West Seattle Crime Watch: Egg vandals strike again

| Crime | West Seattle news

Out of the WSB inbox, from Deb:

Our house (near the intersection of 38th Ave SW & SW Dakota St; map) has no off-street parking, so we park on the street. Sometime last night my car was egged, and I’m curious about whether anyone else’s cars were egged last night. I took a quick look at my neighbors’ cars and didn’t see any obvious evidence of egging, but I didn’t look too closely because I was running late after trying (unsuccessfully!) to clean the dried, cold egg off of my car. I hope no one else’s cars or houses were egged, but I’d be curious to hear about it if they were. I’m not sure if I should report this to the police. On one hand, I don’t want to waste their time and resources on something that’s relatively minor (albeit annoying and frustrating). On the other hand, I haven’t been able to get all of the egg off of my car, so I don’t know yet whether there’s any actual property damage. Now I’m off to search the interwebs for information about how to get dried egg off of my car without causing (more?) damage to the paint.

Yes, report it to the police. Coincidentally, the P-I’s 911 blog just took up this topic.

cjboffoli October 15, 2008 (12:32 pm)

Deb: Try a solution of diluted liquid laundry soap in water. It will break down the proteins. You may have to re-wax the area eventually. But that should do the trick.

DALYDBL October 15, 2008 (12:47 pm)

BOTH of ours were egged as well, causing permanent damage to the paint jobs. I filed a police report on the phone, and I would encourage anyone else who was hit to do this same…seeing that this will cost a hefty amount to restore.
I heard strange noises this morning at about 5:30 AM, and I thought there was a racoon or something rumbling around in the yard. My cat was obviously disturbed, but I didn’t even think about checking for eggs on my car. Wish I had. At least now I know what the sound of eggs smashing against metal sounds like…a symphony of idiocy.

hkb October 15, 2008 (12:48 pm)

I was driving on Walnut next to Hiawatha Playfield a few weeks ago and a car driving the other direction threw an egg at me. Luckily it mostly missed, and only got the front of my bumper and license plate. It was raining so the egg was mostly washed off by the time I pulled into Safeway and took a look. Though I was very annoyed that someone would throw something at me while I was driving!

cjboffoli October 15, 2008 (1:14 pm)

DALYDBL: Permanent damage? Really? Do you have an older car or something? It’s hard for me to understand how a simple egg could permanently damage a modern, heat-catalyzed urethane factory clear coat. I figured most of the damage to the paint probably came from people’s clumsy attempts to clean it off. can you describe the damage?

deb October 15, 2008 (1:20 pm)

(This is Deb, the one who sent the email to WSB. And, yes, I’m going to file a police report.)
…
cjboffoli, thanks so much for the liquid-laundry-soap suggestion! I’ll give that a try and see how it works. I really appreciate the tip.
…
DALYDBL and hkb, I’m sorry to hear that you were targeted too. But at least this disproves my fleeting theory that I have a secret nemesis who was targeting just me. ;-) (Hey, just trying feebly to find some humor in the situation.)

pam October 15, 2008 (1:22 pm)

We were hit a few weeks ago – saw the egg carton on the street when we left in the morning and had an uhoh moment but didn’t investigate further until saw sons car had 3 or 4 eggs broken on front carpet and on seat (convertible). Didn’t notice splatters on my car until day or so later – washed off but took a lot of elbow grease. Off Stevens and Admiral.

DALYDBL October 15, 2008 (1:42 pm)

cjboffoli, Thanks for the laundry soap tip, it helped remove some of the slime. Yes, there is permanent damage. 2001 & 2007 cars in great condition. The clearcoat looked like a crackled faux finish under the egg white, and then peeled off in little strips and the paint underneath is coming up in a few spots. The yolk and the white affected the paint job differently. I don’t have any enemies therefore I can only assume that this crime was a random act of nastiness.

mike October 15, 2008 (1:43 pm)

My car got egged two years ago near dawson and Fauntleroy, it definitely damaged the paint. You can see where each splinter of the shell tore up the paint down to the metal.

GPS October 15, 2008 (2:26 pm)

Yep, the shell shards scratch up the finish and paint. Ours was egged maybe a year ago, and it looks like a little “bullseye” where it hit. The detailer recognized it immediately.

cjboffoli October 15, 2008 (2:27 pm)

DALYDBL: Very sorry to hear about this random act of vandalism. Anyone with a chemistry background out there who can explain what in the egg makes it so corrosive? Mike seems to indicate that the impact of the shell did some of the damage. But I wonder what else it could be. The sulphur? Enzymes?
.
A quick web search seemed to turn up a suggestion that Vaseline Intensive Care (left on for ten minutes) may help take the egg off. Others say Goo Gone. Yet another source suggests a solution of 1/2 hot water and 1/2 ammonia. Seems like the faster you get the egg off the better.

