Loud alarm clock in Tiong Bahru rings up to 8 times a day for 1 month, allegedly from unoccupied house

An alarm clock blaring over eight times throughout the day for over a month has caused quite a bit of consternation for folks around the Tiong Bahru area.

The Straits Times reported on the issue in a Jan. 15 article.

In it, they noted that the noise was affecting folks from Block 55 Tiong Bahru Road and Block 56 Eng Hoon Street.

An email to Mothership in December placed the start of this ringing at around Dec. 4.

The residents told ST that they believe the alarm sounds were coming from an unoccupied unit in Block 55.

However, when ST visited the unit on Jan. 13, a property agent who was conducting viewings there denied that the sounds were coming from the property.

You can hear it here.

Thankfully, the alarms have not been heard for a few days.

Interestingly enough, some residents and folks who worked at Block 55 told Mothership they had not heard the alarm at all, even though they were staying in the block.

That is likely due to the layout of the area.

Here is Tiong Bahru Block 55 from Google Maps.

The front stretch:

And here is a poorer picture taken at night.

Most of the front-stretch residents we talked to did not seem to be even aware of the kerfuffle. Even those who worked in stalls on the first floor that operated daily said they had never heard it.

Flyers identifying the source of the alarm

But remember, this is also Tiong Bahru Block 55.

And it was at this back alley intersection that chaos had been brewing for over a month.

A resident who rented a room in Block 55 told ST that the loud ringing woke her up at 6am on some days, and that she would leave the house and "still hear the ringing in her head".

One resident who lived in Block 56 told Mothership that sometimes the alarm would stop for a day or two, but their hopes of a detente were quickly dashed when it started ringing again.

A resident in Block 55 near the purported source of disturbance said things got so bad that some residents handed out flyers saying they had identified the source of the disturbance.

Here is the flyer.

The flyer also alleges that the owner of the now-unoccupied house comes back to collect their mail and parcels sometimes.

Interestingly enough, one of the fake ceasefires the resident who spoke to Mothership mentioned was around the New Year. The flyer is dated Dec. 31.

According to ST, apart from previous police reports, a resident called the police on Jan. 10 after the alarm rang at around 1am.

The resident told ST that the police shone a torchlight at the unit from the back alley after they arrived, which triggered a "loud siren-like sound that was different from the usual alarm".

The final alarm, at least for now, would ring on Jan. 12.

One of the residents who spoke to Mothership said she is cautiously optimistic the silence will hold this time.

But having endured a month of this, it's easy to understand the caution behind that optimism.

She wryly noted that the only winner in this entire fiasco was whichever company produced the battery the alarm clock was using.

A spokesman for Tanjong Pagar Town Council told ST that the council and relevant agencies, including the HDB and police, are aware of the residents’ concerns and are conducting investigations.

Image from Mothership and Google Maps