Greeks use rude stickers to punish illegal parking

ATHENS (Reuters Life!) - Pedestrians frustrated by congested streets and unruly parking in Greek cities are using sarcastic stickers to retaliate against inconsiderate motorists.

"I am an ass! I park wherever I like," say the palm-sized labels showing a donkey driving a car, which are plastered on car windows by the Streetpanthers citizens' group.

"We are fed up with people who feel they can park wherever they want and block pedestrians," said Grigoris Mavrakis, 48, head of the group and founder www.streetpanthers.gr site.

"One car can make life difficult for hundreds of people," he told Reuters.

Cars left on wheelchair ramps, pedestrian crossings and sidewalks are common in Athens and other cities, where parking places and traffic police are hard to find.

Streetpanthers said they wanted to embarrass offenders and make it difficult to scrape the sticker off.

Mavrakis said that, since the protest was launched in 2006, hundreds of thousands of stickers had been sold via the website.

"You feel better when you stick it on," Mavrakis said. "We've had some harsh reactions from drivers ... but the most serious protests were from citizens for insulting animals."

(Reporting by Renee Maltezou; editing by Andrew Dobbie)