August 25, 2011

Batting Scraps

batting scraps

Would this have been legal?

Last year, I had a car that I really hated. I wanted to mash and bash it to my heart’s desire with pipes, sledgehammers, metal bats, etc. before taking it to the junkyard to sell as scrap metal.

I waited until I took it to the junkyard because I figured people would start calling the police if I smashed the car even though they may not know it’s my car and I had the title for it. They said I could mash it at the junkyard but then I was lied to to because when I got there, the junkyard manager said for safety and policy reasons. I trusted them and they let me down and it stayed there before I could mash and bash it and it bummed me out.

Question is= Could I have legally smashed and bashed it to my heart’s desire in my own driveway even if someone called the police because of all the noise?

If not, then where else could I have legally done this?

As long as you did not try to claim the damage to your insurance company, and the car was paid off, then it is legal. The car is your property, and as long as you are not using it in a way to commit a crime against someone else, or use it in an illegal manner, it is 100% legal to do whatever you want to it. (For example, if your car contains Freon in its air conditioning system, the Freon must be disposed of in an approved manner; so if you were to break the AC and spill Freon, it would be a violation of federal environmental protection laws.)

The worst that a neighbor could do is complain that you were violating noise ordinances with the sound.

Back when I was in high school, a fairly common fundraiser was to take a donated car and smash it in the school parking lot with sledge hammers. You would pay a few bucks, and get either a certain number of swings, or a certain time period to smash it. The car was usually painted up in the colors of a rival school with derogatory comments about them.

Hannah & Ethan on the Waterslide!