When I was a kid, it was cow tipping...
 

Fourth Smart car found flipped in Bernal Heights | www.ktvu.com

SAN FRANCISCO — Police in San Francisco are investigating why vandals in black hooded sweatshirts flipped four Smart cars on Monday in San Francisco's Bernal Heights and Excelsior neighborhoods.

That's pretty funny right there.

Vandalism by a bunch of city thug wannabes to your property isn't really all that funny. :(

I laughed when I saw this on the news. Then I imagined the perps saying to themselves 'why? Because we can!' Good thing my Porsche is heavy.


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People in San Francisco once protested in favor of smaller more fuel-efficient cars and increased use of mass transit. Now they protest against Google busses and engage in Smart car tipping.

Totally uncool move. You screw up someones property and put them out like this...that very act might be the only buffer they have between fiscal solvency and not.

It is so easy to forget that these acts have real people on the other side who did not ask for this to happen to them.

Every car I have owned at one point or another has been vandalized. I empathize with the owners. Still, it is pretty funny. If we got a point in this country where the worst a bunch of "thugs" would do is flip a bunch of smart cars... I would not mind it.

If all my cars were armored vehicles, I might be able to laugh at it.
But I got a Boxster with a soft top.
Not funny to me.

so when you were tipping these cows, how did the cows get back up after?

Nope.

Nobody would be laughing if some punk kids flipped their boxster. :rolleyes:

I think this is evolution in progress that we are witnessing.

The "Smart" cars need to take evasive or defensive action on their own and should they be damaged they need to self heal.

I think the next "Smart" car will be the "Turtle" so it can retract all its delicate bits out of harms way into the armoured shell and be able to right itself after being overturned.

The next model up of the "Turtle" will be the "Ninja Turtle" and will get the properties that allow Defensive and Offensive reactions to threats. :D

Kids nowadays, can't live with them, can't shoot them. Oh wait, I'm in Texas, you CAN shoot them. In fact many Texans would consider it your civic duty. Best to be careful around other people's property in Texas or you stand to get ventilated, and that is just fine by me.

I guess that might be one reason why this is happening in SF, California and not Texas. That and it takes quite a few people to flip over a Ford 450 dually with the extra extended cab and long bed.

Some of you guys needs to be a bit (more) cool I think lol

Com'on those vandals are simply kids/teens that have nothing to do. Try to remember what you were doing when you had their age.... unless you were the type that had no mates and called weirdo. I was a nasty kid if my memory is good, tricks on neighbors, we were going to public areas "just" to make trouble, polishing our skateboards on some of the best city infrastructure... man and I pass tons of other stupid tricks we've done - simply to see those older people's face.

e.g. fresh dog poop wrapped/hidden in paper, placing the package on the neighbor's porch, setting it on fire, knocking the door and RUN. Hiding in the bush waiting for the guy to tap the fire out with his feet... dog poo flying up to his knees. Man I miss those nasty kid years a lot.....

As for this particular SF adventure.... as long as they do not hurt anyone then I am kinda cool with that actually. Yeah FUNNY! (sorry) Hurray for insurance co.

Yeah, totally cool. Tough sh^t for the owner, but way cool. Maybe next they could break some windows, or burn down a church, or set a homeless guy on fire. Ya know, FUNNY in an ironic kinda way.

No where near as wrong as lighting people on fire or burning down buildings. Certain risks come with things we own. If you park a convertible with the top down d-bags like to throw things into the car, if you have a truck people put trash in your bed. if you have a car that weighs 1600lbs a couple of guys who are still pumped from their leg day workout might be tempted to flip it over. Life happens, in this case it is in the funny hi-jinx category.

geeez..... black on white ideas about burning religious bldg., setting less fortunate people on fire, free killing of bored youngsters in Texas...etc. mannnn dunno what to say

and all that time I was convinced to be worst evil kid on the planet for setting dog poop on fire. It was flying everywhere right up to his knees....... still feeling bad about this today. And this kid who flipped those silly/fuggly looking cars will feel the same way in a few years I'm sure. Life is happening for real indeed.

and no-no burning people and shooting little kids ideas on this forum anymore please. Nightmare sh&t hrrrrr

Just for the record, I hate Smart cars; I just find little humor in this. Those who think it's "funny" or "hijinx" would, I'm guessing, be slightly less philosophical about things if their Boxster was turned over - or keyed - or otherwise damaged by a few kids. This is destruction of private property, plain and simple.

