Sneakers hanging on telephone and electrical lines

Pappy

Pappy

Living the Dream
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Moved back to NY from Florida. 🤓 2025
Once in a while, driving along, I see sneakers hanging from the lines. Does this have a meaning or is someone being a wisea--? I thought I had heard it was Gang related. Maybe 911 knows if this is the case. Just curious. :confused:
 

Yes I have also heard it shows were a drug dealer is around, I know of a notorious drug area near where I live, which has many hanging from almost every other telephone wire. Interesting Snopes link though!
 
I just thought someone was being an idiot. Thanks you guys, good question, sure hope it isn't drug related, though I wouldn't be surprised of anything as to it's message. Sigh.
 
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Recall the boys tossing their sneakers up on the wires in high school. Back then it was their way of celebrating the last day of school. They no longer needed them for gym.
 
Thinking about it, the sneakers aren't a really effective way to signal drug availability because once up there it's impossible to bring them down again. My MIL lived opposite some drug dealers and the police came one day and camped on her front bedroom to watch the house. The evidence collected revealed that the signal of availability was the venetian blinds on the front window. Open or shut.

The boys in that house later disappeared for a while, while they answered for their misdemeanours.
 
When I was a teenager, my boyfriend used to throw sneakers to get hung up on lines all the time. He thought he was being cool. He was destructive and ignorant. It had nothing to do with drugs, but that was then, not now. Times change.
 
Mom would have kicked my arse if I came home without my sneakers. ( do they even call them sneakers anymore?)

The reason I asked to begin with is that one particular street here seems to always have a pair hanging from the wires almost all the time. It could be the same pair but they were there last year too.
 
Pappy said:
Once in a while, driving along, I see sneakers hanging from the lines. Does this have a meaning or is someone being a wisea--? I thought I had heard it was Gang related. Maybe 911 knows if this is the case. Just curious. :confused:
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It depends on the neighborhood. In some that means someone has passed away. I have heard all kinds of stories. One kid said they threw the shoes over the wires because a kid in the neighborhood moved out. In another neighborhood, they told me that there were drugs available and the other one that comes to mind is some dude was home from the service. I am sure there are others.
 
There's a tree north of us that has quite a few pairs of shoes hanging in it! I believe it is a rite of passage for high school seniors. This is in a town in northern Michigan, not a large city.
 
Pappy said:
Mom would have kicked my arse if I came home without my sneakers. ( do they even call them sneakers anymore?)

The reason I asked to begin with is that one particular street here seems to always have a pair hanging from the wires almost all the time. It could be the same pair but they were there last year too.
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Pappy, if those were up there all year round in all kinds of weather and still look good, get me the name of those sneakers.
 
Dame Warrigal said:
Thinking about it, the sneakers aren't a really effective way to signal drug availability because once up there it's impossible to bring them down again. My MIL lived opposite some drug dealers and the police came one day and camped on her front bedroom to watch the house. The evidence collected revealed that the signal of availability was the venetian blinds on the front window. Open or shut.

The boys in that house later disappeared for a while, while they answered for their misdemeanours.
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I think your point is well taken DW. Seems like a very ineffectual signalling convention.
 
We bought our place in July, 2012. Out back, the lowest line strung pole to pole, the telephone line, has a phone receiver dangling by it's cord, wound around the overhead cable. I thought it was rather bizarre. My nephew who just visited, claims it IS a sign of some kind related to drug activity. Hope we are not raided by the drug cops! imp
 
Well, depending on whose wires they are, where they are located, and how badly one wants to dispose of them, one could call the power company, or phone company, or if suitably rural in location, attempt to shoot the strings away from which they hang. :) imp
 

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