. At this point, I was again awaken by a combination of the same car alarm AND blaring rap music. INFURIATED now, and half wanting to go out there and confront them (which likely would’ve ended up with one of us dead), I looked out the window again. The Mitsubishi coupe had turned around so that it was parked in front of the minivan with their noses pointing at each other, and they were trying to jump-start the minivan. Now, Jump-starting a car takes approximately NO time — you hook up the cables, start Car A, start Car B, unhook the cables and you’re off. Why these idiots continued unsuccessfully to jump-start a car for God knows how long is beyond me. It either works (right away), or you’ve got a dead battery and need to have the car towed.

    I called 911, as it had been an hour and 39 minutes since I lodged my first complaint. This time the 911 operator told me that this was not an emergency and that I should call my local precinct. I told her how a 311 operator had transferred me to a 911 operator earlier that night/morning, and how they had taken my complaint and said they’d send a unit over, to no avail.

    Nevertheless, she said I needed to speak to my local precinct (84th) and transferred me there. The guy at the precinct was very nice, and was apologetic and said it was an unusually busy night for them, partly because of the Puerto Rican Day Parade and partly because there had been sporadic blackouts, and he said they’d send someone as soon as they could.

    I was furtively in and out of sleep until my alarm went off at 6:30 am (unfortunately I am indeed employed — I don’t have the good fortune to be able to hang out all night on the Promenade on a Sunday night). The car alarm/music had stopped at some point after my second phone call (maybe 20 or 30 minutes after?), but my entire evening’s worth of sleep was destroyed, and I write this now feeling like I haven’t slept in days.

    Both cars were gone when I finally got up this morning, but I have no idea how that transpired.

    In summation: Car alarm usage in New York City should be outlawed. PERIOD. Has a car alarm EVER stopped a crime?? ESPECIALLY in NYC??! Come on! At the very least, just as their are “Quiet Zone” signs on Montague Terrace warning of fines for general noise violations, there should be clear and specific “No Car Alarm” signs, warning people not to set their car alarms there.

    This is approximately the 7,697th time I’ve been woken up by a car alarm on my street. Next time it happens, if the owner isn’t around and it continues, I will vandalize the car (and leave a note).