Tied Shoes thrown over ESB wires

GospelGroupie

Folks,

In Swords, as I understand, the whole "throwing a pair of shoes onto the ESB wires" thing is a kind of turf-marking for some drug dealer.... kind of like the two graffiti-painting gangs that are competing for wall-space around the town, marking their turf.

Anyone know anything about this? Is this just a Swords thing or is everywhere that I see a pair of shoes thrown into the esb wires likely to be a dealers patch?

It's a mistery.

Femelade

it means the same here in cork afaik.

RoundyMooney

It does.

I have them removed wherever I find them, just to piss off the scobes.

Huggles

Jaysis how naieve am I, I thought it was kids having a laugh LMFAO.

I should probably stay indoors for good now, being that naieve.

Wishbone Ash

There used to be a pair thrown over electrical cables in Portrane. I recall someone saying something similiar re: drugs.

Anto McC

First i have ever heard of it,I'm from town and there is a few around here but maybe i'm just naieve!

PrettyInPunk

i thought it was done by someone other than the dealer to warn people?

grimloch

TheGooner wrote:

Jaysis how naieve am I, I thought it was kids having a laugh LMFAO.

I should probably stay indoors for good now, being that naieve.

It is done by some kids having a laugh. Either that or there's a new breed of very young dealers in town.

Huggles

grimloch wrote:

It is done by some kids having a laugh. Either that or there's a new breed of very young dealers in town.

Pheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeww!!

connundrum

Thats a fairly international phenomenon afaik. I've seen it in two cities in South Africa and in America I've often seen it on telly.. actually if you ever watch Training Day you'll see it all over the place. Its basically - drugs available.

Dave!

hmmmm... didn't know about that...

How does one avail of these drugs? Ask the shoes?

dmck2886

Its basicly a drugs for sale sign.

monkeyfudge

DaveMcG wrote:

hmmmm... didn't know about that...

How does one avail of these drugs? Ask the shoes?

If you hang around near the shoes for a while you should be approached.

It could all just be an urban myth though.... does anyone here avail of the shoe service?

Limerick Dude

yeah ive seen them alot around where i live.

Dooom

Monkeyfudge's more or less spot on. Uh, so I've heard.
Although nowadays there's such a thing as a phone...

cue

Love to be a fly on the wall for whoever thinks up these ideas. In New York in the seventies it meant heroin available. There is a pair hanging outside my office window and it is just seems like a waste of a good pair of shoes as there is about ten lads sitting there banging up in full view every day.

connundrum

DaveMcG wrote:

hmmmm... didn't know about that...

How does one avail of these drugs? Ask the shoes?

LOL..

It could be a new form of initiation test for drug gangs.. a nube would have to sneak off to another gang's territory and steal a pair of shoes from afore mentioned ESB wires. Not only would the nube be risking death by electocution, falling from a height, having 'a cap popped in his ass', but he would also have to wear the shoes for a full week - WITHOUT LACES!

Scary stuff

Plug

Theres a few of them around where I live, its just youngfellows messing:rolleyes: I don't think its drugdealers at all:)

Ruu_Old

Maybe its a shoe shining service or something? I saw a pair a few miles from where I live but they have since been removed.

abetarrush

Femmy wrote:

it means the same here in cork afaik.

what's AFAIK....


Ok, i jus figured it out der :P


I always tot people just nick peoples shoes and throw em up der for the craic

Doomspell

I have seen one or to around cork but I went to Bristol recently and we went to the park,for a walk. There was a huge tree and ESB wires going around it, sure thats fine nothing out of the ordinary but on every single branch there was a pair of shoes,tied by there laces. They were all over the wires too.

Doomspell

abetarrush wrote:

what's AFAIK....


Ok, i jus figured it out der :P

Wait!! What does it mean

Mr. Presentable

dmck2886 wrote:

Its basicly a drugs for sale sign.

And do they take them down when they have none left?

spurious

It was clackers in my day...oh the good old days...

abetarrush

Doomspell wrote:

Wait!! What does it mean

As Far As I Know, afaik

scojones

It can be either turf marking or a sign that someone was murdered there.

Dustaz

Maybe it means that now, but im pretty sure back in the day when we used to throw fat daras shows up on the wires for the laugh noone ever approached me trying to buy drugs of any kind (apart from maybe a few blackjacks)

Unless of course my 6 year old neighbour was the 1970's biggest drug kingpin. HOW did i miss this!

Mr. Presentable

spurious wrote:

It was clackers in my day...oh the good old days...

Oh crap. Mine too:eek:

ThrownAway

There's been a pair hung over a wire about a mile from where I live on a main street for two years now :rolleyes: You'd think someone would take them down.

Cuddlesworth

Drugs I'm afriad, although I'm sure there are quite a few out there that was just some kids messing. I work in some bad areas with a lot of drugs problems, this is common knowledge there.

simu

I've never noticed shoes on wires before but I'll keep an eye on the skies. Although most people source drugs through word of mouth, afaiksies.

Also, how do they get the shoes up there - would be tricky enough, no? And do they buy cheap lidl shoes or such to throw up specially or do they just use a worn pair belonging to one of the gang?

It all seems very odd!

Gandhi

Those stupid things are all over the place in Philly. They even have a pair in the starting logo for "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia".

