Why is it that smoke alarms always beep in the middle of the night? It never happens on a Saturday afternoon, when grabbing a ladder and a replacement battery is no problem. Then there are the overly-sensitive kind that beep if you let the bacon go two minutes too long. That seems to be the kind that was driving Leroy Mason batty. Or maybe his alarm was just too close to the stove.
Mason had complained previously that fire crews would not move the detector after it had gone off on other occasions. So, when he set it off again while cooking Monday afternoon, Mason “took it upon himself to relocate the smoke detector” — by blasting it to bits, according to state police.
Yep. Fed up with the squawking alarm, Mason grabbed a 20 gauge smoothbore and gave it a load of lead. That might not have attracted much attention if Mason lived in a rural area, but . . .
The shotgun blast hit a wall that Mason, 68, shares with a neighboring apartment, according to cops. And the alarm attracted fire and rescue personnel, who arrived and disarmed Mason.
Not content to leave bad enough alone . . .
He allegedly rearmed himself with a Colt .45 handgun and went outside, pointed it at first responders and demanded they return the shotgun.
And that’s why Mr. Mason’s in jail, awaiting trial on aggravated assault and reckless endangerment charges. So while we can certainly sympathize with his frustration at having to deal with a hyperactive smoke alarm, we’re left with no other choice but to stick him with our irresponsible gun owner of the day for how he chose to remedy the situation.