The story behind Steve Jobs’ Mercedez Benz and its missing license plate

Thu, Oct 27, 2011

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One of the famous stories about Steve Jobs is that he used to drive around in a Mercedez Benz sports car with no license plates. What’s more, he was also known to park in Handicap spots on Apple’s Cupertino campus. During a recent interview with Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson, Isaacson said that he asked the Apple co-founder why he would do such a thing and left with the impression that Jobs didn’t really feel that certain rules applied to him.

At one point, Jobs told Isaacson he didn’t put license plates on his car because he didn’t want to be followed. Isaccson naturally pointed out that a car with a missing license plate is much more conspicuous. Jobs just shrugged his shoulders.

Well as is often the case, there might be a little bit more to that story – at least to the extent of Jobs riding around with no license plate. Now as for Jobs’ penchant for parking in Handicap spots? Well, that’s just an objectively crappy thing to do.

iTWire recently interviewed Jon Callas who had previously worked in various security positions within Apple. Note though that we’re referring to OS security, not campus security. In any event, Callas recounts that Jobs became aware of a loophole in California law whereby the owner of a brand new car had up to 6 months to get a license plate.

So Jobs decided to strike a deal with his leasing company. The story goes that Jobs, every 6 months, would exchange his silver Mercedes SL55 AMG for the same exact model. “At no time,” the report notes, “would he ever be in a car as old as six months; and thus there was no legal requirement to have the number plates fitted.”

So take that for what it’s worth. Also note that Jobs had previously addressed why his Mercedes lacked proper license plates in a 2001 interview with Fortune. Jobs said that he was merely trying to avoid parking tickets. “It’s a little game I play,” he said.

And it must have been a “game” he played for decades on end. According to legendary Apple programmer Andy Hertzfeld, Jobs even in the early 80’s was keen on discarding license plates and parking in Handicap spots.

Steve Jobs was not the most considerate individual at Apple, and he had lots of ways to demonstrate that. One of the most obvious was his habit of parking in the handicapped spot of the parking lot – he seemed to think that the blue wheelchair symbol meant that the spot was reserved for the chairman.

Whenever you saw a big Mercedes parked in a handicapped space, you could be sure that it was Steve’s car (actually, it was hard to be sure otherwise, since he also had a habit of removing his license plates). This sometimes caused him trouble, since unknown parties would occasionally retaliate by scratching the car with their keys.

via iTWire

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130 Comments For This Post

  1. Daphna Says:

    Kramer: I got news for you – handicapped people, they don’t even want to park there! They wanna be treated just like anybody else! That’s why, those spaces are always empty.

  2. Brian Says:

    Daphna — What kind of bizarre world do you live in? People who park in those spots are generally disabled. Ya know, unable to walk across the parking lot, because of something physically wrong with them. The spaces are empty a lot because we are not a nation of amputees and emphysema yet.

    Ass.

  3. nick Says:

    lol what Daphna?

  4. Jason Says:

    Daphna is an idiot.

  5. noko Says:

    The license plate part is clever, the handicapped space part makes him look like a dick.

  6. SmarterThanYall Says:

    What respect I had for Jobs has been halved. He was an asshole.

  7. Your dumb Says:

    What do you mean they don’t want to park there? My mom has MS and she needs to park closer, it hurts her with evey step she takes.. Trust me she gets mad when she sees some rich inconsiderate a**hole parking his big fancy car in the handicap spotwhile she painfully scuffles across the entire parking lot. Steve jobs was a price of sh*t.. Karma is a bitch.

  8. Hoikas Says:

    What a dick

  9. Sam Says:

    What an ass Steve Jobs was.

  10. PacketSpike Says:

    Well, hes dead now – maybe Karma caught up with him.

  11. eyrieowl Says:

    You know, couldn’t he have just gotten his own spots put in on the Apple campus? Who would have said, “No”, if he said he wanted the best spot at each building reserved solely for him?

  12. GT Says:

    @Daphna: All generalizations are false. Yours in particular is pretty egregiously so. I’m sure there are some who feel that way, but there are plenty who don’t.

  13. uhhh Says:

    @Dapha: Those spots are designed for people with mobility problems, and are designed with extra space to offload a wheelchair. If handicapped people didn’t want to park there, they wouldn’t get the handicapped sticker.

    Thinking is hard.

