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The New York Post profiles a West Village man who's taken to vandalizing cars with incessant anti-theft alarms. Harry Schroder is a retired art director who likes to spend his afternoons practicing the piano in his home on Charlton St. Occasionally, however, he is interrupted by a car alarm. If it goes on long enough, Schroder leaves the car's owner a note in black magic market on an 18-inch by 24-inch posterboard which he sticks to the car's windshield with carpenter's glue. The Post actually witnessed him giving this treatment to a Toyota Camry on his block. When the owner of the car appeared, she sat in her car for two hours unable to figure out a course of action. Schroder places his signs on the driver's side of cars so owners aren't able to see or drive away without scraping their windshields clean.
Three years ago, Mayor Bloomberg initiated a tightening of the city's noise code, enabling cops to crack down on noise like barking dogs and Mr. Softee trucks. The City Council then attempted to ban the sale of car alarms in New York, but that move was blocked by the Mayor. There's a site called Silent Majority that is dedicated to fighting the scourge of whooping alarms. It has a page where readers share tales of sonic torture.
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I've considered this after an alarm went for six hours out my bedroom window. After the first 4 hours I called 311 to file a noise complaint, and they instantly transferred my call to 911 -- although I stressed it wasn't an emergency. Carpenter glue would have been more effective.
Ah, this man is my hero. We have one outside our window that speaks loudly. (It's an Escalade, too)
"PROTECTED BY VIPER! STAND BACK!"
I hate the man who owns that SUV. I hate him with all of my heart.
a car alarm went on for an hour at 4 am night when I had to go to my brothers wedding the next day. I didn't go to sleep well and looked like a zombie in all the wedding photos. Carpenter's glue next time, for sure.
Hooray for the carpenter. If more people did that then people would realize it annoys others. Those stupid alarms don't stop car thiefs it just slows them down for about fifteen seconds. And most people would cheer on the thief just to get rid of the car on their block. They should post bumper stickers on those cars saying,"STEAL THIS CAR! AN IDIOT OWNS IT"
all true above guys. its always fun to glue a dildo to someone's hood as well, as a new ornament. one could do this in combination with a sign..
I've given the breakfast special (two eggs, scrambled) to one car in the Slope whose alarm was going off at 5am for hours, and I was not alone. The cops who came after many 311 calls looked at the car and laughed.
I'm not sure I'd go for the carpenter's glue vandalism, though.
Harry Schroder, I commend you!
The Sanitation Dept does the same thing with those green stickers, that by the way, are impossible to get off your car, is that also vandalism?
Yeah, the glue guy is mean, but it just seems SO justified. Probably a little less extreme would be to tuck a notice under the wiper that begins "Hey asshole..."
I'm with you, edEx, on sanitation's pointless and petty vandalism of cars. Like a ticket isn't good enough - and they actually pay a separate guy to go around and do it! I always thought that the first few years of Bloomberg would have been a good time to lobby against it. (Luckily, though, I've never gotten a sticker.)
The department of sanitation is run by a bunch of rightgeous garbage people hence their name. They are garbage men, plain and simple. If you go out of the city you will find most garabage men are ex-cons on parole. The occupation draws a certain type of person.
i find smearing dog shit on the driver's handle is fun, and leaving a note. car alarms should be illegal, they do not serve their purpose at all.
I thought sanitation workers were fun-loving free-spirited scamps who engage in entertaining hijinx. Maybe that's just in California.
Wondermark says it best.
One of my friends had a car alarm going off at all hours right under her window during Reading Week last year. So she went to a construction site, stole cinder blocks, and blocked all the car's wheels up. And left a "friendly" note.
When she went past the next morning, there were more cinder blocks on top of hers, and the car had been egged.
Brilliant!! Go Harry. This is a huge problem in my neighborhood. Good solution.
I bet if an alarm kept sounding not far from Gracie Mansion, it would get taken care of quickly, but Bloomie thinks the rest of us poor schmucks should have to put up with them. Jerk.
I like the old "let the air out of the tires, remove the Shraeder valve cores and squeeze gel superglue into the valve before replacing the valve caps" solution myself. With maybe a little liquid superglue on the windshield wipers for good measure.
Spiritof76: Bloomberg doesn't live in Gracie Mansion; he lives on E. 86th Street. I guess people probably aren't allowed to park near his place, though.
I live on Allen Street (near Chinatown) and there are always car alarms going off from the cars parked in front of the housing project across the street. I've left many notes and called the police, but haven't resorted to vandalism... yet.
Smear vaseline on the windshield. It's really hard to remove.
Spirit of 76 and Gwinny: The mayor resides on 79th between 5th and Madison. Not Gracie Mansion or 86th Street.