file photo by Boyd Loving
August 6,2015
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Police report that on Thursday July 30, 2015 a North West Central Bergen Dispatch received a box alarm of fire from the area of Lenox and Ackerman Avenues. Responding officers were unable to locate a fire and the actor who had pulled the alarm had left the scene. A short time later when North West Bergen Central Dispatch received a second alarm in the area of Melrose Place and Godwin Avenue.
Patrolman Jeffrey Kay observed a male actor running from the area. Nycheem P. Gatling (20) of Paterson was subsequently arrested and charged with two counts of 2C:33-3a, causing a false public alarm. Mr. Gatling was released pending a first appearance before the Ridgewood Municipal Court.
Isn’t it about time we had cameras on these boxes Ike an atm?
These museum-piece boxes serve no purpose in this day and age of communications technology, other than to look quaint.
Declan, you are wrong in this regard. They are safety device of a last resort and not only to do they work when cell service, power and telephone is disrupted and they actually provide the fastest response times since they are directly connected to the firehouse. Many towns that have taken them out regret doing so later on. With Verizon getting out of the telephone and pole line busniess including fios your single point of failure will be via cell phones and we all know how fragile that infrastructure is.
Declan guess you never had a dead battery on your cellphone.