North Enders urged to replace old locks, stop buzzing everybody in as burglars descend on the neighborhood
By adamg - 9/25/12 - 8:18 am
NorthEndWaterfront.com reports an uptick in break-ins in the North End, with police saying many of the entries are by burglars who find easy pickings among the neighborhood's old locks and unlocked doors or who simply ring all the apartments in a building, knowing the odds are good somebody will simply buzz them in.
Comments
With all due respect
The management companies (and others) are partially to blame. A lot of the buzzer-intercom systems don't work correctly in older buildings, so if you're expecting a guest or delivery person in that time frame, you're kind of stuck buzzing them in. Delivery people won't wait long enough for someone to run downstairs and let them in correctly, and half the time, if you do that, another neighbor let in the pizza guy and by the time you get downstairs, he's lost on the third floor and it's a game of hide and seek.
TL;DR: So many Boston buildings have broken intercoms that people get pressured into making bad buzzing decisions.
It has nothing to do with
It has nothing to do with broken intercoms. I've seen dozens of buildings with intercoms working perfectly well, and people still buzz you in without asking who you are.
In fact, the Cambridge Police made fun of me for asking who was there before buzzing them into my building.
Best to lose the buzzer altogether
The building I used to live in (not in the North End, but still) disabled the buzz-people-in thingy altogether, and it worked wonders. Whenever someone rang/buzzed your apartment, you had to get off your ass and walk down to the front door to let them in face-to-face.
And whenever someone hit every buzzer on the board, you could hear your neighbors' buzzers going off within a few seconds of your own. I always waited a few seconds (so the idiot would have no idea who was responding) and say, in a fake voice "hello?" or "Diga?". that was fun....if the person up front would plead their case "I lost my key...pizza...etc" I'd wait about 30 more seconds and give them a slow "Eh?" No break-ins...good times.