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 ...
Every few years the University of Toronto engineering students put a car in the dean’s office, usually a Beetle or Mini.
Thats a terrible accident. Prayers to the family.
There are some pranks that are just too good to be abandoned. :-)
ROTFLMAO. It was the first car I ever owned. I learned so much about cars driving that...:)
“Lucas...The Father of Darkness”
BWaaaaHaaaHaaaa!!!!
The last time my oldest went cow tipping, he didn’t see the bull in the field with the cows. Fortunately, he made it to the fence before the bull did.
A used car salesman with the last name Lust?
I think my brother put nearly 400,000 miles on his green Geo Metro. And he had the completely stripped down naked version. Not even a radio...nothing.
He finally had to put the thing down, and grieves for it to this day.
Your comment “sex with a sewing machine” was apt, as I put a lot of miles into that car with him! Good God...New England Winters!
Probably.
Vandalism is never funny, except when I think of these puny little cars getting tipped over.
Payback for spray painting Hunvee’s is a b1tch, isn’t it?
You know, the sad thing was if that thing had been reliable, it was the most fun vehicle I ever drove.
One of our buddies got married and when they were on their honeymoon we disassembled his 32 roadster and reassembled it in his bedroom on the second floor and put all his bedroom furniture in his garage.
♫ And they drive with pride ... ♫
LOL!! I’d have had a fit!
Just out of curiosity (not that I’m planning to do anything irresponsible), but does anyone know what one of these things weighs?
the average smart car weighs around 1600 pounds.
Seriously, are these drivers going to be the next class protected by hate crime laws???
Not-a-ping!
Agreed. But I will say this: The car only left me stranded on the road once in 130,000 miles, even though I made every single mistake a car mechanic could make. I kept that thing going with everything I had, drove it year round most of the time, too.
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