Mystery wall mounted box

It's probably a "panic alarm" box. There will be a large button to press when you detect a burglar breaking in or already in. Pressing the button will activate the alarm. The key is to reset it and would normally be stored somewhere else.

Ah! Thanks - that makes sense of the positioning. It may be that what I thought of as an indicator is actually the button that you refer to. Now to find out how to do a reset on the alarm system to be able to reset the code!!

The indicator on ours is just that. The 'button' is basically the whole of one end of the box, which presses inwards and then stays there until the 'key' is used to push it out again.

I reckon that's what it is too. That's exactly where our two are placed.

If the previous occupant was elderly and frail, it may well be the "base station" for a necklace-style fall alarm.

As said, it's a panic button and they're always incorrectly fitted right by the front door instead of opposite it (where you'd end up if pushed back into the house by a marauder.)

Not always! Ours is a few feet back from the front door for exactly that reason.

Press it and see what happens. :)

Did try that Mr Muntz - with fingers in ears! But since the system isn't armed, nothing happened.

But we think we just found the alarm code. So here goes!!

In message , Local hero writes

I would have thought that if they were panic buttons then they were more likely to be needed when the alarm was not armed, so the above doesn't quite make sense.

In this case, 'armed' probably means 'turned on'. Those circuits are generally 'live' the whole time the alarm system is on.

I found that out when I tested ours. The infra-red ones made the sensible beep from the box to let you know it had seen you. The panic button set the bell off, even though it was in test mode.

Andy