Vancouver Secrets

Owners of pint-sized Smart cars aren’t laughing about reports that vandals may be targeting the tiny vehicles in a 21st-century take on tipping cows over.

The Internet and blogosphere are abuzz with media reports that pranksters may have pushed several of the tiny vehicles into canals in Amsterdam.

And now a man in his 40s is charged with mischief for allegedly tipping a Smart car onto its side along Edmonton’s Whyte Avenue, a trendy bar-and-boutique strip that sometimes attracts rowdy drinkers.

Windows, exterior mirrors and panelling on the car were damaged, and despite the outrage of owner Kevin Spaans, amused bystanders posed with the flipped car and snapped photos with their cellphone cameras.

Police are seeking other suspects, but one official said it appears to have been an isolated occurrence.

Ken Lust, sales manager at David Morris Fine Cars, which sells the popular car, says goofing around with it isn’t a harmless prank but rather a brazen act of property damage.

Mr. Lust has himself been a victim. Three years ago, he went outside one morning on a property he owns northeast of Edmonton to find that somebody had tipped his Smart car over during the night.

“The first reaction is shock and disbelief. The second reaction is anger because your car has been vandalized. It’s the same feeling, I guess, if you walked out and saw your paint all scratched up or your windows smashed in,” he said.

No one was ever arrested. Mr. Lust believes it was the work of several fellows who probably had too much to drink that night.

“It’s an act of vandalism, pure and simple, and I think if caught, they should be punished severely.”

Smart cars, which have become popular with commuters for superior gas mileage and cute looks, weigh about 725 kilograms.

The average cow tips the scales at about 600 kilograms. Some zoologists suggest stories of hooligans butting over bovines are nonsense because the animals would resist, making it next to impossible, but cyberspace is filled with such reports.

Photos and grainy videos have popped up on the Internet of people using brute strength and long poles to tip small cars and outraged owners have vented their anger on blogs.

The Alberta owner of a so-called “Smartie,” who found it tipped on its side, was so furious he posted photos on the Internet and offered a reward of $1,000 for information leading to an arrest.

Another man whose three-year-old Smart car was reportedly flipped outside a home in west Seattle in June, causing thousands of dollars in damage, attracted digs from sport utility owners and sympathy from others when he wrote about it on a blog.

“I’m sorry, too, but it’s funny. They’ll be able to laugh about it in a day or so. SUV hybrids are looking better all the time, ya think?” wrote someone using the name Looniebomber.

“To all that found humour in this story/picture, I can’t help but to hope that karma comes a knockin’ when you’re three shades of furious, because someone else damages your property and you have to foot the bill,” wrote Bruce W.

photo credit: digikuva