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July 30, 2009
Ssshhhhh... don't tell anyone
but the latest craze is.... Smart Chucking:
SMART car owners have been left Smarting over a new craze — for chucking their motors into canals.
Dutch pranksters in Amsterdam have dumped dozens of the tiny two-seater cars into the city's waterways.And now police fear the bizarre trend will spread to the UK and the rest of Europe.
Eco-friendly Smart cars are small enough to be picked up by just a few people and dumped into the Dutch capital's canals, reports De Telegraaf newspaper.
One victim Casper de Jong was woken by police after they found his Smart floating in the waterway outside his apartment.
Mr de Jong said: "Several weeks ago the same thing happened to my companion's Smart. Both cars were a complete write-off."
One Smart sales worker said: "We're not supposed to talk about this because the police don't want the craze to spread but we've had quite a few drowned cars returned to us."
Well, the average smart car weighs 1,500 to 1,800 pounds. It seems smart chucking is easier in Europe since, for some reason, smart cars weigh less there then they do in the states, anywhere from 150 to 300 pounds. But don't ask me why, because I don't know. There's a lot of speculation on the web about why, but I didn't see any real answers, probably because I didn't look very hard for them. I really don't care all that much since I ain't buying one. I just wanted to tell you much they weighed. In case you wanted to chuck one.
Posted by LindaSoG at July 30, 2009 10:23 PM
Comments
LOL, Linda, I've had a few of my own that I've tried to deep six, one, a Studebaker that I tried unsuccessfully to roll 6 times, the other a Ford.
Back in the early 60's there was a ferry across the Columbia River at Vernita, Washington, a place name only in the desert, there is a bridge there now. After three trips back and forth across the river with a POS '51 Ford that had a vapor lock due to the heat, the deck crew 'arrested' me for dropping the safety cable and trying to push that piece of shit overboard. Some good Samaritan towed me off the ferry and it was well after dark when that junker finally started and I was able to leave. The good old days!!! Float 'em if you can:)
Posted by: Jack at July 31, 2009 12:23 PM
Well, something similar has hit in the states. I've seen several news reports about Smart-tipping; ala cow tipping.
Posted by: Bohemian at August 2, 2009 12:32 PM
That image is clearly a photshop fake
Posted by: jc t at August 6, 2009 10:31 AM
Aw gee whiz jc, did you figure that out all by yourself?
I suppose now you want a kewpie doll.
Posted by: LindaSoG at August 6, 2009 10:59 PM
This must be the Dutch equivalent of torching cars. At least it's more ecologically clean, unless the crancase leaks into the canal. . .
As for the photo shop, this is another case of fake but factual. I doubt that there are any photos of chucked Smart cars taken by the state-controlled media in Netherlands and the UK (formerly Great Britain) because they don't want to encourage copy-chuckers.
Posted by: Windy Wilson at August 12, 2009 05:32 PM