In Germany, free standing fire hydrants are not really a thing, instead we have them sunk into the street and they can be pulled out if needed. There are always a couple of signs on nearby buildings or fences indicating the exact position of the nearest one
Personally I think it's a little dubious because I'm just imagining like, what if I'm driving around and it's snowy and a fire hydrant which is usually painted to be visible is covered up by a snowman which now blends in with everything because it's white. And conditions aren't ideal in this hypothetical scenario, so I totaled my car by accident not because I was being a dick because some asshole thought he was sticking it to people who run over snowmen.
Please don't fuck with fire hydrants. Find a rock or something. If you're going to actively fuck with people, you have a moral obligation to make sure you're not also fucking with innocent people. This is a situation where your judgement will be impaired, so take every precaution.
To protect against liability, put up a sign near it that says: "WARNING: DO NOT RUN OVER SNOWMAN"
Ironically enough, this will probably get even more fuckers trying to run over it. Both because some of them are perversely motivated to disobey such a warning, and because some of them wouldn't have thought about doing so until they saw the warning not to.
So you know how those BEWARE OF DOG signs land you in trouble? Because they can be used to argue you know the dog is dangerous. So you should just use a sign that says DOG ON PREMISES or has a picture of a dog.
Likewise, a sign saying PLEASE STOP HITTING THE SNOWMEN implies something different than WARNING: DO NOT THE SNOW GOONS
I grew up in a rural area and mailbox baseball was a thing.
And I had one neighbor who got fed up with it. Next time he had to replace his mailbox, he hired a welder to make one out of very thick steel, so it would look normal from the outside, but be strong enough to be basically bulletproof. A few weeks later, there was a string of destroyed mailboxes, and then his as the only one left intact ... with remnants of a broken baseball bat on the ground around it. Glorious -- and the neighborhood didn't have any more mailbox problems for years after that.
I don't know about other people, but I myself would like to one day build a snowman and run it over. Something about driving through a snow pile and making it "explode" just sits right with me. Would never run someone else's snowman over though, as they built it for their own reasons.
That's nothing compared to their tendency to goto a school and shoot children. Even the crazy people in other places don't think that. Children are children.
Yeah, what if there's a fire and the firefighters need to find and access the hydrant in a hurry? There's a reason hydrants are painted brightly visible colors, not hidden inside snow.
Building a snowman on a fire hydrant is dangerous and stupid anyway. As far as building around a stump or similar on my property, someone who drove their vehicle onto my property with the intent to hit my snowman would have to prove that the snowman was a trap. That's a tough sell.
I would take it to trial and countersue for damages to my lawn and property plus court costs.
You drove off of the street onto my lawn with the express purpose of destroying lawn decorations that I had built using this tree stump for support so I could make the snowman taller and more interesting. And now you want me to pay you for the damages that you caused to yourself?
Like the emotional whiplash has turned into real whiplash, and I need $50,000 to fix it
If you're intentionally making an "attractive nuisance" (that's a term of art, look it up on Wikipedia or better yet I bet the Cornell law library probably has a good page on it if you want a better explanation than I can give) then it's a much easier sell
Eh, that looks to be specifically about protecting children trespassers. Like making sure a pool it child proof to avoid drowning. If a child drives into my stumpy snowman, there are probably gonna be some other questions.
If I put say, a knife in the snowman's hand, and a kid runs up and cuts themselves, then I think that attractive nuisance doctrine would be at play.
You could really say that about so many actions people take daily, something as small as helping someone out of a burning vehicle exposes you to massive liability in some jurisdictions for example. Oh and in this case it would probably only result in any sort of civil loss or criminal conviction if you have shown intent to seek this as a result, but otherwise you're just using a support structure for art on your property. Gonna be an uphill battle if they wanna sue. (Mandatory I am not your lawyer)
Who has a fire hydrant in their front yard? And besides, even if someone is trespassing and causing some property damage (I wouldn't even call destroying a snowman that) that's no justification for causing bodily harm. There's no justification for that outside of immediate self-defence.
