The wall test

I once heard it alleged that a good measure of the vitality of a street was the length of time it took passers-by to find and remove more or less useful objects placed on one's front wall. Two hours was thought to be good.

So yesterday I came across the child's scooter, illustrated left, in a hedge on Horton Lane. Not quite an honest illustration as I did not think to snap it until I had already moved on a hundred yards or so from where I had actually found it.

The scooter appeared to be in working order, although the front bracket - the assembly which connects the two halves of the 'L' together - was a little loose and, for some unknown reason, one of the five screws, short but stout, which fix the handle to the front wheel and which are front located in a black plastic fitting just above the upper shiny ring (but barely visible here), was missing. This did not appear to represent any threat to health and safety, but, just to be on the safe side, I thought I would call in the cycle shop at Pound Lane and see if he could help. I would have been quite happy to give it too him if he had a use or could find a home for it, but as it turned out, although the sign on the front door said open, the door was firmly locked.

So wall test it was. Wrote out an appropriate message on both sides of a luggage label, a small piece of brown cardboard complete with strings, the sort of thing you can still buy in Rymans, attached it and left the labeled scooter by the hole in the front wall where there may once have been a front gate. I was hopeful because there is an infant-primary school at the end of our road and plenty of mums, dads and children walk by, despite the unhealthy propensity to use cars for delivery.

In the event, it took just 22 hours to move, including 12 hours of darkness. In the event, to a neighbour rather than a common-or-garden passer-by.

Additional information

I never sorted out which way round the handle was suppose to be - although I think there is a right way round because of the way the front wheel is mounted.

The whole exercise triggered various pavement conversations on the wasteful ways of the younger generation - partly because I had found out from google that one can spend about £100 on these things, a lot more than I had guessed, despite their sturdy construction, of the same order as what one might spend on a child's first bicycle. So I shall now ponder on how the thing got into a hedge. What plausible story can I come up with? Is it one and the same person as the phantom smasher, otherwise absent for some time now? See reference 1.

Ebay calls the labels '50 Strung Reinforced Tags 120mm x 60mm Brown Buff Size 5 Luggage Labels Tagging' or alternatively '50 Strung Reinforced Tags 108mm x 54mm Luggage Labels Tag String Buff Manilla'.

Colours on the illustration poor. They also varied a good deal among the dozen or more snaps that I took. The telephone does not seem to be at its best at winter light levels.

Reference 1: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/phantom-smasher.html.