(Scooterists probably would have to put up with as much crap if our rides looked like this.)
Here’s a tiny piece from CapitolHillSeattle.com:
The passive aggressive note left on your vehicle to inform you of the crime against humanity you have committed is a rite of urban passage. In small towns, they bake you cookies, knock on your door and ask you nicely to move your International Harvester off their lawn. On Capitol Hill, they leave a mean note. Sometime this works for tagging, also.
But in this incident culled from the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct reports from last week, one such note went far beyond mean.
Victim came to the East Precinct on 2-24-09 at 0930 to report that an unknown person left a threatening note pinned to the seat of his XXXX Vespa Gran Tourismo scooter. Victim had parked his scooter on the street, in the XXX block of XXXX on 2-23-09 at approx. 2100 hrs, when he returned to it on 2-24-09 at 0900, he found the note which said “You greener-than-thou sanctimonious retard: Take up an entire car-sized parking space with this scooter again and you’ll be shopping for a new tire … ” Victim said that this is the second similar note he has found on his scooter. Victim retained original note.
Parking on many parts of the Hill is surely a drag but be nice, neighbors, and keep your passive aggressive noting passive, please.
Details, location redacted to protect the innocent. Thanks to the CHSFeed for the scoop!
4. March 2009 at 4:05 pm
This is exactly why you should booby-trap your scoot in any major city.
4. March 2009 at 4:09 pm
Yes? Go onnnnn? *listens intently*
4. March 2009 at 4:45 pm
Why are people in this country so damn lazy? People would rather leave a stupid note like that or drive around for 10 minutes trying to find the closest spot. Just WALK you lazy prick!!
4. March 2009 at 4:55 pm
What a jackass.
4. March 2009 at 7:12 pm
One person or two people on a scoot *clearly* have less right to a parking space than the same number of people who are in a car.
Note writer=asshat.
4. March 2009 at 7:43 pm
Slash me scoot me slash you back
4. March 2009 at 8:34 pm
Being a resident of the puget sound… I can say with confidence that this area has the passive aggressive note market cornered. The owner of the scoot has nothing to fear except more threatening notes. It’s probably unlikely that the note-writer will actually damage anything, and a face-to-face confrontation is out of the question. Passive aggressive note writing isn’t a gateway drug to actual aggressiveness, it’s the first, last, and only step for my fellow Seattle residents.
4. March 2009 at 10:35 pm
I have got to know more about this “tank scooter”!
5. March 2009 at 12:02 am
Not true, sploader
Horrific stories I’ve read about aggressive cagers in Seattle moving or trashing scooters in hostile overtaking of parking spaces. Just ask Orino…sure he knows a few.
–Lorenzo
5. March 2009 at 4:47 am
Maybe it’s just because I ride a motorcycle. People must assume I’m some kind of shady character or something. I’ve never had any problems.
5. March 2009 at 6:30 pm
This story was reported on the local Fox affiliate, and the guy who got the note parks his bike backed-in, perpendicular to the curb as the law sez you’re supposed to.
Regular readers may recall the person who called the cops on my PX 150. I’m a bit surprised the guy who left the note didn’t do that, since parking enforcement on Capitol HIll is quite aggressive, and I’m sure they could’ve found a reason to tow the guy’s bike.
Luckily, I was able to get a garage in which to park my scooters, though my car occasionally has poorly-scribbled notes commenting on how I park (totally legally, FWIW). As sploader points out, Seattleites are a bunch of passive-aggressive whiners who seem to think they can dictate to everyone else how to live…
__Orin
Scootin’ Old Skool
Seattle, Wash.