# Windshield spammers- stay away from my car! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 18, 2005, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windshield-spammers-stay-away-from-my-car/285393 "2005-01-18T17:53:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windshield-spammers-stay-away-from-my-car/285393/21 "2005-01-20T15:37:27Z")
> [@E-Sabbath](#): > > I also think it was wrong of him to tell me to go fuck myself when I asked him, politely, to explain exactly why he was tresspassing on my property. You kinda omitted this part the first time. The way you told it, you walked up to him, asked him a question, and then ripped his phone out of his hand, spoke into it (“He’ll call you back!”) and threw it into the woods. That’s a little different. ---
**Author:** ![andymurph64](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e57/32.png) [@andymurph64](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andymurph64)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windshield-spammers-stay-away-from-my-car/285393/22 "2005-01-20T15:53:58Z")
I must be weird. Check that. I KNOW I’m weird 😃 I have some empathy for these people. They are usually non-corporate (YMMV) people just starting out. It must be so hard to find a way of advertising that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg and actually reaches potential customers. Menus tucked in my door? I’m fine with that. Last year a new, local Chinese restaurant did this and I found out they gave much good food at a low price. It’s rough starting out. Give the blokes a break 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windshield-spammers-stay-away-from-my-car/285393/23 "2005-01-20T16:25:36Z")
I don’t mind menus and flyers in my door, or stuck to the mailbox. Leafleting my car, wherever it’s parked, is a mark of cowardice, and it enfuriates me. What really pissed me off was when I lived in Indianapolis, and some rag weekly ‘newspaper’ that existed solely as an advertising medium would leave their issues in my driveway. I didn’t subscribe, and therefore any of their papers I found in my driveway I considered to be litter. It was a personal crusade of mine to call the office once a week and bitch at them for throwing trash onto my property. They finally quit ‘delivering’ that rag to me after a while. I did consider dumping a couple of bags of household trash in their lobby in retaliation, but never got around to it. ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windshield-spammers-stay-away-from-my-car/285393/24 "2005-01-23T07:27:19Z")
> [@Weirddave](#): > > I have a solution for this problem that’s guaranteed to work. Every time I find an unwanted flyer on my car, I…throw it away, and go on with my life. … I’m surprised it took 15 posts before someone said this. I was sure this was going to be one of those Pit threads where the OP was torn apart for being so high-strung. Now, I’ll admit, this has only happened to me once, and yes it would get a little annoying if it happened every day. But I just said, “Hm. A bunch of kids from my high school playing “hardcore” 3-chord crap? For $8? No thanks.” And I did exactly what **Weirddave** described. I threw it away. I mean, take a deep breath and get over it, you guys. Don’t you have something more wordly to complain about? (And yes, if it actually caused damage to your car, or your front door, or whatever, that’s different.) > [@VunderBob](#): > > Leafleting my car, wherever it’s parked, is a mark of cowardice, and it enfuriates me. Cowardice? Why? Because they know that you won’t be able to do anything about it, or complain to their faces? Oops, sorry, I mean, you won’t be able to do anything about it… except perhaps throw it away and ignore it. In that case, are online ads, TV ads, radio ads, and newspaper ads also cowardly? ---
**Author:** ![START](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@START](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/START)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2005, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windshield-spammers-stay-away-from-my-car/285393/25 "2005-01-23T08:52:23Z")
I never minded those windshield “spams” or even when they put it on the door of my house when I was a few years younger that was my job and now my little brother does it or he did it for a while atleast. You will find that many of these “windshield spammers” are just kids trying to make a little extra cash. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windshield-spammers-stay-away-from-my-car/285393/26 "2005-01-25T12:34:06Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Every time I get a flyer on my windshield at a store, I purposely litter the parking lot with it. That way the store knows that someone is targeting their lot, and they can do something about it. Wouldn’t it be great if it worked that way. Unfortunately, it probably doesn’t. The person retrieving those fliers from the ground is an overworked, underpaid drone of the store or custodian of the mall. S/he doesn’t care where the fliers or any other litter come from, and doesn’t have the time to examine them anyway. It’s not a priority for management either, to find out who’s spamming their lot or garage. You’re not going to affect the people who are doing the spamming; you’re just creating more work for people who already have enough. ---
**Author:** ![Fish\_Cheer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fish_cheer/32/17179_2.png) [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windshield-spammers-stay-away-from-my-car/285393/27 "2005-01-25T15:34:59Z")
Not that it’s at all relevant to the topic at hand, but at my new apartment house there’s a small swing top dustbin near the mailboxes. People actually put the unsolicited crap from their mailboxes in there, instead of just dropping it when leafing through their mail. The cleaning lady who does the staircases and corridors on Mondays empties it. I always wanted to share how great I think that is. Thank you. And now back to… ---
**Author:** ![butter\_pie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aca169/32.png) [@butter\_pie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butter_pie)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windshield-spammers-stay-away-from-my-car/285393/28 "2005-01-25T15:56:07Z")
> [@Weirddave](#): > > I have a solution for this problem that’s guaranteed to work. Every time I find an unwanted flyer on my car, I…throw it away, and go on with my life. We have gotten these flyers on our car (bf’s car) and they were white paper… he has a white car. We didn’t notice the fucking thing until we were driving home and it started to rain… and the damn wipers won’t work right because there’s a piece of soggy paper wedged underneath one of them. We had to pull over and get sopping wet to pick the pieces of it off the window. THAT is infuriating and dangerous. It’s happened once when I was with him, and a couple times before that when I wasn’t around. High-strung or not, people have no right to put shit on your car, especially messing with the wiper blades. They could break or damage them. I don’t have a problem with the crap people stick on my doorknob. Hell, I like the takeout menus. But I think people finding their cars covered in shit when the come out of a store have every right to complain. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windshield-spammers-stay-away-from-my-car/285393.md?page=1)