Alarm like sounds from 2008 Prius with no alarm system

This afternoon, Wednesday September 3, 2009, I was sitting in my office which has a window out to the street. My 2008 Prius was parked right in front of the house. I heard the strangest sounding car alarm going off so I went out to check what car had such a sick sounding alarm system. The sounds were coming from my Prius. I called my partner, Ian, to witness this interesting phenomenon as this has never happened before and there is no alarm system in the car as far as I knew. My keys were on the third floor of the house so I went up to get them while Ian stood by the car. The sounds were interesting and not very loud (maybe about 1/2 the volume of the horn) and varied in the type of sound. I did not think to record the sound. It sort of reminded me of Poor Herby in the Love Bug for the quality of the sound. I called our local dealer and the person who I talked with thought that maybe I had set off the distress alarm which is the red button on the key fob. The fob was on a counter on the third floor and not in my pocket when the sound began and when I tried the red button, the sound was regular and regular horn volume.
Has anyone else had this happen to them?

 

We bought the 2008 Prius new from Kingston Toyota and there was no pressure at all to buy an alarm system with the car. We had to wait about 3 months for delivery. There is no alarm system in the car and I will for sure tape record the sounds next time it happens.

Nice to meet you as well, BAllanJ.

 

Guess it is just a chance thing. It was so sick sounding that it was funny to hear it especially from my Prius with no car alarm.