Some residents of Riverdale say they would never trust the emergency call boxes located on nearby street corners should they need help.

The boxes, which were put in place after the Civil War, should connect to 911 with the push of just one button. News 12 The Bronx discovered, however, that most of the alarm boxes are dead, covered in spider webs and completely nonfunctional.

?I had the unfortunate experience of using the alarm box at Riverdale and 256th Street and it was dead,? Herb Eysser, a former FDNY dispatcher, says.

Residents like Eysser feel that the alarm boxes just give residents a false sense of security. He believes the boxes should be maintained. The FDNY has said the boxes remain in place because they are a part of the current infrastructure of the call system.