Hotels in Amsterdam

'Smart tossing' in Amsterdam gives a headache to the police

The incidents of ‘smart tossing’ in Amsterdam are on a rise especially during the weekends where young crowd are out at night for some extra fun.

The Smart cars are small enough to be parked with head or tail pointing to the water. Though most of the canals in Amsterdam have low guard rail alongside to prevent cars from taking a dip, ‘tossing’ takes place because a Smart car is small enough to be lifted and tossed. The vandals not only find thrill in dipping these smart cars but also other small vehicles, including scootmobiles and tiny cars from the Canta brand — both used primarily by people with handicaps and limited mobility.

Casper de Jong had parked his smart car along the canal and was woken by the police with the message that his car had been pushed into the canal.

“Several weeks ago the same thing happened to my companion’s Smart,” Casper de Jong said. “In both cases the Smart was declared a total-loss.”

However, according to locally-published newspaper De Telegraaf police has not wanted to publicize this form of vandalism for fear of copy-cat incidents. But, nevertheless, police officers are paying extra attention to Amsterdam’s canals, especially during the weekends.