This guy has some serious talent and what a great idea, instead of junking this:

He turned it into this:

This is taken from somewhere in Poland!

This story illustrates the dumb wrong way to acquire junk cars! Four people were arrested Friday for allegedly attempting to steal a junk car to sell for scrap, and one of the four was also charged in a previous similar case, police said.

The detective said the four were at someone else’s property on S. Jefferson Avenue on Friday and were loading the vehicle onto a trailer when a relative of the owner saw them and called police.

A report by Officer Ryan Moore says the suspects had tried to load the old vehicle onto a trailer, but left when they saw the owner’s relative.

Detective Gragg said the “come-along” pulling equipment the suspects were using had broken and they left to get more equipment.

Interesting article written up from Ottawa!

A federal program to get old clunkers off the road had a bumpy start.

That’s one finding in an appraisal of the Retire Your Ride program, which ended in March.

An evaluation completed in February suggests there were plenty of potholes in the program’s early days.

The Conservatives announced the so-called scrappage program in 2008. It offered Canadians incentives, such as public transit passes and small amounts of cash, to junk older vehicles.

Environment Canada hired Ottawa consulting firm Goss Gilroy to evaluate the program shortly before it ended. The Canadian Press obtained the report under the Access to Information Act.

Read the full article here.

With the prices of scrap hitting new heights it seems criminals have been opting for the more easy prey of old junk cars!

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office has been investigating a recent rash of scrap metal thefts occurring in rural parts of the county.

“This stealing of junk cars has become a real issue,” he told 2News Wednesday morning, saying the price of scrap metal is high and because of this “junkers” are making money.

Stolen from properties in rural areas around the county and in adjoining counties have been a number of broken down junk cars. Scrappers have been trespassing unto property, loading up cars, then heading off to the scrapyard where they will leave the cars for cash.

Read the full article here.

Anel Do?a Entegre Geri Gönü?üm Endüstri, Turkey’s first electrical and electronic waste recycling company, has established Turkey’s first junk car recycling plant, investing a total of $20 million.

The Otokumbara recycling plant aims to regain junk cars to the country’s economy. Anel Do?a targets to recycle annually some 100,000 vehicles. The company is expected to establish 23 waste processing plants in different regions of Turkey by 2020.

Read the entire article here.

Gotta love this junk car!  Anyone want to arrive at the prom in this baby?

I think it is silly for the town of San Marcos to make them take away this really cool looking cactus planter but I also think it is a really big waste of time and money to try and take this to the Supreme Court.  Maybe a local petition would have been a better idea?

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said it won’t review lower court rulings that upheld the banning of the Oldsmobile 88 — which in 2007 was converted into an artsy planter — as a violation of San Marcos’ junk car ordinance.

Since April, the car-planter, which features cacti growing in the dirt-filled, roofless passenger compartment, has been displayed at an Austin branch of the novelty store that has 11 Texas outlets.

Store owner Mike Kleinman and the two artists who painted the car — with images including Old Main at Texas State University and Ralph the Swimming Pig of Aquarena Springs fame — cast the dispute as an unconstitutional bid by the city to stifle artistic expression.

City officials say the code, which bans junked vehicles that are visible from public places, is designed to prevent blight and nuisances, and protect public health and safety.

Even before the high court’s decision, store workers had sought modifications to the city code to make allowances for inoperable vehicles used as advertising or art.

If city leaders aren’t amenable to changing the code, San Marcos Planet K Manager Joe Ptak said petitions will be circulated to put the amendments before voters as a referendum.  Like I said, I would like to see petitions before wasting Court resources.  Maybe they should have gotten a replica  made and used that?

I am not sure if this story is 100% true, it sounds like it might have been embellished a bit but it is said a bear went for a little joyride in the town of Larkspur, Colorado Friday morning when it got into an unlocked car and knocked the gear into neutral, sending it down a hill and knocking over a few trees before coming to a full stop.

The Denver Post reports that an adult black bear got behind the wheel after the driver’s son left a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a stick of deodorant in the car. The door closed behind the bear and as it looked for a way out, the gear shift was bumped into neutral and sent the car rolling 125 feet backwards down a hill.

Neighbours called the police after hearing the car honk for 45 minutes.

Ralph Story said his 2008 Toyota Corolla is beyond repair: the interior is destroyed, the dashboard had been ripped out and the airbags have been deployed. Fortunately, the damages are covered by insurance and the bear was freed by deputies two-and-a-half hours after it’s wild ride.

Some people might say a 1991 Toyota Camry with 125,000 miles on it is ready to be turned in as a junk car but not Dave Clayman’s low-tech environmentally friendly car that cleans the air with feather dusters.

Not only has he transformed his 1991 Toyota Camry into a July 4th Special, but he uses it every day.

He said he decorated the car in red, white and blue for a Memorial Day parade a couple of years ago.

“I wanted to look my best and then I decided why just be patriotic a couple of days a year?” he said in a recent interview. “Why not make my everyday driver a patriotic driver?”

His car is lined in taped red and white stripes while his blue wheels have large white stars. On the roof he has attached two bicycles that power the waving of four, 20-foot flagpoles, each with a Stars and Stripes flag. The trunk and roof have non-slip strips to help would-be athletes access the bikes. A sign across the back window proclaims: “Powered by Insanity.”

A large plastic bull’s head with horns looks out from the grille while his self-explanatory Web site is spelled out along the sides of the roof: “supportnonsense.com.”

Today, he and his car, and his father who will be driving, will be a patriotic part of the Independence Day parade in Chatham, Mass. “Sometimes when I am parking at the supermarket I wonder, ‘What are those people looking at?’?” he said.

Clayman said his pranks started about 16 years ago when he was giving a woman an estimate for clearing out her attic. He has been clearing out estates for 25 years and owns a small trucking company.

“I gave a price and she said she’d think about it,” he said. He was about to leave when he found a pogo stick among the effects she wanted to clear and “started jumping up and down on it.”

He said she could not stop laughing and gave him the job on the spot. Impressed by her reaction, he said he became hooked on entertaining.