West Seattle Crime Watch: Not stolen, not prowled … tipped

| Crime | West Seattle news

We talk a lot about car crime – but hadn’t seen something like this lately: Paul from PB&J Textiles and Coffee at the Heights (WSB sponsor) sent that photo, explaining:

Here is what we woke up to this morning. We live at 109th and 28th Ave SW [map]. Some kids I am thinking felt the need to turn our car on its side. You can see the 2 hand prints from where they lifted it and pushed it over. Not sure of the damage yet, but not a fun thing to wake up to when you have a full day planned….

The handprints:

(The area is just east of the Seattle city limit, so it’s King County Sheriff’s Office jurisdiction.)

Elana June 17, 2009 (10:08 am)

Oh, I hope the police can get fingerprints! That’s awful.

Creighton June 17, 2009 (10:20 am)

Ack. That sucks. wish people would keep their hands off stuff that’s not theirs. What kind of car is it, that it’s small enough to tip over?

asdf June 17, 2009 (10:23 am)

neat car, what is it?

Looniebomber June 17, 2009 (10:25 am)

I’m sorry too, but it is funny. They’ll be able to laugh in a day or so.

SUV Hybrids are looking better all the time, ya think?

Robert June 17, 2009 (10:44 am)

What kind of car was it? MiniCooper?

downhiller June 17, 2009 (10:46 am)

That has to be a smart car. It looks like it could only seat a driver and a passenger.

HAHA June 17, 2009 (11:20 am)

Another reason I love my gas guzzling truck!

Adam June 17, 2009 (11:25 am)

It’s a smart – I can think of no other rear engined car that small that’s sold in the US.

AJ June 17, 2009 (11:35 am)

I don not think it is a smart car. The tranny has oil all over it and the axels are showing rust. that doesn’t happen until the car starts to age over a couple years. Any smart car I have seen is brand new. I would say it is a Mini, but I thought the new Mini was front wheel drive.

Sasquatch June 17, 2009 (11:36 am)

Um…that’s f@!#ed up. I don’t see the humor. Mainly because I doubt the people who did that have any sense of how much work it takes to buy and maintain a car. Or how the car owner suffers when their insurance rates are increased because of the stupid stuff people do in our neighborhoods. We all end up paying for it when our neighborhood is viewed as a high risk to insurers.

Smart Nulu June 17, 2009 (11:37 am)

The car he usually drives is a Smart Car.

Paul in Gatewood June 17, 2009 (11:48 am)

Not funny at all. People who mess with other people’s property are inconsiderate idiots and worse. Paul’s a really nice guy, too – we’re glad to have his coffee shop in our neighborhood.

rich June 17, 2009 (11:50 am)

I hope the damage is minimal.

paul June 17, 2009 (11:51 am)

Its a Smart, and its 3 years old. 2006, so that is the reason for the aged look to it. Its the green one that you probably see all over West Seattle. So far we are at about 3K in damage. No finger prints available, they were too smudged. The oil you are seeing is because it started leaking when they tipped it. There was a huge puddle when the tow truck took it away. It weighs 1625 lbs, so as the tow truck driver said, remember the days of the old bugs….

old timer June 17, 2009 (12:27 pm)

When I was a kid, a long time ago in a different time and place,
There was a neighbor who had an Isetta.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isetta
This was a very tiny car that you opened the front of to enter,
The ‘Big Kids” as they were then called, would regularly lift and carry this car to the strangest places.
It caused no end of problems for the poor owner. and
I always thought it was kind of dumb, but then so were most of the “Big Kids”.
Even though time has moved on, the dumb kids have not.
Sincere condolences to the owner of the tipped vehicle.

CMP June 17, 2009 (12:32 pm)

Maybe whoever did this is somewhat “smart” and listens to NPR…they’ve been talking about pranks the past few days on KUOW. Inspired? Sorry about the damage though, that’s no fun to deal with early in the morning.

