Last week, Curbed Chicago presented the Chicago Dibs Bandit to the world, prompting strong reactions from supporters and opponents over social media outlets. On Monday, the Sun-Times unveiled the "dibs bandit" as Hyde Park resident and artist Curtis Locke. It turns out that the dibs bandit wasn't acquiring neighborhood dibs to cause chaos and mayhem, he was collecting dibs items to create a folk art installation in his backyard (to the dissatisfaction of his neighbors). In what could be arguably be called the weirdest story to come from the Chiberia winter of 2014, Locke was driving through neighborhoods to acquire dibs items to build a tribute "dibs garden" for short-lived and wildly unpopular former Chicago Mayor Michael Bilandic.
The former mayor lost his job after only two and a half years, primarily due to the city's slow response to the snowpocalypse of 1979. We're still split on whether the dibs bandit's idea is sheer genius, or pure madness. Either way, it's certainly added to the dialogue of the ridiculousness of parking dibs and neighborhood battles during Chicago's winter months.
· Dibs Thief Steals Dozens Of Chairs & Causes Widespread Chaos [Curbed Chicago]
· SpongeBob shelf, traffic cone, other 'dibs' objects inspire artist [Sun-Times]
· Midnight in the Mayor Bilandic Memorial Dibs Garden [Abetcular]