Smart car flipping frenzy strikes San Francisco

San Francisco is no stranger to bizarre crimes. But the incidents that occurred overnight on Monday are unusual enough to raise the eyebrows of even the most hardened residents.

Police are on the lookout for a group of vandals after they flipped over at least four Smart cars in the Portola and Bernal Heights neighborhoods early Monday morning.

Be careful with your SmartCar in SF. Someone has been tipping them over. http://t.co/YrfFApaWLK pic.twitter.com/JnokDGJbwD

— Mercury News (@mercnews) April 7, 2014

The first reports of suspicious activity occurred around 1 a.m., when police received a phone call reporting a group of six to eight hooded suspects wandering around Bowdoin and Sweeny Street in the Portola District.

Around this time, the first of three Smart cars was discovered turned on its back end.

Neighbor Brandon Michael, who witnessed the vandals in action, explained the incident to CBS-SF:

“I thought it looked like they were up to no good and then sure enough they walk up to this Smart Car right here, all huddle around it, and then lift it up and set it on its hind legs.”

Three more incidents involving the tipping of Smart Cars would later be reported in Bernal Heights. While Michael claims that the first car was “Set on its hind legs,” the next trio of cars were more aggressively flipped, with two being laid on their side and the other being flipped on its roof.

Some associated Smart cars with the seemingly wealthy or those in the tech industry, so victim Andrew Smith could have had all the right to cry foul on a city whose angry residents have recently made anti-gentrification acts of vandalism a hobby.

Smith instead chose the high road:

“I want to say I feel violated, but I don’t really care. Having lived in SF for as long as I have, I’ve come to expect random acts of violence and mayhem.”

Police have made no arrests so far and are still in the process of investigating the case.