If you stick a piece of paper under my windshield wipers, I have the right to loiter.

[FoBoT]

http://www.straightdope.com/columns...ting-flyers-under-my-door-or-on-my-windshield

What about your car? Same deal, pretty much. Nobody has a legal right to touch your car. (Well, some people do: emergency workers, city tow truck operators, etc.) Just like with your house, most jurisdictions recognize a right to use reasonable force to protect personal property. But don't overdo it. Reasonable force would likely be minimal in this context – the threat to your property is somewhere between minor and nonexistent, and your personal safety isn't in jeopardy. And of course this assumes you catch the person in the act of putting the flyer on the car.

Beyond that, legal remedies are scarce. Courts call interference with personal property that doesn't deprive the owner of possession "trespass to chattel" or "trespass to personalty." But in this kind of case, you usually can't get nominal damages – you've got to show that the trespasser actually damaged the property. While you might be able to get an injunction, it probably wouldn't be worth much. So unless you're prepared to stake out your own car until the flyer guy comes back, then argue in court that shreds of copier paper have reduced the effectiveness of your wiper blades, it's possible that he may never be brought to justice.

Some jurisdictions actually have criminal provisions to deal with people who leave flyers on cars. For example, in 2001 the Ohio Court of Appeals affirmed a conviction under a ordinance in the city of Mount Vernon that barred the placement of printed materials (including handbills) on any privately owned "structure or thing" (including vehicles) without the owner's permission; the defendant had printed up flyers about his exwife and stuck them on windshields in various parking lots. The Ohio court didn't address any Constitutional challenges to the ordinance, though; if the other cases that did are any indication, the law probably wouldn't hold up.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'm guessing your talking about parking tickets. Good luck trying to fight that unless you're some huge corporation with better lawyers then the government. They'd probably just laugh at you. Best to just pay the $7.

 

[Colt45]

loiter != litter, if you haven't got that yet.

 

[Soundmanred]

I'm guessing your talking about parking tickets. Good luck trying to fight that unless you're some huge corporation with better lawyers then the government. They'd probably just laugh at you. Best to just pay the $7.

Where do you come up with your responses?
I'm not sure I've ever seen a correct response from you.
Maybe you're as bot using a RSA generator?

 

[dethman]

wtf

 

[silverpig]

Go to the address on the flyer and dump your garbage on their doorstep.

 

[quakefiend420]

Ownage of the year?

Hardly...if someone not knowing the definition of a word is ownage in your book, you need to get out more.

 

[Red Squirrel]

loiter != litter, if you haven't got that yet.

I kind of figured it was a typo. What would a parking ticket (can't think of any other situation where a piece of paper is put under a wiper) have to do with loitering? Loitering means hanging out in a public place, normally where not allowed. Ex: setting up camp in some parking lot or something like that. If anything that ticket is telling you NOT to be there as the car should not be parked there.

I still say, just pay the $7. I don't know why some people freak over parking tickets. I often park in some places knowing I'll probably get a ticket as the ticket is sometimes cheaper then paying for the parking.

 

[edro]

lol

 

[Soundmanred]

I kind of figured it was a typo. What would a parking ticket (can't think of any other situation where a piece of paper is put under a wiper) have to do with loitering? Loitering means hanging out in a public place, normally where not allowed. Ex: setting up camp in some parking lot or something like that. If anything that ticket is telling you NOT to be there as the car should not be parked there.

I still say, just pay the $7. I don't know why some people freak over parking tickets. I often park in some places knowing I'll probably get a ticket as the ticket is sometimes cheaper then paying for the parking.

Are you serious?
Really?
You've never seen flyers put under wipers?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Are you serious?
Really?
You've never seen flyers put under wipers?

Only in the mailbox. Mind you, seems like a nice way to advertise some new business. I'll have to remember that one.

 

[zCypher]

Loiter... lol!! actually, I have heard a dumbass cop say loiter instead of litter one time several years ago, that was pretty funny. he sort of resembled kevin spacey, but was a power tripping moron.

but yeah, I hate it too when people put shit on my car.

 

[Soundmanred]

Only in the mailbox. Mind you, seems like a dumb way to advertise some new business. I'll have to forget that one.

Search for the other thread where a guy considered this to promote his computer business.
It is not a well recieved business practice, and a waste of money. It's a remainder from older days. Most people would blacklist a company that uses such advertising.

 

[lxskllr]

Only in the mailbox. Mind you, seems like a nice way to advertise some new business. I'll have to remember that one.

I suggest you forget it. Companies that put crap on my car go immediately to my shit list, and it's very unlikely I'd use them just because of that advertising technique.

 

[SmoochyTX]

Loiter? hahahahahaha

 

[Tiamat]

fail

 

[eits]

You stuck your piece of garbage on my property. You had no right to do that in the first place. I'm sure I could find an asshat of a lawyer willing to sue you for vandalism or something of that nature.

Unfortunately, I most definitely believe that I have the right to grab that piece of paper and toss it to the ground.

Why do I do this? Because whatever parking lot I'm in, I want them to know your name. Know what you're advertising, the company you work for, etc. I want the street sweepers to see it as well. If they get pissed off, then I think there's a chance you might be stopped.

Until then, what you place on my turf, I displace to Mother Earth.

garbage = refuse. it's not refuse if it's being given as a way of providing information about an event or business. once you throw it away, THEN it becomes garbage.

not sure why, exactly you think that has anything to do with loitering. why would you want to hang out outside of a building for no reason other than to just hang out all because someone put something on your windshield?

why are you talking about street sweepers? what do they have to do with loitering?

 

[ahenkel]

This explains a lot. Back in high school rednecks used to loiter around the Stop 'n' Save. I bet they where protesting ads left on cars.

 

[Newbian]

 

[Bignate603]

I make the same face when I let out a good fart.

 

[bobross419]

You could always track them down and drop a fat deuce on their windshield.

 

[Demo24]

I'm guess the OP is going to be loitering indefinitely then. :hmm:


Who wants to guess how long he will loiter? Imagine if there were 2 fliers!

 

[eits]

I'm guess the OP is going to be loitering indefinitely then. :hmm:


Who wants to guess how long he will loiter? Imagine if there were 2 fliers!

anything more than 3 flyers, he'd need to contact the post office and change his address

 

[oiprocs]

Wow. I completely forgot about this thread.

The responses make me wish I had stuck around for the first few responses.

...

Fail thread is definitely fail. But I won't forget this. Time to play grammar nazi for a couple weeks. I will have my revenge.

 

[Locut0s]