Hollywood power couple sues alarm company ADT
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former Paramount Pictures chief Sherry Lansing and her Oscar-winning director husband sued Tyco's alarm company, ADT Security Services, saying burglars have been targeting homes in the Los Angeles suburb of Bel-Air because of the company's slow response.
Lansing and her husband, William Friedkin, said the company took nearly two hours to respond to a burglary at their Bel-Air mansion. They proposed class-action status for their suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday.
An ADT spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment.
Lansing and Friedkin said in the suit the thieves stole jewelry that had "significant amounts of value" and that was "unique and irreplaceable."
The lawsuit demands that company refund the $25,000 the couple spent installing the alarm and pay compensatory and punitive damages.
The couple said they chose an ADT security system when they moved into the mansion in 2006 because they were told that although the company did not have a monitoring station in Bel-Air, it maintained a 24-hour patrol in the neighborhood.
The night of the burglary, an ADT patrolman did not arrive at the home until about an hour and 45 minutes after intruders set off the alarm, the lawsuit said.
Although the ADT patrolman did not find any sign of a break-in, the couple's housekeeper discovered the ground-floor door open, a ladder standing beneath a second-floor balcony, and the alarm blaring when she arrived about eight hours later.
