when i bought my place, it came with a security system

that the previous owner had installed. i never bothered to ask how to operate it or get the codes. for 4 years it just sat there on the wall looking like it was guarding the place.

then, 2 nights ago, it decided to start beeping as if it were a smoke alarm with a dead battery. unfortunately, it's not battery-powered and i had no idea why it was beeping. i searched online for the owner's manual and found the solution of "entering the code" to stop the intermittent beep.

####.

i soon discovered that if you press the # key, it shuts off the system for about 10 minutes. so, 2 nights ago, i got in the practice of pushing the button every 10 minutes like i was on LOST. after a couple hours of this, i thought "#### it, i'll just try pushing every button possible! one of them must surely shut it off!"

wrong.

whatever i pushed activated the house alarm and i got a horrible screeching sound from a panel on my ceiling (which i had always thought was a wiring panel for surround sound speakers). i had to make it stop. i grabbed a screwdriver and a chair. i frantically scrambled up the chair and saw that the phillips head i brought was the wrong kind. #### YOU, FLATHEAD. so i began stabbing in the opening trying to silence the awful noise. all i succeeded in doing was changing the pitch of it. great, now i had a sick alarm.

i jumped back down and fumbled through my tools and found the right size and shape screwdriver and an exacto knife, unscrewed the panel and cut the wires. #### you, noise maker.

then i got home from work last night. everything seemed normal. until, *beep* *beep*

####!

i decided the security unit was going to get the same treatment, so i pried it off the wall and sliced the wires. unfortunately, it wouldn't sit back on the wall properly and i didn't want bare, cut wires hanging off the wall of my entryway, so i had to glue it back on.

hope the next owners like it.