Petty King: City Orders Man To Conceal His Boat In His Driveway So He Paints His Fence To Replicate It

UPI News -- A California man ordered by his city to conceal the boat parked in his driveway with a fence hired his artist neighbor to paint a photo-realistic image of the vessel in an act of rebellious compliance.

Etienne Constable said the boat he uses for fishing was regularly parked in his Seaside driveway for about four years before he received a letter from the city informing him of a municipal code requiring boats and trailers to be "screened on the side and front by a six-foot-high fence."

Constable said his initial reaction to the letter was anger, but he then spoke to his neighbor, mural artist Hanif Panni, and arrived at a creative solution.

Constable had a fence installed to block his driveway, and Panni, who creates art under the name Hanif Wondir, painted a photo-realistic image of the boat and the rest of the driveway on the road-facing side of the fence.

"We kind of hit the sweet spot between following the rules and making an elegant statement to the contrary," Constable told The Washington Post.

Panni, who described the project as an attempt to create "an illusion," posted photos of the finished work to social media, where they quickly went viral.

If you see a tear in my eye it's because I'm weeping in joy.What an absolute LEGEND in the game folks. You want to tell him hide his boat? You want to try and fuck him over? Not this motherfucker ... "Not today pal". Not this guy ... 

He may look like a calm and collected fella but he's a modern day gansgta. You ain't telling him what to do. He tells you what to do and what he did was nothing short of genius. Just a perfect way of sticking it to the establishment within the rules. 

To think of the gimmick of painting the fence is one thing, but to have a neighbor as an artist who can do it to perfection is the chef's kiss. I love stories like this. Who the fuck cares if his boat is visible or not? Why is this even a law? Reminds me of a story I heard one time in a beach community that a guy wanted to build up his beach house another level or two. When he told the housing board his plan they rejected it. So the guy applied for a address change using the side street as his front door and they never saw it coming. He ended up building up as high as he wanted and their wasn't shit they could do about it. Love that. The lesson here is petty always wins.