  14. Dave Says:

    It’s cool he drove himself. And pretty neat that he walked into the campus from outside rather than needing some underground batcave to drive into and emerge into the building from…

  15. paul Says:

    I think we’re in for a wave of a**hole-ism created by all these stories of Job’s antics. A lot of Job’s wantabes in the valley (those with little talent and large ambition) have already started emulating bad-Steve. I think these morons think that if they act like bad-Steve, they will find success in their careers. Oh Boy.

  16. denis Says:

    handicap people making handicap faces

  17. Aaron Says:

    Erm, not everyone else has to hobble or wheel themselves from the far end of the parking lot. Now, people who are handicapped but in a way that doesn’t make hoofing it difficult may choose not to use the spots, and bully for them.

    The spaces are “always” (read: often) empty because there’s excess capacity… that is there’s not enough handicapped people parking all over the world to fill those spots much of the time. But hang out outside a Walmart or other busy business some time, and I guarantee you will eventually see a handicap person use one of those spots.

  18. Ryan Says:

    For a guy who does not like to be identified and tracked, maybe his OS system shouldn’t either.

  19. Curtis Says:

    My 100yr old grandma would disagree.

  20. Jarrod Says:

    @Daphna: Speak for yourself. My girlfriend has a lower back injury from the military and we use the handicapped spots when we can, especially when she has to take medication just to take the edge off of the pain. If there’s a reasonably close normal spot that’s open we’ll often use that because some people need the handicapped spaces even more, but when she has to sit on a curb or rest against a car every hundred feet in a large parking lot, it makes it difficult to make decent time across the lot.

  21. Denver Says:

    “Well, that’s just an objectively crappy thing to do.”

    Really? When there are 10 times the number of spaces needed? Hogwash.

    When did we, as a nation, decide that some people are more equal (by way of handicap) than others?

  22. Jack Mott Says:

    Daphna,

    That doesn’t really apply to people who need room to get their wheelchair out of their car.

  23. john Says:

    Daphna: A lot of times there’s very little choice, half the spots have extra space for a van lift. Some folks have heart conditions that prevent them from walking from the back side of the parking lot. You see empty spots because they put in more than necessary to ensure that one is always available when needed.

    Jobs is being revealed as a revolting figure…from authoritarian family structure to parking in handicap spaces. I kind of feel bad for disliking him so much, he was more deserving of pity.

  24. Christoph Says:

    @Daphna, really? People who need a wheelchair, but are able to drive a car, usually need the extra space of the handicap parking spots to get in and out of their car.

  25. TH Says:

    They’re not always empty. Handicapped spots are the new fat person parking. Fat people have learned that they can find doctors willing to declare them handicapped for being fatasses. I guy I work with uses his wife’s fatass permit to get sweet parking each day at our hard to park at workplace.(and he’s the first to complain about other gaming the system!!!!)

  26. A Handicap Person Says:

    Daphna, You’re a a complete idiot.

  27. sam Says:

    Daphne, yes they just hate having enough space beside their car so that it’s physically possible to get the wheelchair in and out. They much prefer to be treated like everybody else and just drag themselves along the ground with their tongue.

  28. Me Says:

    They’re not always empty. Handicapped spots are the new fat person parking. Fat people have learned that they can find doctors willing to declare them handicapped for being fatasses. I guy I work with uses his wife’s fatass permit to get sweet parking each day at our hard to park at workplace.(and he’s the first to complain about other gaming the system!!!)

  29. Jason Says:

    Daphna, not true. 1) I love parking in the handicapped spot, it is a huge benefit for me, it allows me to go everywhere and do what everyone else does. 2) Those spaces are not always empty, it depends on where you are looking. E.g. Certain Bart stations seem short on spaces, while others leave me no doubt there will be a spot when I get there.

  30. Jason Says:

    Oh nevermind! I didn’t see the Kramer part. Brilliant! Seinfeld strikes again!

  31. Ken Says:

    Daphna, those spots are always empty because only a few people need to use them at any given time.

  32. Latch Says:

    Daphna, they don’t want to park in your skull either for the same reason.

  33. Paul Says:

    Well, if you are mobility impaired and have the need for extra space (say because of your wheelchair). You might need to park there.

  34. k Says:

    And this folks is why our society is the way it is. Rich stuck up folks like Steve Jobs thinks they can do whatever they want, whenever they feel like doing it. He might have been a genius in the tech world. But he was an ASS in the real world. Not someone I want to admire.