JanS June 17, 2009 (12:37 pm)

old timer, I dated a guy in high school whose father bought him an Isetta..what a cool car to ride in.

This sucks, Paul. It no longer smacks of a “prank” like taking tires off, etc. this is true destruction. One more time, PARENT FAIL !! Where do kids (if it WAS kids), or anyone for that matter, get the idea that something like this is funny and cute. Wow. My sympathies, man.

Bruce W June 17, 2009 (12:43 pm)

“So far we are at about 3K in damage”
To all that found humor in this story/picture, I can’t help but to hope that karma comes a knockin’ when you’re 3 shades of furious because someone else damages your property and you have to foot the bill.

rockergirl June 17, 2009 (1:07 pm)

WOW WOW WOW – dumb move by whoever did this and such a bummer for the car owners. Guess the pranksters do not realize what a hassle and inconvenience there actions are to the rightful owners of the property they are damaging.

Jan H. June 17, 2009 (1:09 pm)

Yet another reason why we bought a house in Westwood with a garage and secured off street parking.

KateMcA June 17, 2009 (1:10 pm)

Amen Bruce W. This isn’t funny- it’s vandalism.

Erik June 17, 2009 (1:24 pm)

Wishing bad karma on someone is bad karma.
.
Paul – Sorry this happened to you.

Mike June 17, 2009 (1:27 pm)

SMART panels are easily changed out for new ones, that’s the plus to body damage on a SMART (basically a rollcage, wheels, engine, transmission). If this had been a new MINI you’d be looking at either a complete loss or about $10k damage depending on the age and mileage of the MINI.

Sorry to hear this happened.

Roadsterboy June 17, 2009 (1:46 pm)

Even when I was a kid, I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing something like this to someone else’s property because my parents actually parented me and taught me to be responsible for my actions at an early age. What the heck were the parents of these hooligans doing while their kids were growing up? Unfortunately, the pattern is that these hooligans will raise more hooligans of their own and the destruction will continue. This is NOT a “prank.” It is willful and criminal destruction of property. Paul, I’m really sorry this happened to you and I hope your insurance covers it without raising your rates.

Sharon June 17, 2009 (1:58 pm)

Wait for more pranks now that school is out soon! This is another reason to promote year-round school so that kids don’t get bored having a few months off all together! I needed some yard help offering decent pay and asked a few adolescents around the neighborhood but they won’t work! They just want to goof off, skateboard and get into trouble…….

john June 17, 2009 (3:15 pm)

Horrible….the police wouldn’t even bother looking into it. It’s to minor for them to spend any time on.

annoyed June 17, 2009 (3:20 pm)

Back in my day we just went cow tipping. This is a new one!

Meghan June 17, 2009 (3:41 pm)

It never ceases to amaze me how many commenters either laugh at or blame the victims of such egregious crimes. This little “prank” is a pretty serious crime, not to mention a huge and costly inconvenience to the victims who in this case are extremely nice local businessmen. How would any of you who found it so funny like to wake up to find your car turned on its side? I don’t necessarily think their parents are bad (sometimes kids do stupid things no matter how well they’re raised), but I sincerely hope these little “pranksters” (i.e. thugs) are caught and made to pay restitution. They could learn a valuable lesson, as could those around them.

WSB June 17, 2009 (3:45 pm)

We’re actually banning victim-blaming when it happens with no additional contribution to the conversation (see note on subsequent story about the purse smash-grab in Admiral). It’s no better than the insults and personal attacks we ban otherwise … TR

furor scribendi June 17, 2009 (4:02 pm)

Paul – I have a ’65 Mini, the little old kind, 1300 lbs of fun. It used to be picked up and placed all over my yard, or propped up on garbage cans, etc. This all stopped when I began chaining it up nightly. I carry the chain and lock whenever I drive. There are towing hooks on your car that can facilitate this; good luck on keeping your car rightside up from now on, and hope the insurance doesn’t give you fits.