I had heard about the drug thing, but here the story was that it would mark the border between two drug gangs territories. I've since heard that's an urban legend, presumably brought on by the fact that they are more commonplace in rougher neighbourhoods, particularly near where a group of teenage boys are hanging around.

As for marking where drugs can be bought, I'd imagine the cops would be rounding dealers up like shooting fish in a barrel if they were throwing markers up above where they are dealing.

Good old snopes lets us down a bit on this one, giving no definitive answer.

http://www.snopes.com/crime/gangs/sneakers.htm

monkeyfudge

Doomspell wrote:

I have seen one or to around cork but I went to Bristol recently and we went to the park,for a walk. There was a huge tree and ESB wires going around it, sure thats fine nothing out of the ordinary but on every single branch there was a pair of shoes,tied by there laces. They were all over the wires too.

What are the ESB doing putting up wires in Bristol? Are they in on the shoe conspiracy?

slipss

GospelGroupie wrote:

Folks,

In Swords, as I understand, the whole "throwing a pair of shoes onto the ESB wires" thing is a kind of turf-marking for some drug dealer.... kind of like the two graffiti-painting gangs that are competing for wall-space around the town, marking their turf.

Anyone know anything about this? Is this just a Swords thing or is everywhere that I see a pair of shoes thrown into the esb wires likely to be a dealers patch?

It's a mistery.

Yeah traditionally its done by heroin dealers so junkies know where to go for smack. But the whole thing became a bit obsilite (sc) since everyone has mobiles nowadawys. In the 80's in particular this is how junkies would find heroin if they were in an area they didn't know.

Nehpets

What do socks wrapped around things mean?

Dermington

Class A drugs available here...

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Nehpets wrote:

What do socks wrapped around things mean?

Something is bleeding.

netwhizkid

I saw this in a fairly rough part of Brooklyn last year while on holidays in New York, (I was staying in Queens though) My cousin who lives there pointed it out to me and said it was the guys shoes who had been gunned down sometime that week due to Drugs. It generally seems to mean that you are entering a druggie area.

Red Alert

There's one particular one in ballinteer - hope it's not a 3phase overhead line as the next time the wind blows we'll have no power! (think it's only single phase with a few wires).

Sofaspud

I think it is about drugs, Where I live, there's recently been a big drug problem, only staring a few years ago. A couple of months ago, there was a pair of shoes on the electrical cables on my street, where a lot of them live. These were probably taken down by some of the lder people (a lot of biddies on the street too), then a few weeks later I saw a similar pair, right around a corner, leading onto my street, tied around a low branch. basically "you take down our shoes, we'll put them back up elsewhere! that'll sure show you!"

crosstownk

I've heard thats it 'drugs for sale' - years ago.

I always wondered how many attempts it took to actually get the shoes up there..............

phreneticus

naive. it's naive.

things like this bother me.

RoundyMooney

Red Alert wrote:

There's one particular one in ballinteer - hope it's not a 3phase overhead line as the next time the wind blows we'll have no power! (think it's only single phase with a few wires).

Eh?

weeder

theres a few here in gorey means drugs too

legofsalmon

There's a pair hanging from a tree near where I live...

Is that the sign for natural alternatives?

FillSpectre

This is one of those things where it never meant what it now might mean in certain circumstances.
If it is mentioned in "Training Day" it may have become "fact" now.

http://www.snopes.com/crime/gangs/sneakers.htm

It has never meant drugs in Dublin when I was growing up when there were many shoes hanging off power lines. It may mean it now but I really doubt it as it has to be one of the most useless indicators to get your drugs. Always easier to ask the shifty guy.

Siogfinsceal

It def means drugs for sale - originated in the usa far as I know but its an international thing now

Degsy

When i was about six we used to knot our old runners together when they were wrecked and feck them up onto wires to get them to stay there.It was nothing whatsover to do with drugs in thise days(early seventies).Why a wandering drug addict would feel comforted bya pairof shoes ona wire in a strange area is hard to fathom.I mean do the size of the shoes correspond to the number of the house that's selling the drugs.We used to get tennis balls as wella nd join them together with catgut to make "bolas",occasionaly they'd end up on the wires to..what is this a signal for?Shoeshine available?

FillSpectre

Siogfinsceal wrote:

It def means drugs for sale - originated in the usa far as I know but its an international thing now

How does it help people then? How do you find your drug dealer now you can see this really informative sign?

If you want drugs in Dublin you need a mobile phone as that is how the junkies do it now. So what drugs are people wandering the streets to buy looking out for shoes hanging from the line?

How do you know it is "def" a sign now? Did a friend tell you or is it how you get drugs?

Tha Gopher

Drugs for sale, gang territory, thisthatandtheother, I find it funny that lads of 14/15 beatin up 10 year olds and throwin their shoes over the wires creates so much paranoia. re the drugs for sale thing: how many dealers do you know who, if a stranger knocks on the door having seen some shoes hanging around the wires and asks for coke, will run into their stash and get it and be happy with their easy money? If I told someone to knock on Number 12 on X Street and ask the occupant to sort him, knowing myself that the guy was selling, he would get told that nobody at the house has any involvement.

If he persisted he would get a smack and told to fcuk off.

Gillo

DaveMcG wrote:

hmmmm... didn't know about that...

How does one avail of these drugs? Ask the shoes?

You've got to get a foot in (with the dealer)

Chakar

I was once offered drugs to try, I didn't though and this happened near these shoes on the lines.Dangerous alright.