Being awakened with a phone call at 12:45 in the morning is a frightening event. We received two.

I called that number back in the morning to complain and the lady that answered was not sympathetic to my complaint. There is no good reason to notify people at that hour that a teen is missing.

Do they think we are going out at that time to look for him? No.

Surely this could have been handled in a much more satisfactory way. The people at the Rowan County’s alert system need to receive some re-education on how and when to use this system. Until then, I am going to opt out, which is a shame because I will miss the next real emergency.

— Mark Eichler

Salisbury