Wow, really scary attitudes being shown here. It's funny to destroy property as long as its not mine. A high five to those "children" who are flipping over cars. That's not very far from setting things on fire by the way. Or doing worse. It's all good just so long as its not my pretty paint or pretty headlights. If somebody else gets screwed, well that's not my problem, in fact it's funny. Really? And you sleep well at night? Man I'm glad I don't think that way. If you do think that way, you might try a little compassion for hthe innocent folks being hurt, and work on deterring those doing the hurting. Or is that a bit soft for you?

As said earlier, every single one of my vehicles has been vandalized at one time or another. This includes my Boxster. Of course I personally would not be "oh thank God they broke my windows and keyed my paint those darned kids! They got me good this time!"

That being said, life happens and while in the moment it may make you angry, if some kids flipped my car in a few years it would make a great story to tell friends while drinking. (keying, tire popping and the like not every exotic on the shenanigans scale... car flipping however.) The real losses here will be soaked up by insurance and life will inevitably go on.

Karma will take its natural course over those kids lifetime... No worries.

In the mean time I hope their caught and forced into hard labor to repay their debt.

Right! Its more like forced into an extended stay at the prison Hilton to read books, watch TV, learn from other criminals, text on their cell phones and get 3 meals a day for doing absolutely nothing.

Fair enough James, but I still find this whole incident, flipping a few Smart cars, quite hilarious (truly sorry if I've offended anyone). After all it is just a car mate. And yes, I got my four Sirocco's wheels stolen when I was living in the UK back in mid 90s... right in front of our complex door. The first reaction my GF (at the time) and I had in the morning is "wow someone needed some wheels real bad LOLLLL".

Don't get me wrong, I do (sincerely) feel sorry for the owner for 1. the bad luck and 2. the deductible he/she will have to pay the insurance co. The rest really... that's easily replaceable.

I'm starting to doubt this whole "cow tipping" concept. I just don't believe that a few kids can tip a cow that weighs about a thousand pounds. I think it's a rural legend.

Pics or it didn't happen.

Gee, maybe I'm an old geezer, but when I was young the thing to do with cars was move them, maybe up a staircase or indoors, but never damage them. The hot ones to move were Beetles and MGB's.

My 1980 trip to Italy somebody tried to shake us down for parking. We refused, and the next morning I looked out the hotel window to see the car (a gutless basic Fiesta) on the other side of the road. I guess they had a point to prove.

I was at the beach and someone thought it would be wise to double park for the day. The owner effectively blocked 3 cars from leaving their spots (mine and my friends included, maybe they thought we would spend all day at the beach?) Either way it was picked up and moved a few car lengths.

I think these joke-sters in this article are amateur. If it were about pranking, I would rather move such a small car around a corner or up a street and wait to see the reaction of the owners. It really would be very little hassle and quite funny and harmless (mostly)

I agree. Moving a car and not harming it is funny. Flipping someone's car over and damaging it is NOT. Who gives a s*** about insurance.

And to compare it to burning dog poop on someones's porch Nine8six?? really? Not the same thing.

Com'on mate.... quicker

Its worst brotha.

I could have inflicted physical injuries, burns, damage of property (porch permanent burn on the concrete), set clothes on fire.... let's say the guys runs back indoor in flame, burns the house, the family and the pets. Better perspective now?

Now this level of idiocy - all achieved in a flash while extra busy having "nothing to do" is nothing to compare to just flipping a little box-looking car mate.

Chill up, its just another car lol

When I was in high school, we used to take my music teachers Geo and turn it sideways in it's parking space so that there were cars right on the front and rear bumper ;)

It was hilarious and he always got a laugh out of it :D
Must have done it at least 5-6 times in my senior year!

Oh, I dunno, I thought it was pretty funny. :D

I think some people like to play "net nanny" and censor other people's posts. Which is lame.

And others like to escalate the story "what if they flipped the car, and there was damage, and it was your car, and there was a baby inside, and it caught fire, and then . . . " :rolleyes:

Just an amusing anecdote about a ridiculously small car. Nothing more.

I'm with Nine and PC on this. It is pretty funny. If you're going to drive one of those stupid little cars, you kinda deserve to get pranked. Nobody ever tried to flip my '65 Montcalm over.

Lol Net nannies are fun. Mind you, people here may well be school principals, teachers, or parent of trouble kid(s) themselves. News like this are golden opportunities for them to try to educate others.

