1/6/2009 Update:

Two months ago – a Hoboken411 reader sent in a picture of a street parker they noticed was able to snag the same spots day after day. We had fun with it – and drew comparison to Joe DiMaggio’s infamous hitting streak. No harm, no foul. However, the person that was sort of the subject of the situation had one of their cars keyed recently – and lays the blame on 411.

Read on and see gallery below…

Car keyed – resident blames Hoboken411

Here’s what was sent to me:

“Enclosed are pics of my front right fender someone keyed my car between last night and this morning. My car was parked on Bloomfield.” [411 note: see pictures below]

“This is exactly why I was concerned about the article and postings you kept up on 411. While the parking situation might upset people it is not illegal and when your readers posted responses expressing violence, the posting should’ve come down. By allowing people to post anonymous threats such as knocking down my bike, moving my bike and emptying out my oil in my truck you provided a forum for illegal behavior and threats against personal property. This article contributed to this incident. You ran a story that targeted my vehicles that were parked legally and now my car is damaged. My car is not illegally parked. I spoke to the parking authority and the police department – no law is being broken.

I feel strongly that allowing that posting to stay up contributed to the damage on my car, what responsibility are you going to take for this?”

PHOTO GALLERY (HOLD MOUSE OVER IMAGE TO NAVIGATE – 4 PHOTOS IN THIS SET)

What?

To the guy that had his car keyed: Sorry that that happened to you. To be the victim of senseless vandalism is not fun by any means. But you cannot lay blame on 411. The blame belongs on the person who committed the act. (Shame on whomever did it.)

I’m sure all the legal beagles out there will agree. I never promoted vandalism or any crime on Hoboken411, but regardless, even if I said “Hey, why don’t you walk in front of a bus” – it’s still ultimately your decision to harm yourself or others. Not my responsibility.

When stories about Mayor Roberts and say, the 47% property tax increase are published here and in the newspapers – and that angers a resident enough to throw a rock through his window – does that make us responsible? Just as your vehicles were parked legally, this discussion was about what takes place on public property as well.

Listen, so much vandalism happens in town weekly. Smashed car windows, rear view mirrors, graffiti, and so on – it’s too easy to blame the messenger. However, how do we know this wasn’t caused by other circumstances? Or even outside of Hoboken? Do you check every spot of your car before and after? Every day? And no make, model, color or license plate was ever mentioned about said car that was keyed – so it just appears to be a random act of vandalism. Hey, it’s happened to me too (before 411 even existed – who can I blame?)… so I’d recommend just chalking it up to “living in the city…”

What are all your thoughts about this?

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See what caused this headache after the jump…

11/8/2008:

Hoboken411 reader Alec sent in this picture last month of a curious parking situation on Bloomfield Street. (I doctored it up a bit…)

Hoboken411 reader photo of the day – 11/8/2008

The people pictured below have used the beige pickup truck, silver Harley and beige Jeep Cherokee (not pictured) to keep the same three parking spots on Bloomfield st for the past 17 days… and I’m not quite sure if I’m annoyed or impressed…

Anyway… with street paving scheduled for tomorrow… will they be able to keep the streak going? Will they make it to 56 consecutive days and break Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio’s record???

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[Stay tuned for tomorrow's Readerpix entry! - Note: one reader's photo(s) will be featured each day at approximately 11am. Unless your photo is time-sensitive - it will be published in the order it was received!]

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