Posted on 04/08/2014 7:24:46 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine
Cows in the San Francisco area will be sleeping better at night since, for the last few days, gangs of angry internal combustion engine-likers have taken to a new trend - Smart car tipping. NBC Bay Area found four of the targeted Smart cars between Sunday night and Monday morning. "Whoever is doing this just has misdirected anger," noted one upset owner, as another witness joked, they reminded him of little dogs: "They look like they are dachshunds sitting up on their hind legs." The exact motives behind the vandalism are unclear, as a parody Facebook page was set up called "Smart Car Tipping" by a creator who does not "practice, promote or condone Smart Car Tipping,' and another site called the Smart Car tippers, "heroes." At a price starting at $13,000 for the tiny cars, perhaps it is the relative cost-benefits that the vandals are considering.
This is not an entirely new occurrence - here is a 2011 "tipping" (video at link)
And NBC Bay Area covering the latest rash of Smart Car tipping... (video at link)
As NBC Bay Area reports,
Someone's been vandalizing compact Smart cars in San Francisco, flipping the tiny vehicles on their front and rear ends in the city's streets
...
"Whoever is doing this just has misdirected anger," Gallivan said.
San Francisco Police Officer Gordon Shyy said the suspects are still at large and will face felony vandalism charges if they are caught. Police do have an eye witness account to work from.
Brandon Michael was out having a cigarette about 1 a.m. Monday when he spotted about six to eight people wearing hooded sweatshirts flip over the cars.
"They looked like they were up to no good," Michael said. "And sure enough, they huddled around it and lifted it up."
And the vandalized cars? Michael said they reminded him of little dogs: "They look like they are dachshunds sitting up on their hind legs."
...
The exact motives behind the vandalism are unclear. The diminutive cars are smaller and lighter than most vehicles. A Smart car weighs about 1,500 pounds; a Ford Focus S Sedan weighs close to 3,000 pounds, and a Hummer clocks in at 8,600 pounds -- definitely a heft that would pose a flipping challenge.
...
One website, however, seemed to be cheering on the tipping. TotalFratMove.com called the Smart car tippers "heroes" and described the cars as "teensy little wheeled boxes."
The morning after... (see pics at link)
/johnny
+1
In Amsterdam they tip those Smart cars into the canal.
I don’t think it has a damn thing to do with misdirected anger, his is in all likelihood being done by a bunch of bored individuals who think it is fun. And tipping over a little fart car is easy, only an idiot tries to tip over a full sized car.
I was going into a restaurant as some folks were finishing their shift. I saw a waitress get into one of those cars. I tipped her.
LOL...reminds me of a buddy in high school who was a senior my freshman year. He had a tiny, vintage 1970 (?) Honda Civic. (Looked like a modern day smart car.)
Every day when he’d leave school, he’d have to search the entire campus to see where the guys had moved (by physically lifting) his car. He spent lots of time just looking for his car.
Guess he was lucky they just moved it, and didn’t tip it ;)
Comedian Pablo Francisco talks about Smart Cars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxIKApP6ZjQ
(warning: bad language)
They make a great city car. (If it weren’t for all the city dwellers.)
Knew it wasn’t a new fad the first time I heard the recent stories. Not the best article on it but it was from that time.
http://www.dutchamsterdam.nl/707-amsterdam-smart-car-canals
Your story reminds me of the time we put a Metropolitan on someones lawn.
My kids call them “roller skates of death”. I call them “enclosed double-wide wheel chairs.
What is the insurance rate on those things?
“They make a great city car. (If it weren’t for all the city dwellers.)”
That was my thought as well. It would work very well in Bangkok and Chiang Mai with the swarms of motorbikes and the narrow twisting Sois.
No tipping!
When the first Honda car came out in the dawn of the 70’s our friend had one. Some of us picked it up and put it on his tiny apartment porch sideways. It took the whole porch space up bumper to bumper and the front door of the apartment couldn’t open. Dont know how he ever got it out of there.
If I had the spare coin, I'd get one, just for trips downtown (where they've set aside several half-size parking spaces for motorcycles and tiny cars). That may change, if this tipping fad catches on.
Why don’t they just put tracking ankle bracelets on everyone living in those liberal cities?
The good of the collective people outweighs the good of the individual (Jerry Brown)
I used to think those were toy cars!
Wow, the only thing they did like that at my college was steal the local Ronald McDonald statue and leave it in our dorm elevator. He rode up and down in the elevator for a week.
First Smart Car I ever saw was here in Australia. At the time I thought it was some dorky homemade thing.
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