Posted on 08/16/2009 6:39:22 PM PDT by kingattax
EDMONTONOwners of pint-sized Smart cars aren't laughing about reports that vandals may be targeting the tiny vehicles in a 21st-century take on tipping cows over.
The Internet and blogosphere are abuzz with media reports that pranksters may have pushed several of the tiny vehicles into canals in Amsterdam.
And now a man in his 40s is charged with mischief for allegedly tipping a Smart car onto its side along Edmonton's Whyte Avenue, a trendy bar-and-boutique strip that sometimes attracts rowdy drinkers.
Windows, exterior mirrors and panelling on the car were damaged, and despite the outrage of owner Kevin Spaans, amused bystanders posed with the flipped car and snapped photos with their cellphone cameras.
Police are seeking other suspects, but one official said it appears to have been an isolated occurrence.
Ken Lust, sales manager at David Morris Fine Cars, which sells the popular car, says goofing around with it isn't a harmless prank but rather a brazen act of property damage.
Lust has himself been a victim. Three years ago, he went outside one morning on a property he owns northeast of Edmonton to find that somebody had tipped his Smart car over during the night.
"The first reaction is shock and disbelief. The second reaction is anger because your car has been vandalized. It's the same feeling, I guess, if you walked out and saw your paint all scratched up or your windows smashed in," he said.
No one was ever arrested. Lust believes it was the work of several fellows who probably had too much to drink that night.
The sales manager spent several hundred dollars repairing smashed windows and a bent gas cap.
(Excerpt) Read more at thestar.com ...
Imagine if you were in an accident in one of these.
LMAO!!
Sounds like the “smart” thing to do would be to buy an SUV.
I don’t like Smart Cars, but tipping them over seems about as wrong as tipping over a guy’s motorcycle.
-PJ
Why did I know this would happen? Hey, greens gotta have their fun, too, huh? This is how.
It won't matter if Ubama and the scumbags force EVERYBODY into them.
Sounds like payback to me.
Damaging someone else’s property is not cool, no matter how “funny” it may seem because it’s a wimpy looking little car.
Good thing they’re not setting these cars on fire, because I think they’re made of cardboard. I saw one in a parking lot not long ago - a very fat lady got out of it and the car raised up about a foot. I don’t think there was room for anyone or anything else in that car once she got in.
In Europe, they throw them into ditches and lakes.
But this will be an international incident, complete a UN committee to pass a law that fines and imprisons the goofballs that do it.
It might take some of the sanctimony out of their drivers. On the other hand, it might increase it too. Just the other day a Prius driver righteously honked at me for passing her, in a passing zone, when she was doing 5 under the posted speed limit.
I remember when it was all the rage to put a VW Beetle between stationary objects. A couple guys could do it. One guy’s Bug was carried into a dorm lobby. lol
Exactly what I was thinking! LOL
cow tipping,turd box racer tipping, it’s all the same.
When I was i High School in 1959 we had a teacher who drove a Fiat 850, we used to pick it up and put it in the hallways in school.
Damaging someone elses property is not cool, no matter how funny it may seem because its a wimpy looking little car.Damaging someone else's property is called vandalism. Even if the property in question is a Smart car that does nothing but show the world how dumb the owner was to buy one in the first place . . .
Don’t have to imagine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8F0PFi24VI
Disregard the jerk who actually posted the video and his obvious dislike of Americans... But the video sure tells a story.
How much do you tip a Smart car? 15%? 10?
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.