Less than two weeks after Kindness Meters were installed in five London parks, one of the re-purposed coin-operated parking meters has been stolen.
The bright blue meter was snatched off of its pole in Ivey Park sometime between Sunday night and Monday night.
"REALLY #LDNONT?!! This is why we cannot have nice things," tweeted Lincoln McCardle, the man who worked for two years to bring the meters to the city.
The theft was brought to McCardle's attention by a photo of the barren pole posted on social media Monday night.
"I want to say I was mad [about the theft], I wasn't. I was just so disappointed," said McCardle. "When we first talked about putting the meters in we talked about the potential for vandalism, what we would do in that case, and my response at the time was that I could see it with a regular parking meter. Maybe someone got a ticket and was mad, but given the nature of these meters it just seemed so unlikely that something like this would even happen."
City crews installed the Kindness Meters in Ivey, Victoria, West Lions, Piccadilly, and A. Baran parks on June 8. Change dropped into the meters is collected and dispersed to local charities by the Salvation Army on a weekly basis. It's not known how much change the meter would have contained at the time of its theft.
To prevent the other four newly-installed meters from meeting the same fate as the one in Ivey Park, McCardle has reached out to the city to brainstorm about anti-theft measures.
"Maybe we could add some type of revolving collar... that might prevent someone from twisting it off or cutting the pipe," McCardle said. "I'm not exactly sure from the picture how they even got this meter off to begin with. So maybe once we've determined that we might be able to make some type of protective sleeve or something going forward that might help minimize the chances of this happening again."
McCardle plans to search the bushes and river bank along Ivey Park Tuesday night, in hopes of finding the stolen meter.
"Maybe it's nearby. It is so heavy, even when it was empty it was difficult for me to carry. I am hopeful that whoever took it didn't take it far," said McCardle. "The obvious possibility is that someone who wanted the money took it to take the money but I'm leaning towards senseless vandalism. Someone just ripped it off and dumped it somewhere."
If the original meter cannot be found, McCardle is optimistic another can be installed. However acquiring, re-keying, and repainting another retired coin-operated parking meter would take time.
REALLY #LDNONT?!! This is why we cannot have nice things.
????? pic.twitter.com/S5svvktPiR— Lincoln McCardle (@Canucklehead_ca) June 20, 2017
