'Smart tipping' becomes Amsterdam's latest trend

[Puffin13]

'Smart tipping' becomes Amsterdam's latest trend
20 Aug 2009

Amsterdam - Big luxury cars are often targeted by thieves but in Amsterdam compact cars have become sought after objects. A few locals have taken to pushing the small cars into the city's canals in a practice that has become known as "Smart tipping," named after the popular European two-person car, the Smart. According to The Netherlands' daily newspaper De Telegraaf, hardly a weekend passes without a small car falling victim to youngsters stoned on hashish and beer.

De Telegraaf reported a story about small car-owner Casper de Jong who recently discovered it's not safe to park along the city's canals.

De Jong parked his vehicle on Oudezijds Achterburgwal in the middle of Amsterdam's red light district. It probably did not take much effort for the perpetrators to tip his Smart car into the canal.

"I parked the car in a very small space with its rear facing the canal," recalls de Jong. "You can do that with a Smart because it's so small."

De Jong should have known that he was testing fate. "A few weeks earlier the same thing happened to my business partner. Both cars were write-offs."

The vandalism has become a serious problem according to staff in Amsterdam's Smart Centre car dealership. However, they are not prepared to quote figures for incidents.

Amsterdam's police, however, have dismissed concerns that "Smart tipping" has become a new trend. "In the last six months we had just two such cases," says a police spokesperson. "That cannot be called a trend."

De Telegraaf, on the other hand, says the police are deliberately trying to play down incidents of Smart Tipping. "They don't want it to get even more popular. They are afraid it could get out of control."

Whether it has become popular or not, discarding modes of transport into Amsterdam's canals has a history. Throwing bicycles into canals has been a cult activity for a long time in Amsterdam.

If you leave a bicycle on a canal bridge without locking it to an immobile object you risk losing it in the "Venice of the North."

Dumping items in the city's canals - including on average one body a month - is so well established that authorities regularly send out teams to clean them up.

Along with bicycles, mobile phones and handbags, the odd car has been found. However, they did not end up in the water as a joke but because their owners were trying to defraud their insurance company.

On occasion cars sometimes end up in the water as a result of bad parking or because the driver misses the ridiculously low fences that line the canals. According to Amsterdam's authorities this happens far more often to men than women.

Source

[mark the martian]

Haha! Who who do that though??

[kel]

> On occasion cars sometimes end up in the water as a result of bad parking or because the driver misses the ridiculously low fences that line the canals. According to Amsterdam's authorities this happens far more often to men than women.

:: rimshot :: Ha ha ha. Hilarity ensues. Men are dumb, women are smart.

[JMey]

The Dutch Telegraaf is the shittiest newspaper around. A lot in it is not true or exaggerated so you have a totally different story.

Anyway, I think it's pretty funny. Smarts are totally ridiculous, but practical in a city. Must suck though, if you lose your car like that.
So they have to ask their insurance company if their policy covers being pushed into canals. lol

[happydaze777]

The Dutch Telegraaf is the shittiest newspaper around. A lot in it is not true or exaggerated so you have a totally different story.

Anyway, I think it's pretty funny. Smarts are totally ridiculous, but practical in a city. Must suck though, if you lose your car like that.
So they have to ask their insurance company if their policy covers being pushed into canals. lol

*hurt and offended* Whats so ridiculous about £35 to tax her for the year and £24 to fill the tank up, which I do about once a month...

[JMey]

Yeah, ok, that makes sense. Sorry, didn't mean to offend anybody.
They are just odd-looking

[happydaze777]

so am I, odd looking that is!

[Pauli Wallnuts]

> On occasion cars sometimes end up in the water as a result of bad parking or because the driver misses the ridiculously low fences that line the canals. According to Amsterdam's authorities this happens far more often to men than women.

:: rimshot :: Ha ha ha. Hilarity ensues. Men are dumb, women are smart.

ive driven there a few times & its a real nervous experience trying to park horizontaly next to the canals, i think its on the oudezijds voorbergwal where they have no rails at all & to clear the car/tree in front you actually have to face the canal when paralel parking, parking on the grand canals is alot easier because you park verticaly

[Space Boy]

Dumping items in the city's canals - including on average one body a month - is so well established that authorities regularly send out teams to clean them up.



Source

Is this true?!?

[metal4mullets]

*hurt and offended* Whats so ridiculous about £35 to tax her for the year and £24 to fill the tank up, which I do about once a month...

Lol...no worries, happy. We have them here in the States and the city in which I live in. Whenever my fiancé and I see them here we're just like, "Why the hell would you have one of those.", because it's not crowded at all and there are highways EVERYwhere. It takes at least 30 minutes to get anywhere you want to go and parking is never a problem. So when we saw one in Amsterdam we looked at each other and said, "Now HERE is where someone should own a Smartcar!". So hold your head high, my friend

[happydaze777]

*hurt and offended* Whats so ridiculous about £35 to tax her for the year and £24 to fill the tank up, which I do about once a month...

Lol...no worries, happy. We have them here in the States and the city in which I live in. Whenever my fiancé and I see them here we're just like, "Why the hell would you have one of those.", because it's not crowded at all and there are highways EVERYwhere. It takes at least 30 minutes to get anywhere you want to go and parking is never a problem. So when we saw one in Amsterdam we looked at each other and said, "Now HERE is where someone should own a Smartcar!". So hold your head high, my friend

Thanks bud, I LOVE my ikkle Smart. Petrol has gone through the roof in the UK (I am sure it is the same in US) and this was really a necessity buy. I picked her up for under £3000 with only 19,000 miles on the clock... She is surprisingly nippy, don't underestimate the power of Smart!

This story reminds me (slightly) of my first ever car, a Citron 2CV. I had a car full once, making our way through the welsh hills, trying to find a spring equinox festival, when my stoner driving hit a rock and caused a puncture. I had no jack in the car, but that wasn’t a problem as 3 of my friends lifted the side up whilst I changed the tire. How many cars can you do that with?

*note to self* NEVER take my Smart to Amsterdam.

[Kingdoc]

I took a boat tour many years ago & the woman says they are like 25 cars that fall into the canal each year,& thats a conservative number.