I haven’t had many bumper stickers on my cars, but until recently never have had any removed. But I have had 4 Obama stickers stolen/removed from my car – the latest by my MIL. You?
My first car had two bumper stickers: National Honor Society and Def Leppard. They were there until long after I sold the car.
That was the last chrome bumper I had on a car, so that was the last time I put bumper stickers on one.
I caught a guy removing a Darwin Fish from my car. He said it was blasphemous. I mentioned a Commandment prohibiting stealing. He spluttered for a bit, then ran away.
I hope he still feels bad about it.
Back in my militant atheism days (2002-2004) I had ‘God is just pretend’ stolen. I also had ‘Atheism cures religious terrorism’ which I was using back in 2002 (when 9/11 was still fresh). That was also stolen. But I didn’t consider those stickers to be any more proselytizing than many of the pro-theism stickers I have seen which were likely never ripped off.
Never had my ‘If you want a country run by religion, move to Iran’ one stolen, but that was a nice one. No idea why people left that one but took the others.
Never had anyone bother the Obama sticker. I live in a rural red state and I saw 4x more Obama stickers than McCain during the election.
A girl who had a crush on me year ago stole a number of band/music stickers off of my car. I was one of those kids you’d see with dozens of band stickers in the window, on the bumper, etc., and I’m guessing she thought I wouldn’t notice them missing. I was ticked then because some of the stickers had been purchased from the band directly at shows, but now that the car, the girl, and the band-sticker obsession are all far removed from my life, it’s just funny. Oddly enough, I also went through a spate of having people add stickers to my car… I’d come out of work, and find a new bumper sticker, usually placed in a bad spot that occluded my vision through the rear window.
No one’s tampered with my Obama sticker, though I’ve had people drive alongside me and try to intimidate me after seeing the sticker, or confront me in a parking lot.
Wow, I’ve never had a bumper sticker on any of my cars, but I can’t believe people steal them. Anyone here want to fess up on having stolen someone else’s sticker and explain why?
I thought bumper stickers were damn near impossible to remove?
I don’t put atheist stickers/emblems on my car because of people around here damaging cars that have such things on them. I hope that he got your message, and that he feels bad about it.
I live in Fort Worth, Texas (can’t remember what’s in my location, right now) and most of the general population is either evangelical Christian or Catholic. Sometimes a weird mixture of the two. I’ve had people back away from me, crossing themselves, when I mentioned that I’m atheist. You’d think that I’d just confessed to being Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini all rolled up into one.
Back in the days when everyone was driving around with those magnetic ribbon stickers, a friend of mine found one in the street and slapped it on his van. We would then occasionally “trade” with other cars. I often wondered if anyone ever noticed that they were now never forgetting 9/11/01 instead of supporting our troops, or that their ribbon changed from yellow to star-spangled.
I offer no explanation why.
I suppose it might have been more of an issue when the when the “support our troops-- bring them home!” and similar stickers started to come out, but we had apparently matured by then.
Never had any stolen even though I stuck the sticker to magnets so I could change them up at will and some were fairly liberal.
Here in Montana, there was actually a time during the last election cycle where I had seen more Dwight Eisenhower campaign materials than McCain (yes, I actually saw someone wearing a genuine “I Like Ike” button).
Since the OP is seeking personal experiences, this is better off in IMHO than GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
As my car is a convertible, I have gotten verbal abuse, as well. My last car (my Honda of 21 years) had a DKs bumper sticker, my National Muzzleloading Association, my Naval Institute, John Kerry, Virginia Tech Alumni, and Miskatonic University. None stolen, but someone asked me where Miskatonic was once.
I like the “Atheism cures religious terrorism.”
I’ve had two stickers messed with, one removed and one defaced to point of illegibility.
One was ‘Nuke a Gay Whale for Christ’ and the other was ‘May the Fetus You Save Be Gay’
Guess the fundies don’t appreciate sardonic atheistic cynicism.
In the early 90s I had a sticker that said “F*CK STYROFOAM” (but with the real cuss word) ripped off of my car. I think it was some stodgy mom in my apartment complex that didn’t want her little snowflake to learn that word just yet… but that was just my best guess. No clues were provided or anything, one day it was just gone.
I’ve never lost one (I only have one on my car - an Area 51 sticker we picked up in Nevada), but Jim has lost one - he had a “Support Farting” magnetic ribbon on his car that he was very proud of (and got a lot of honks as he drove around). He’s still looking for a replacement.
Never had one taken from my car - usually only have a ‘free tibet’ bumper sticker, which hasn’t worked yet. I did have a girlfriend ask me to remove the 'Eat The Rich" button from my backpack when I was in college prior to her mom visiting.
That was true on the older metal or chrome bumpers. But on newer cars with bumpers made of some kind of plastic, the stickers don’t stick nearly as well, and can often be peeled off completely intact.
I had an Obama magnet stolen from my car bumper last year.
That’s it.