SomeGuy October 15, 2008 (2:48 pm)

Words of wisdom from several years ago – if any egg is dried on your windshield or windows, it is very easy to scratch the glass.
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I was so irritated that I grabbed a sponge out of the sink and started scrubbing and ended up with micro scratches on my windshield. You can’t see them just looking at the car, but when you drive directly into the morning sun they are really bad.
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I’m waiting for another gravel chip this winter and then I’ll replace the whole windshield.

Stacey October 15, 2008 (3:01 pm)

Last week Thursday I was driving North on California Ave, passing Hiawatha at approx. 9:10pm and I heard a very hard thump on my car. It scared the living daylights out of me! When I got home (Admiral & Waite) I found an egg splattered all over my car. Something as simple as an egg could have caused alot more damamge than anticipated. Thank goodness I stayed focused on just getting home and didn’t lose control of my car. I called the non-emergency # to make them aware. But by the looks of it, Safeway’s going to have to start carding people for egg sales after 5pm! hahahaha!….. but seriously…….

mike October 15, 2008 (4:05 pm)

GPS, does that mean you got the “bullseye” fixed? How much did it cost?

datamuse October 15, 2008 (4:42 pm)

These all seem to be happening in the same general vicinity. Wonder if it’s the same people each time?

Someone on the side of the road threw a snowball at my car several years back. I was so startled (it hit my windshield) that I nearly swerved right into them. Could’ve been a MUCH worse outcome than anyone anticipated.

I don’t know the chemistry involved but something in the egg is corrosive to the paint.

JayDee October 15, 2008 (4:51 pm)

For the micro-scratches in the windshield — There may be some product that will fill them. I have seen the glass cement to repair stemwear that uses UV-activation, but I have never seen it applied to fill scratches. The trick is the cement has the same index of refraction as glass so is invisible in the healed crack if there isn’t air. Anyone who has had a chiped windshield sealed will recall they use a vacuum and a UV light. It might be worth checking with one of these auto-glass places–they may know of a solution.

BTW, I am a clean windshield obsessive compulsive, my theory being you can’t stop for what you can’t see (pedestrians wearing all black at night, for instance).

T October 15, 2008 (4:54 pm)

On my way home last night (about midnight) I saw three empty “dozen egg” containers at the side of the road at 35th and 106th Street. Havn’t heard if anyone in my neighborhood was hit but it looks like the culprits tossed the trash at this intersection.

WestSeattleScramble October 15, 2008 (6:41 pm)

Has anyone looked in to the possibility of a gang of angry chickens out there? There seems to be quite a few of our feathered friends around.

datamuse October 15, 2008 (9:43 pm)

You know, chickens DO have mohawks…clearly they’re a bunch of punks!

Brandon October 15, 2008 (10:36 pm)

Our insurance agent has told us in the past that windshield repairs are usually done without charge to ins so long as the don’t have to replace the windshield (then its comprehensive deductable. When you compare $50, $250 and $500 deductibles for comphrensive, the rates weren’t that much different, which made vandalism claims a little easier to bear).

Michael October 16, 2008 (11:39 am)

Our neighbor’s car got egged also. We’re at Walnut Ave SW & Hines.

deb October 16, 2008 (1:47 pm)

I just wanted to check back in and let you all know that cjboffoli’s suggestion of liquid laundry detergent worked like a charm! (Thanks again, cjboffoli.) First, I removed all of the eggshell fragments by hand so they wouldn’t scratch the paint. I diluted the detergent in a bucket of warm water, stuck a huge towel in the bucket so it would absorb most of the liquid, placed the hot, soapy, wet towel on the affected area of my car, and let it sit for 15 minutes. Then I wiped the area gently (gently in case there were still any errant eggshell pieces), and rinsed it all off. Voila! It was beautiful. Of course, my wax job is toast, so I’ll need to get my car waxed again soon. (Anyone know a good hand-washer/waxer/detailer?) You know what bothers me almost as much as the act of vandalism and property damage? The food waste. Those eggs could have fed some hungry people.

DALYDBL October 16, 2008 (6:56 pm)

Cuzzins Mobile Detail has done a fabulous job for me on several occasions. They show up at the house and do the work which is awesomely convenient! 206-528-2020 I’m thinking about trying to get the clearcoat damage compounded out with a super buff job…hope it works!

P.S. People like Cleveland Ken are why I don’t really enjoy reading this blog anymore. People are so mean on these comment forums! Why don’t you take your greater-than-thou attitudes and turn that energy around on yourselves to make yourself better, and less bitter! No one who is old enough to state their opinions on these forums needs anyone to boss them around with hypocritical complaining, thanks!