You should see all the posts from "non-accredited Porsche mechanics" here & there giving technical advice to noob owning Porsche cars over the internet. Some other likes to think they represent a state Dept/Ministry of Transport. Now those are far more disturbing than just bored net nannies if you ask me :/

LOL. censor other people's posts?? Do you even understand the meaning of censor?? ;)


:ah:

Flippin' Flippers
 

It bothers me only a little that there are self-centered and immature people (with judgement likely further impaired by intoxication) that would do such a thing for personal amusement or notoriety. I've probably fit all three criteria at some point in my life.

What bothers me is that there are supposedly well-socialized, mature and sober fellow Boxster enthusiasts who would condone it.

I am no net nanny. Post whatever you want. But don't expect to post an opinion without being held accountable by those with differing thoughts.
Nine8six you seem like a great guy, I have really enjoyed many of your posts, and you have a phenomenal aftermarket headlight product that speaks for itself. Maybe you should let it, though, because your current articulated opinions are borrowing heavily against my reserve of respect for differing viewpoints. (and BTW-When an experienced mechanic and forum contributor offers the opinion that your headlight mod would result in a failed inspection in his state, he has no stake in your sales, nor motive to hurt them, its not personal, appears just trying to be helpful in responding to a newbie's request for info. Defending your product and dissing the other guy are 2 different things. And for the record, I've never spoken to or done business with either of you, although I really like your lights)

Random acts of vandalism performed for the sake of one's own amusement ARE NOT COOL, funny or not. Whose insurance rates do you think reflect the cost of correcting this vandalism?
Validating antisocial behavior because it is funny to a few people is just wrong from a values standpoint. But in financial terms, it is similar to the guy who goes to the movie theatre and shouts back at the characters on the screen- maybe funny to that guy and his inebriated friends, but the cost of their laugh is paid for by the other 100 people that feel like they have had their $9 ticket price and 2 hours of time stolen from them. So if their time is only worth minimum wage, that's about $2500 stolen from others --- was it really that funny?

Pranks played on friends with a predictable response, known ability to weather the financial or emotional stress, and the capability for payback, can be very funny indeed.
Pranks played on strangers, with the cost born by society at large and perhaps disproportionately by people in no position to bear these costs, and who lack the opportunity for retribution, are... small-minded, sophomoric, and cowardly. Respect for the property of others is essential for a society like ours to function. Maybe less so in other parts of the world, but I have no firsthand experience of non-capitalist societies.

As a child, I learned this first as a strongly held family value, the notion that you do not mess with someone else's property. I thought of it more as a family rule until in my early teens, a local crab fisherman found someone raiding his traps and shot him DRT. Seemed kind of extreme for the theft of less than $20 in crabs, I assumed he would be jailed or executed.
The judge sent him home, ruled it justifiable homicide, said the man had a right to protect his means of putting food on the family table, standing over each trap to shoo off poachers wasn't an option, so extreme measures were necessary to dis-incentivize the theft of his goods. I thought about it. Small theft repeated is just as bad as large theft. I liked eating crabs. No one would crab for a living if their traps were raided regularly. Good call judge.
I like my car. I don't much care for smart cars. But if there is no social sanction against ruining my car for another's amusement, pretty soon we'll all be driving around in a POS.
Flipping cars may be funny, but it ain't cool.

Now for the car prank I wish I had participated in... In high school, the teacher who later became my homeroom teacher, had been giving the class above me grief that they were not very creative in pranking the faculty. She drove a VW Beetle. Her classroom had sliding glass doors... yes, you guessed it. While the budding engineers calculated that there was 1/2" to spare if they took the sliding doors off the tracks, the weightlifters and linesmen retrieved her bug from its usual place. When she returned from lunch, she complimented the assembled class on the prank they had played by arranging all the class desks, including hers, outside her classroom on the lawn. To be a good sport she announced they would have class outside that day, but the desks would have to be replaced later. Not realizing the reason for the persistent giggles, she remembered a book she needed from the classroom and stepped inside to find her beloved baby blue VW facing the chalkboard like an attentive pupil. After a moment of apoplexy, she regained her composure to teach. At the end of class, she announced that she would set school history by failing to graduate an entire class if her unscratched car did not make it back to its usual spot by 5pm. It did.

Fixed......

Read all of your post BL. Thanks for that mate

Perhaps my English (frenchglish mixed with a bit of broken Mandarin) is not accurate enough to express myself as I would wish.

I was not praising the act of random vandalism - bad-bad-bad thing. What I thought was FUNNY (hilarious actually) was the "car type" involved in the story. Actually I wouldn't see anything funny to this whole thing if it would be a Corvette or a Mustang for instance (mine or someone else's, whatever).

Side note.... perhaps a coincidence but I know a few of my mates based/living/working in SF. Knowing roughly how much they earn, most them there could afford about 5 (five) Smart cars (each month) if not more. I'd like to think the same for those living in those suburbs of SF. Something tells me they also can simply order a new car over the internet when ever they want/feel like it, too ;)

No sweat brotha. Again, its just a car! And thanks for sharing :cool:

Wow. You really don't get it. Stick to headlights, "brotha."

Yeah, I gotta agree with this. Back when I was in college, a lot of us got around on bikes, 10-speeds being the thing at the time. For many it was their primary, sometimes only means of transportation. And, predictably, from time to time you’d hear about someone getting their 10-speed ripped off. For those of us who depended on those bikes to get around, it seemed like a particularly heinous and reprehensible crime.

And while such thievery wasn’t exactly analogous to flipping someone’s Smart Car, to me they seem to fall into the same vein as far as being lowly and mean-spirited. (You could even make the argument that at least those guys were stealing bikes so as to have transportation maybe they couldn’t afford otherwise…they weren’t destroying them for fun.) And no, I don’t think we can assume the Smart Car victims here are financially able to run out and purchase a replacement without a second thought. And why, pray tell, should it matter what make/model of a car is involved when deciding whether such a “prank” is acceptable and funny, on the one hand, versus being truly malicious on the other?? That’s a logic that truly escapes me..

I get what you are saying, unfortunately cool is defined by society regardless of what many think. Smoking may be cool depending on where you live. Types of Vandalism may be cool, serious crime such as murder can be cool (such as gang culture). I am sure we can all agree here that we do not think this is "cool" but let's face it we do not generally get to decide what is deemed cool in society much to the chagrin of those who understand the ramifications. It is often the least qualified to add the stigma of coolness who decides.

It made me laugh audibly. Gallows humor has always been in my personality (for better or worse) as well as an occasional streak of Schadenfreude (again for better or worse).

Well, yeah, clearly “cool” and “uncool” are subjective terms, the exact meanings of which depend to a great extent upon the culture, background and upbringing of the individual making the call. They’re opinions, pure and simple, when you get right down to it. So far, vandalism and murder are found to be exceedingly uncool by the majority, a “cool” situation (IMHO) or we’d all be headin’ to hell in a hand basket in no time. If and when there comes a time that such activities are considered cool by anything even approaching a majority, I’m outta here..

I gotta admit---at the first pic of the Smart Car on its roof, my knee-jerk reaction was to chuckle. It IS sort of funny looking. That inclination (to laugh) passed quickly when I recalled my son, having discovered his car had been keyed in a parking lot, asked me how people can be so hateful. I couldn’t answer that question for him, any more than I could if the owners of these toppled Smart Cars asked me the same question. Gallows humor, in my mind, is an attempt to make light of a depressingly difficult situation---I’m all for that. It’s really kind of laudable, actually. OTOH, Schadenfreude, generally speaking, I got no time for...unless, of course, there’s karma involved. :D

An interesting aspect of this thread is that those who find little humor in vandalism have written mature thoughtful posts regarding he effects on individuals and society, the benchmark being BrokenLinkage. Those who would make this seem like harmless humor refer to "net nannies" to spin the conversation and turn it to belittling the thoughts of others. Not too thoughtful, or nice. The last net nanny I saw was in a certain thread dealing with a firearms case modification, and I think we all know what side of the fence that nanny, and some other posters on this thread stood. I guess it takes a nanny to know a nanny. Its amazing that some folks think so little of others and much of themselves. As has already been posted, they really don't get it. I'm thinking only about 3/4s of the folks reading this post will get it. To those who don't, go look up the Golden Rule, and maybe incorporate a little of it into your life. Chances are you'll be happier as will the people around you. It's not cool, but cool isn't necessarily good. And if anybody has made it this far in this overly long post, there is such a thing as good and bad no matter what you were taught in college. And since some have not been able to figure this out for themselves, flipping other peoples cars falls squarely into "bad". It's not a harmless prank.