Smart Tipping In Amsterdam?

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

Auto Motor und Sport picks up on a report in De Telegraaf about a wave of anti-Smart vandalism that’s sweeping the city of a thousand “coffee shops.” Apparently, Amsterdam’s police force has been forced to post patrols around the city’s many canals in an attempt to curb the latest “weekend sport”: Smart tipping. The extent of this European version of cow tipping is unclear, although Amsterdam’s Smart Center reports “a number” of incidents. Apparently, the fact that the diminutive city cars park facing canals (instead of parallel parking like everyone else) makes them especially vulnerable. However Dutchamsterdam reports that the vandalism is not exclusive to Smarts. “In recent years vandals have also targeted other small vehicles, including scootmobiles and tiny cars from the Canta brand — both used primarily by people with handicaps and limited mobility,” is their analysis. Finally, a use for all those damn Neighborhood Electric Vehicles!

Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Fincar1 Fincar1 on Jul 31, 2009

    A couple of other kids and I turned around this guy's vw in the community club parking lot. He came out after the meeting and for some reason immediately identified us as the perpetrators: "What do I have to do to stop you kids from this kind of behavior?" I couldn't help myself:"Buy a Buick." Bit longer story now, bear with me. I had a supervisor, Ed, who'd been the only Portuguese kid in an Italian neighborhood in NYC, and who had learned very well how to get along in those circumstances. One summer evening he and a bunch of his friends were on a roof throwing bricks at at a cop. The cop came after them, the other kids got away, and the cop beat the shit out of Ed with his nightstick. Ed found out who the cop was and where he lived, and subsequently one night after the cop got new tires on his car Ed slashed them all. Ed's thinking was that the cop had been out of line in beating the shit out of him; the usual punishment for such a shenanigan, not all that unusual in the neighborhood, would have been a severe talking-to, maybe even bringing him home and yelling at his father too. The cop went over the line, and Ed returned the favor. I see that kind of difference between turning around a smart car in a parking lot, or moving it up onto a pedestal somewhere, and shoving it in the canal. People nowadays seem less aware of normal limits of behavior.

  • ZoomZoom ZoomZoom on Jul 31, 2009

    But Fincar1, per your story, they were throwing BRICKS at the cop. You don't say if the cop was hit, but if so, maybe a shit-kicking was in order after all. But so would have been a run-in to the police station, followed by an overnight stay in the grey-bar motel while waiting for an arraignment the next business day.

  • Fincar1 Fincar1 on Jul 31, 2009

    ZoomZoom, kids throwing bricks off buildings are trying to make someone jump, not kill them.

  • Wsn Wsn on Jul 31, 2009

    fincar1, I don't think the cop went over the line by beating Ed. After all, a stick is nothing compared to a brick thrown from a building. If I am to go over the line, I would swing a brick back into Ed's face. (Notice I used "swing", not "throw".)

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