Jason Hayes June 17, 2009 (4:22 pm)

What I hate is that everyone automatically assumes that it is kids that are flipping cars over and doing other vandalism, just like that story about the gay graffiti, I read how you all assume it was teenagers and it turned out to be a 35 year old something man, maybe this Paul pissed a customer off and they decided to retaliate. You all need to look in the mirror before you point the finger, and what do you have against teenagers that like to skateboard Sharon? Just because you can’t?

WSB June 17, 2009 (4:29 pm)

Our 13-year-old does frequently ask why “kids” are blamed for nearly everything. And it’s true, stupidity and criminality know no age boundaries.

wseye June 17, 2009 (4:41 pm)

Try Googling “smart car tipping”, it looks like our own WS vandals aren’t even original:

“A New trend began in 2005, smart-car-tipping in Canada where someone began tipping over smart cars in urban areas”

http://www.webconsuls.com/blog/2009/05/cow-tipping-or-smart-car-tipping.html

There is even a youtube video showing some punks tipping a Smart car, which I won’t link but all too easy to find for a bored teenager. I’m sorry about what happened to Paul, and I’ll add to the many comments about his car that tipping cows isn’t funny either – they can get get seriously injured. Dumb and dumber.

Mingus June 17, 2009 (5:34 pm)

“Wishing bad karma on someone is bad karma.”

Wow are you naive. What about wishing for bad karma in the form of someone getting arrested for this crime. Golly, would THAT be bad karma!

I also really don’t get this theme of “vandalism” like this is kid stuff.

$3000 is a little more than vandalism.

It’s really discouraging and not a good reflection on West Seattle to see reports of this kind of stuff becoming debates on cow tipping and what kind of car this was, as opposed to how do we get a handle on the crime that is obviously on the increase in West Seattle.

Sharon June 17, 2009 (6:19 pm)

I live on 108th and 34th SW (same area). We had both are cars broken into last night as well as our neighbors. Weird thing was that all of us had left our doors unlocked and all that was taken was our change. We had a multitude of things that could have been stolen. Yet all of us just had the contents of our glove compartment thrown on the passenger seat and our spare change was gone.

LostNulu June 17, 2009 (7:27 pm)

“Wishing bad karma on someone is bad karma.”
Pointing out that
wishing bad karma on someone
is also bad karma.
Help?

Jim June 17, 2009 (10:49 pm)

Of course it’s a bummer, but if it happened in a movie we’d be all be laughing.

Marty June 18, 2009 (10:12 am)

The thing that really bothers me about this is that it was publicized! Now any jerk that sees this……even if they hadn’t thought of it before, will think what a “COOL” idea, and will be looking for a smart to tip. That really SUCKS for those of us that own one, and it’s NOT something that should be publicized!!!! :>(

Mingus June 18, 2009 (10:39 am)

It looks like many of you ARE laughing and it’s NOT a movie……

Jason June 18, 2009 (11:48 am)

I had a few neighborhood kids reak havok on my 08 smart when I first brought it home. Spitting on it as they walked by, egging it, and I had even caught them trying to lift it one night. One of the lads severely cut his palm open, and I phoned the police. They found them, and I was able to charge them for two body panels they had damaged…
Just remember, us smart owners are pretty smart, and webcams work at getting you busted just as well as a security camera…

paul June 18, 2009 (11:56 am)

A few things, the police did try to take a set of prints but the car was “too dirty” to get a good set to try to match against the database. The responding officer was very nice and showed up in 5 minutes of the call. He also stated if they have done it once, they will probably do it again, thus the garage is getting a good cleaning next week! Also, I wanted it publicized for the other smart owners out there, (and mini’s, which I really want one of those!). Nobody is immune to anything any more, its a huge pain, expensive, and irritating, but unfortunately its the way things are going these days. And I didn’t mean to imply youth were up to this, it could have been any group of people. I have noticed some roudy youth in my area lately, that’s where the comment came from.