Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Superhero Frees Cars from the Clamp
Reuters via Yahoo ^ | 9/17/2003 | Peter Graff

Posted on 09/17/2003 10:24:12 AM PDT by 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."


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: anglegrinder; spandex; wheelclamp
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-53 next last

1 posted on 09/17/2003 10:24:12 AM PDT by JennysCool
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: JennysCool
Brits really need to get a life. It's quickly becoming a police state over there.
2 posted on 09/17/2003 10:26:20 AM PDT by jjm2111 (Wear earthy colors.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: annyokie; bedolido; Bloody Sam Roberts; Chad Fairbanks; Charles Henrickson; Constitution Day; ...
Industrial Strength
Humor
No amateurs, please.
Send FReepmail if you want on/off ISHP list

3 posted on 09/17/2003 10:27:42 AM PDT by martin_fierro (A v v n c v l v s M a x i m v s)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

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

<|:)~
4 posted on 09/17/2003 10:30:10 AM PDT by martin_fierro (A v v n c v l v s M a x i m v s)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: martin_fierro
It's a bird, it's a plane...

no it's Angle Grinder Man.

5 posted on 09/17/2003 10:30:14 AM PDT by MotleyGirl70
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: JennysCool
"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.

6 posted on 09/17/2003 10:31:30 AM PDT by RightWhale (Repeal the Law of the Excluded Middle)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JennysCool
Cool.
7 posted on 09/17/2003 10:31:35 AM PDT by Prodigal Son
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jjm2111
Sorry, I just can't respect a man who wears panties and then flouts it by putting them on the outside of his pants.
8 posted on 09/17/2003 10:32:05 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Even if the government took all your earnings, you wouldn’t be, in its eyes, a slave.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

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

;^)

9 posted on 09/17/2003 10:32:59 AM PDT by Constitution Day (+ R.I.P., Man in Black. +)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: JennysCool
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.

10 posted on 09/17/2003 10:34:20 AM PDT by MotleyGirl70
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Howlin; Ed_NYC; MonroeDNA; widgysoft; Springman; Timesink; dubyaismypresident; Grani; coug97; ...
Just damn.

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

11 posted on 09/17/2003 10:35:44 AM PDT by mhking (Laugh while you can, monkey boy...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Blood of Tyrants
There is hope still left for Western society! God bless him!
12 posted on 09/17/2003 10:35:44 AM PDT by Rusty Shackelford
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: martin_fierro
LOL...Johnny Depp shaved the beard and 'stache. :)
13 posted on 09/17/2003 10:36:00 AM PDT by TheBigB (I don't believe in Astrology. We Scorpios are skeptical.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Constitution Day

Could've sworn he used to play with Queen.

14 posted on 09/17/2003 10:37:01 AM PDT by martin_fierro (A v v n c v l v s M a x i m v s)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: martin_fierro
Hey, Angle Grinder Man!

Can you get this guy out of this box?


15 posted on 09/17/2003 10:37:10 AM PDT by Charles Henrickson (Would a British tag line be a "tag queue"?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: martin_fierro
Angle Grinder Man is the champion, my friend, and he'll keep on fighting to the end.
16 posted on 09/17/2003 10:38:12 AM PDT by Constitution Day (+ R.I.P., Man in Black. +)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: mhking
isn't that the ELF guy that was arrested?
17 posted on 09/17/2003 10:38:35 AM PDT by jonalvy44
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: JoeSixPack1
Don't go getting all hot & bothered over the gold lamé tights there, dear.

Same goes for you.

<|:)~

18 posted on 09/17/2003 10:38:44 AM PDT by martin_fierro (A v v n c v l v s M a x i m v s)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: JennysCool
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

19 posted on 09/17/2003 10:39:07 AM PDT by Servant of the 9 (The Alpha and the Numeric)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: martin_fierro

20 posted on 09/17/2003 10:39:52 AM PDT by EggsAckley (........I LOVE pushing the abuse button......)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-53 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson