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Come on, I would of taken it too.

This is not middle America suburbia, it's a city. You don't leave valuables visible on the street. (yes a handtruck is valuable)

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I happen to like the National Discount Store sign. Sure, it's beat up with missing letters and the paint is peeling. But I think it still has that charming "shabby chic" look. I'll take a dozen of those types over the ugly Dollar-store signs, most of which have handwritten cardboard-and-marker placards ("99 cents...or MORE!") placed over parts of the windows. Or that god-awful empty art-deco oval on the "SLEEP CHEAP" store. Ick.


And as for National Discount Store, twice they have come to the rescue when I needed something odd. Once I needed a 1/8->1/4" headphone jack adapter, and the only one I found at Duane Reade came with a bunch of other crap in a kit for about $15. So I went to NDS and asked if they had anything, and the guy inside asked me to hold on while he grabbed an old rusty coffee can filled with a bunch of junk. He fished through a pile of nuts, bolts and washers, and pulled out the exact adapter I needed. It was gold-plated, in good shape, and only cost a dollar.

Another time, I was archiving VHS tapes to DVD and needed a head cleaner for my old VCR. No luck at Duane Reade or Hudson Camera, but once again NDS came to the rescue. The guy actually had a pile of about ten of them and tried to sell me a few extra. I imagine he's still got plenty if you happen to need one...

After spending alot of money to renovate/ beautify Newark Ave why is that this store still displays this weather beaten worn out sign? They make the effort to replace the sidewalks, add new trees and planters, put in new decorative streetlights and benches but allow this business to keep this ugly unkept sign? How can this business have no pride and make zero effort to at least paint the darn thing?
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I put a plastic bag full of dog poop out on trash night. One hour later...gone. WTF!?

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You're brave to leave anything out, even next to the front door! To a lot of people in JC an item being outside and unchained is enough to indicate that it is "free" for the taking. I once left an extension cord and two half busted plastic saw horses in my front yard for about 20 mins while I ran to Home Depot to get screws, when I came back they were gone. Seriously, someone stole broken saw horses.

Last week was super hot. A beat up mini van put up square fan on the passenger side window blowing air to the driver side.

this is more of a speechless/gross story:

last night at the corner of grand and grove around 9pm, there was an NYC cab, about 3 police officers, and a guy presumably drunk guy falling all over the place. as i was figuring out whether or not to try to walk past the cops who were trying to talk to this unruly guy - he vomits. the cop goes "well isn't this lovely." and the drunk guy vomits twice more. i crossed the street and walked around the long way.

a little much for that early on a tuesday night. ugh.

There seems to be an unwritten rule in my neighborhood about how far down the driveway you can put something before it lands in the "free store." We had a handtruck on our driveway for several days, maybe even a week, but it was always up near the house. One evening, we inadvertently left it about halfway down the driveway. The next morning it was gone and our neighbor told us that someone on a bike had laid it over his handlebars and rode away with it.

Yes - my neighbor did try to stop him (yelling, running, etc.) but he was gone.

I imagine that he ran his bike into a tree trying to steer it with a big handtruck laid over it. It helps.

There was a hair salon that open up last year on the corner of Monmouth and Newark that took the time to set up/ prepare the inside of the store with all the necessary equipment for a productive business but when they opened the store they never put a sign up alerting the neighborhood of their business/opening. I kid you not, if you looked above the store their were two lightboxes set up with bulbs in it and all, ready for a sign front to be put on, but they never did and they left the lightboxes open with the bulbs exposed. Needeless to say they closed a few months later probably due to lack of business. How could a business not put a sign up?

