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Anti-Dibs Vigilante Clears Block, Creates 'Art Installation' of Junk

By Benjamin Woodard | February 12, 2015 3:42pm
 A resident of a West Rogers Park block cleared dibs stuff and created an "art installation."
A resident of a West Rogers Park block cleared dibs stuff and created an "art installation."
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courtesy Derek Bedard

WEST ROGERS PARK — For one North Side resident, enough was enough: it was time for dibs to be over.

Vince — who only wanted to be identified by his first name in fear of retaliation by his neighbors— said he collected all the household items left on his block's mostly snowless street and piled them up on the corner parkway.

"Less than a quarter of the street had available spots you could park at," said the 33-year-old, who lives in the 6000 block of North Claremont Avenue. "I just felt something had to be done."

He posted a photo of the result of his work Wednesday on social media site EveryBlock, calling it an "art installation."

Ben Woodard says Vince was even attacked:

But some of his neighbors reacted violently, he said. That and the allegation that a woman's brake line was cut for violating the unwritten rules of dibs made him want to stay anonymous.

"She hit me across the back with one of the items," he said about a neighbor, adding that the dibs weapon was a toy push car.

Yet some residents of the block, like Derek Bedard, 26, applauded the anti-dibs action nearly two weeks after any major snowfall.

"I was actually pretty happy about it," he said while walking his dog Thursday. "This whole block took it a little too far."

Bedard said he used dibs for only the first day after the Super Bowl Sunday blizzard.

Resident Corinna Gonzalez, 18, said she doesn't own a car, but agreed that dibs had gone on for far too long.

"The weather's nicer. The snow's gone. Props to that guy," she said.

Another woman, who declined to share her name, said next to her car Wednesday that she was one of the people who had her stuff removed.

"I just did it because everyone else was doing it," she said.

The city announced it would begin removing dibs material from public streets on Friday.

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