Superhero Frees Cars from the Clamp

Reuters via Yahoo ^ | 9/17/2003 | Peter Graff

[JennysCool]

He wears a baby-blue spandex jumpsuit and shiny gold panties, gloves, cape, boots and goggles. He wields a giant, metal-cutting circular power saw.

Who is Angle Grinder Man?

He is Britain's self-styled "first wheel-clamp and speed camera vigilante cum subversive superhero philanthropist entertainer type person." That's who.

For those not familiar with industrial machine tools, an angle grinder is the saw best suited to cutting through plates of steel, such as, say, the wheel clamps that authorities use to immobilize illegally parked cars in London.

And Angle Grinder Man offers his "free clamp-removal service" to "all good, decent law-unabiding people" who would rather fight back than pay to have their cars released.

All a clamped motorist has to do is call AGM's hotline and out comes the roadside rescue superhero to saw through the brace and release the car.

British newspapers love him. Taxi drivers are talking about him. And apparently he is for real.

His Web Site shows him, sparks a-flying, carrying out an act of apparent criminal damage on a clamp to "liberate" a red saloon car on a London street.

He advertises his hotline at his Web Site, anglegrinderman.co.uk. Since the press latched on to him, his voicemail box has been full.

His tips: "You will need a petrol-driven, 5,000 revolutions-per-minute angle grinder and a 300mm diameter metal cutting disc. It is dangerous to use a diamond-tipped or similar slotted cutting disc on metal. Always use a solid one."

Also: better to saw off clamps attached by private contractors than those placed by actual police, who can arrest you.

Angle Grinder Man says his actions are a political protest against "the arrogant contempt that politicians hold for the people who put them in power."

But police say it is no joke. Even private clamp owners can press charges.

"What might seem a light-hearted gesture to some would be considered criminal damage to others," a spokesman for Scotland Yard said. "Any act of deliberate vandalism would be acted on by the police."

[jjm2111]

Brits really need to get a life. It's quickly becoming a police state over there.

[martin_fierro]

	Industrial Strength Humor
No amateurs, please. Send FReepmail if you want on/off ISHP list

[martin_fierro]

Don't go getting all hot & bothered over the gold lamé tights there, dear.

<|:)~

[MotleyGirl70]

It's a bird, it's a plane...

no it's Angle Grinder Man.

[RightWhale]

"You will need a petrol-driven, 5,000 revolutions-per-minute angle grinder and a 300mm diameter metal cutting disc.

Milwaukee gas cut-off saw. Most Alaskans are not far from such power tools. For those who park incorrectly, we use The Hook. The Hook takes the offending vehicle someplace else, probably deep in the woods, and loses it.

[Prodigal Son]

Cool.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Sorry, I just can't respect a man who wears panties and then flouts it by putting them on the outside of his pants.

[Constitution Day]

Hard to tell from that crappy pic, but is that haircut the Limey version of a mullet?

;^)

[MotleyGirl70]

His tips: "You will need a petrol-driven, 5,000 revolutions-per-minute angle grinder and a 300mm diameter metal cutting disc.

Along with Altoids, I always carry one in my purse. I never leave home without it.

[mhking]

Just damn.

If you want on the new list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

[Rusty Shackelford]

There is hope still left for Western society! God bless him!

[TheBigB]

LOL...Johnny Depp shaved the beard and 'stache. :)

[martin_fierro]

Could've sworn he used to play with Queen.

[Charles Henrickson]

Hey, Angle Grinder Man!

Can you get this guy out of this box?

[Constitution Day]

Angle Grinder Man is the champion, my friend, and he'll keep on fighting to the end.

[jonalvy44]

isn't that the ELF guy that was arrested?

[martin_fierro]

Don't go getting all hot & bothered over the gold lamé tights there, dear.

Same goes for you.

<|:)~

[Servant of the 9]

Londoners have always hated parking tickets. thirty years ago there was a fad of putting electric fence chargers on cars, so that the meter maid got a high voltage message to back off.

So9

[EggsAckley]