Last fall I was over my friend's third floor apartment on Ogden in the Heights. We had finished dinner, and I was standing by the window, smoking a cigarette, when I heard a noise from below. I looked down and saw someone alongside my bicycle (it was locked to a metal fence outside the building). At first I thought it was another friend, locking his bike alongside mine. Then I saw my celeste green bicycle seat (which matches my handlebar tape and brake casings so nicely) get lifted from my bike and placed into this dude's bag. As he rode off I screamed "you bastard!" and went scrambling out of the apartment to chase him. One of my friends went with me as I hurriedly explained that some jerk-face just stole my seat. We got downstairs, and of course he was gone, but we started running up toward Central anyway. Since he was on a bike, it seemed there was little hope of ever seeing my seat again, yet I looked down Central to the left and saw his bright orange messenger bag thrown on the ground outside a Chinese restaurant. We ran inside the place and I recognized the culprit (he was wearing a floppy fishing-type hat). I pointed him out, and my friend shouted "give us the seat motherf*&#er!" in his best tough-guy voice. Initially I was nervous, as I am a total wuss (and a woman), but the guy turned out to be the most frightened, pathetic, diminutive creature ever to ride the streets of JC. He gave me the seat back immediately, and at this point I not only demanded an explanation (he said he once had his seat stolen), but launched into a schoolmarmy lecture about how he should be putting his talents to better use and how he was putting my safety at risk by tampering with my transportation. He seemed to start to feel worse and worse. He then confessed to stealing my back light as well (seriously, what $ could you get from one of these crappy little lights without the bracket?). After returning the light, he started offering me a bunch of other possibly stolen items from his sack (lights, a bottle cage, the wrench he used to steal my seat, etc.). The best part of the whole scene was the chorus of typical JC heights high school age kids who gathered around the drama. They were full of sarcastic oohs and aahs as I scolded this pathetic man.

So I guess I have seen with my own eyes that thievery in JC is indeed quite prevalent. Thankfully my thief was not very good with the whole fleeing the scene part . . . or he just had a really strong craving for some lo mein.

I was running in Newport near the lighthouse one Sunday morning last summer and this Asian woman on a cell phone gets up from the grass where she'd been laying down and proceeds to intersect my intended trajectory. I thought maybe she's distracted as she had a cell phone on her ear, but as I approached her she suddenly speeded up and takes a swing at my behind - and connects! I was so shocked and surprised that I just ran faster, as she scared the crap out of me. Too bad she wasn't attractive - I would have given her another shot...

my roommate didn't want her bike anymore and it had 2 flat tires, so she left it on our back deck. it was gone within a week.

Try this one: someone snuck into my backyard in in the Heights last summer and took nearly every peach off of 3 trees. I still don't know how they did it, some were quite high. Picking poles? It sounds paranoid even to me, but any avian or 4 footed fruit lover would leave a complete mess of fruit on the ground and half eaten peaches in the trees, this was surgical.

Having our newly planted annuals "harvested" has been a regular occurrence. In NYC you'll see trees in planters with chains on them, since they'll drive away otherwise. People suck.

My favorite intersection of "old" and "new" downtown: the Hyatt pier, where hotel guests and tourists gawk at the skyline between local fishermen cutting up bait and casting for 40 lb stripers.

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The people of Jersey City re-elected Healy, most of them by staying home. Apathy always votes.

JC ANIMAL CONTROL dumps CATs/KiTTENS in Lincoln Park

There really is nothing unique about Jersey City. All cities and towns have their characters and tales. We are impressed by that which we see in our front yard & to be sure, the people of Jersey City did not re-elect Healy as Mayor. A very small percentage of registered voters voted in that election. That is apathetic.

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We have a winner!!

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A few weeks ago, the people of Jersey City elected Jerramiah Healy as their Mayor.

I kid you not.

Living in Jersey City, sometimes you just come across such insane stories, people and situations that are so 'unique' they can make you laugh, cry or just leave you in a state of bewilderment. I have often times stumbled onto a situation and said to myself," HUH! Now why would anyone ever do that?" So I started this thread to vent and also read some of your stories. Here's two of my own to start it off:

I was walking my dog the other day on 1st street when I came across a guy who was planting brightly colored flowers in a small, nicely mainicured and fenced in mulch filled area at the base of a tree in front of his property. He obviously had taken a fair amount of time taking care of this area and cared enough to do so. As I walked by I said,"Nice Job." He turns to me and tells me that he planted 7 plants in the same spot the day before and in the middle of the night someone came by and dug up 5 of his plants, stealing them right out of the ground leaving no trace of the plants just empty holes. He was now having to plant 5 new ones in their place!!!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!!

I went to Starbucks today to get a med coffee. I purchased my coffee and went over to the condiments bar to add my sweet and low and some cinnamon like I normally do and couldn't find the cinnamon anywhere. So I asked the woman at the register for some cinnamon and she proceeds to tell me that they can not keep the cinnimon shaker at the bar because people keep stealing it! Why on earth do people go into Starbucks and STEAL the cinnamon shaker!!!! Only in JC folks!!