Between 100 and 200 onlookers were treated to a strange spectacle Saturday afternoon, as they watched about a dozen unidentified individuals overturn a car and roll it into the middle of Del Playa Drive for no apparent reason.

Isla Vista Foot Patrol Deputy Mark Ward said police were dispatched to the 6600 block of DP after the group flipped over the car, a black two-door Honda, at 1:30 p.m. None of the bystanders watching the event were out of control or violent, Ward said, and nobody was injured during the incident. He said no arrests were made in connection with the damage, because the people responsible for overturning the vehicle had already dispersed into the crowd of onlookers by the time officers arrived at the scene.

“There were just a lot of people standing around, and they just rolled a car over,” Ward said.

Adam Friedlander, a former Santa Barbara City College student who watched the scene from his balcony, said the car was rolled into the middle of the street, where it blocked traffic until it was removed. He said it took two tow truck operators to flip the car back over and haul it away.

“I was just sitting,” Friedlander said. “I hear this banging, [and] I see these guys rocking this car over – it was a big spectacle.”

Justin Goyette, a third-year political science major, said the car had been parked on the street with its windows broken for about two months. He said he thinks the car should have been removed earlier because it was an eyesore.

“That car’s been smashed in,” Friedlander said. “People always beat the shit out of that car.”

Friedlander said the crowd enjoyed watching the car get flipped, but the vehicle’s owner was not amused.

“The only guy who was angry was the one whose car it was,” Friedlander said. “Everyone else was having a fucking good time.”
– Nikki Moore contributed to this article