A 2X4 into the radiator would be pretty funny.... Because where do you go for help if your car breakdown in the middle of frozen suburbia? LOL, am I right?
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I partially agree with this.
Do it to tree stumps not fire hydrants. I always thoroughly clean out buried hydrants with a walkway to the street during snowstorms.
It'd be pretty fucked for a house to catch fire and the hydrant is hidden under a snowman.
I agree you shouldn’t use a fire hydrant.
I got to imagine firefighters in snowy places have a rough idea where to find them. Otherwise people’s houses would be burning down left and right.
But I’m not a firefighter and I don’t I’ve never even seen snow so I could be wrong.
Fire hydrants in snowy places often have tall, vertical, very visable posts attached to them that can be seen above the snow bank.
You ever see those blue reflectors in the middle of the road? Those mark where fire hydrants are
Snowy places, likely to be covered. Can't imagine a snowplow not taking those right off the road.
In Germany, free standing fire hydrants are not really a thing, instead we have them sunk into the street and they can be pulled out if needed. There are always a couple of signs on nearby buildings or fences indicating the exact position of the nearest one
Personally I think it's a little dubious because I'm just imagining like, what if I'm driving around and it's snowy and a fire hydrant which is usually painted to be visible is covered up by a snowman which now blends in with everything because it's white. And conditions aren't ideal in this hypothetical scenario, so I totaled my car by accident not because I was being a dick because some asshole thought he was sticking it to people who run over snowmen.
Please don't fuck with fire hydrants. Find a rock or something. If you're going to actively fuck with people, you have a moral obligation to make sure you're not also fucking with innocent people. This is a situation where your judgement will be impaired, so take every precaution.
username doesn't fit
Thanks for the moral lesson Mr. jerkface
America is such a f-ed up country. Why would any one have a tendency to run over snowman’s?
Good job wrecking those idiots cars
To protect against liability, put up a sign near it that says: "WARNING: DO NOT RUN OVER SNOWMAN"
Ironically enough, this will probably get even more fuckers trying to run over it. Both because some of them are perversely motivated to disobey such a warning, and because some of them wouldn't have thought about doing so until they saw the warning not to.
Genius
So you know how those BEWARE OF DOG signs land you in trouble? Because they can be used to argue you know the dog is dangerous. So you should just use a sign that says DOG ON PREMISES or has a picture of a dog.
Likewise, a sign saying PLEASE STOP HITTING THE SNOWMEN implies something different than WARNING: DO NOT THE SNOW GOONS
Very little to do in small towns leads to a lot of dumb ways to entertain oneself. I grew up in a rural area and mailbox baseball was a thing.
And I had one neighbor who got fed up with it. Next time he had to replace his mailbox, he hired a welder to make one out of very thick steel, so it would look normal from the outside, but be strong enough to be basically bulletproof. A few weeks later, there was a string of destroyed mailboxes, and then his as the only one left intact ... with remnants of a broken baseball bat on the ground around it. Glorious -- and the neighborhood didn't have any more mailbox problems for years after that.
The competition between arms and armour has been going on since time immemorial!
there was a trend of people building mailboxes out of brick in the 90s-00s where we lived. People were sick of idiots.
Dude just hang out at the Walmart at that point
Not when there’s commercial refrigerators with Freon to huff!
I don't know about other people, but I myself would like to one day build a snowman and run it over. Something about driving through a snow pile and making it "explode" just sits right with me. Would never run someone else's snowman over though, as they built it for their own reasons.
Harder these days when cars have so much plastic in them. Even hitting a snowman could cost a lot in repairs.
Unfortunately that is very true
Depending on how heavy the snow is, that could leave a hell of a dent
I can't prove this, but I'd wager all my money it's people with red hats doing it. There's something wrong with their brains.
It is not that common. I have never seen a snowman that looked run over.
