...with persistent nuisance/pranks on your doorbell?

[CactusVera]

In the last fortnight we've suddenly been having a lot of pranks/unpleasant experiences with people on the other end of our door buzzer (we live in a block of flats so there's an intercom). We haven't been living here long but we never had this until now.

In the last 24 hours we've had: 3 rings (at 2am!) from a drunk bloke, 2 pranks this evening and, at 10, 2 rings from a different bloke (who was quite aggressive). This is London and the street is quite busy. We recently also had an attempted break-in by a group of teenagers and our flat was the only one targeted, despite being on the fourth floor...

I could ignore it if it wasn't for the fact that the buzzer is SO LOUD and obnoxious that it woke me (and everyone else in the house) up. Twice.

We rent so we can't change the thing ourselves and there's no way to turn it off.

It's becoming a really unpleasant nuisance when you just want to do work/sleep through the night/watch a film. Help?

get a noise clip of a really rough gruff bloke shouting "fuck right off"

and play it to them

Gruff blokes... Hmm. Or I could use my morning voice

Hmm.. but hopefully there'll be some more responses by tomorrow and I'll have a few ideas to work with. It just feels a bit intrusive to be frequently disturbed at home.

Ta!

Anyone?

Is it possible that the people ringing the doorbell are looking for the previous occupants?

Probably not - one of our flatmates is the previous occupant. We also never get asked anything like 'Hi is so-and-so in?'

And there's about 20 flats here so I don't know why ours is the one getting so many rings. Maybe I'll ask around the neighbours and see if they're having problems too?

Stick one of those electric shock type things over your door bell.

or

Lie in wait and when they buzz, chuck a bucket of piss cold water over them.

Coat the doorbell in excrement...that should put them off... and you have keys so it's not like you should ever have to ring it either!

contact your landlord

put chilli powder on your doorbell

can't you disconnect the intercom at your end?

i bet there is a battery or sommat, i;d get a screw driver and have a look inside, find a way of disconnecting it after 9pm

i have disconnected my door bell but it isn't an intercom so your's might be a bit more tricky but I'll bet there is a way to do it.

I will get a screwdriver and take a look - that's a really good idea. I just hope I don't do any permanent damage to the thing...

Thanks! :]

Usually on the intercom's there is a switch that puts it onto silent, If not speak to your landlord and see if the intercom at your end can be changed to one that does have a switch - even if you have to pay towards the costs it would be worth it!

It would be quite easy to wire a doorbell push so that gives a nasty electric shock to any drunk foolish enough to press it. Simply, get a battery to charge a capacitor add a switch so that the bell circuit can be diverted to the capacitor so that when the bell-push makes contact, it short-circuits the capacitor. You would need a metal push button but quite a lot of doorbell to flats have metal buttons. That would certainly give any inconsiderate drunks something to think about.