That's nothing compared to their tendency to goto a school and shoot children. Even the crazy people in other places don't think that. Children are children.
For the love of God, not on a fucking fire hydrant.
Yeah, what if there's a fire and the firefighters need to find and access the hydrant in a hurry? There's a reason hydrants are painted brightly visible colors, not hidden inside snow.
FYI you can be charged for this in the US in some jurisdictions which have laws about leaving traps on your property. It's stupid but yeah.
Building a snowman on a fire hydrant is dangerous and stupid anyway. As far as building around a stump or similar on my property, someone who drove their vehicle onto my property with the intent to hit my snowman would have to prove that the snowman was a trap. That's a tough sell.
Plus, I needed the tree stump for support. I wasn't trying to make some kind of trap. What kind of psycho would think I planned for them to hit it?
I would take it to trial and countersue for damages to my lawn and property plus court costs.
You drove off of the street onto my lawn with the express purpose of destroying lawn decorations that I had built using this tree stump for support so I could make the snowman taller and more interesting. And now you want me to pay you for the damages that you caused to yourself?
Like the emotional whiplash has turned into real whiplash, and I need $50,000 to fix it
I no longer feel safe in my own home, since apparently I live near lunatics who drive up on the side walk. Money me now please.
If you're intentionally making an "attractive nuisance" (that's a term of art, look it up on Wikipedia or better yet I bet the Cornell law library probably has a good page on it if you want a better explanation than I can give) then it's a much easier sell
Eh, that looks to be specifically about protecting children trespassers. Like making sure a pool it child proof to avoid drowning. If a child drives into my stumpy snowman, there are probably gonna be some other questions.
If I put say, a knife in the snowman's hand, and a kid runs up and cuts themselves, then I think that attractive nuisance doctrine would be at play.
How is building a snowman a trap?
It's about intent.
Building a snowman around a rock is not a trap.
Building a snowman around a rock with the goal of disguising it to create consequences for anyone who runs into it may be considered one.
Of course, intent is legally hard to prove one way or the other.
It's rather less hard to prove when someone puts a video online spelling it out.
Intent will be much easier to prove in court if you make public videos explaining your intent.
That's what I meant by 'less hard to prove'
Less hard to the extent it's easy.
There is another possibility:
The video is a joke and the guy doesn't actually do this.
"Some dumbass kept destroying my snowman so I simply built a stronger snowman."
thanks the equality of justice which punish with the same rage the poor as well as the rich for stealing food or sleeping in the street
You could really say that about so many actions people take daily, something as small as helping someone out of a burning vehicle exposes you to massive liability in some jurisdictions for example. Oh and in this case it would probably only result in any sort of civil loss or criminal conviction if you have shown intent to seek this as a result, but otherwise you're just using a support structure for art on your property. Gonna be an uphill battle if they wanna sue. (Mandatory I am not your lawyer)
Lots of states have "good samaritan" laws protecting people from harm caused by good faith efforts to save a life.
Which is why I said some jurisdictions. Not everywhere is fucking crazy, but some places are.
That's not even remotely stupid. Hiding a potentially lethal trap in a snowman isn't close to a reasonable response to a fucking destroyed snowman.
It's a nonissue if you keep your car on the road and not, you know, in someone else's front yard
Who has a fire hydrant in their front yard? And besides, even if someone is trespassing and causing some property damage (I wouldn't even call destroying a snowman that) that's no justification for causing bodily harm. There's no justification for that outside of immediate self-defence.
You're right. We should hide a pile of claymores. Gotta get rid of that word "potentially"
based and mentally stable
This is stupid. The Internet is full of AI generated bobby trap videos.
Slop.
A good low quality low bit rate GIF of the tiktok video, that's just what I wanted.
a large rock or an anchor would be very nice for this, not trees or fire hydrants though I agree
A 2X4 into the radiator would be pretty funny.... Because where do you go for help if your car breakdown in the middle of frozen suburbia? LOL, am I right?