  35. Phil Says:

    @Daphna: Depends on the handicapped person. My parents are classed as handicapped due to ill health and old age (rheumatoid arthritis and Parkinson’s Disease) and they will use them whenever it is convenient. I suppose with elderly handicapped it could be seen as something they’ve earned, whereas a congenitally handicapped person might feel as you say, but not all. Handicapped people are all individuals after all, and are entitled to hold their own opinions.

  36. Eric Says:

    Daphna — you obviously don’t know anyone that has trouble walking. And, no, I’m not talking about people too fat to walk, but those with real and painful medical conditions.

  37. Anonymous Says:

    B.S. We use them all the time. I would not even go near a Wal-Mart if I had to park at the end of the lot. You sound like someone trying very hard to justify why they use them illegally to me.

  38. Punctually Challenged Says:

    @Daphna: You’re conflating handicapped people and people who are authorized to park in handicapped spots. It may be true that most handicapped folks want to be treated like anyone else, but if a person makes the effort to apply for a handicap parking permit then it’s probably safe to assume that the person acknowledges his need for a handicap space and is willing to use one.

  39. Parker Says:

    All you people who are responding to Daphna: that was a quote from Seinfeld! See the “Kramer:” at the start of it.

    Duh. I don’t even like Seinfeld and I understood that.

  40. passing stranger Says:

    @ Daphna : As a handicapped person, I have to agree with your premise but take the strongest possible stance against your conclusion.

    Yes; by and large, we do wish to be treated like everyone else. HOWEVER; we also take a realistic approach to our limitations. We may want to act and be treated like everyone else, but we can’t, that is pretty much what handicapped MEANS. We are; perforce, forced to adapt our lives around those limitations as best we can.

    Those spots are intended first and foremost for people who use a wheelchair van. They flat out NEED the extra width of reserved space for the lift to operate.
    Second, they are also used by those for whom walking is painful or arduous. A few extra yards isn’t much to you or to most people, but it’s five minutes of grinding agony to me or some senior with an artificial hip. For those with severe cardiac or respiratory problems, those extra yards could conceivably kill.

    The real reason you so often see those spots empty is the same simple reason you see any spots empty, there isn’t anyone who needs to use that spot at the moment. If you see more than half the regular spots empty, do you conclude that is because no one wants to drive, so most people walk to the location? Or do you conclude that no one wishes to do business there? The handicapped are often considered a minority because we ARE, we are indeed a (thankfully) small percentage of the total population.

    The laws in most places mandate enough spaces; as a proportion of expected traffic, to make sure there is a surplus of reserved spaces. The very sound reasoning is that it is better to have an extra space or two go unused than to force a wheelchair van or handicapped person to go searching for another spot they *can* use.

  41. Bill Says:

    I’d think if one were in a wheelchair they’d park further away since they can sit and roll.

  42. Seinfeld Says:

    Haha… only 1 in 10 of you who replied got the Seinfeld reference in Daphna’s first post 🙂

  43. goobah Says:

    @everyone dumping on daphna:

    have you really never seen seinfeld?

    i get jokes.

    (that one was from the simpsons. heard of it?)

  44. Amanda Says:

    @Daphna

    Classic Seinfeld! Love it!

  45. morons in here Says:

    @everyoneotherthandaphna: you are all morons. He was just quoting a Seinfeld episode.

  46. drgn Says:

    I’m amazed how many people have never seen seinfeld.

  47. Uncle Bubba Says:

    Daphna,

    Be careful when you assert something about “all” members of any group–you will usually be wrong. True, many handicapped persons don’t want to use the parking spaces, but there are many that do. A friend told me it’s the only way he can safely exit his wheelchair van. I work with another person with CP who, while not wheelchair-bound, needs the spaces to keep from falling on the way into the building.

    At our building, it is rare to see none of the spaces being used, legally, by people that need them.

  48. RE: daphna Says:

    FYI – Handicapped spots (particularly van style) are useful for wheelchair lifts.

  49. Dave Says:

    I was in a motorcycle accident on June 1, 2011, and broke my pelivs in two. As I was being released from the hospital one of my release doctors asked if I wanted him to sign a waver for a temp handicap parking tag.

    I replied “No, those are for people that are really hurt. Not for guys like me who will recover.” I know that not for everyone, others in my condition would have really need the tag and the parking space. That was really my point.

  50. kp Says:

    I thought handicap spots were reserved for big fat people that milked the system to get a sticker.

    or maybe thats just who i see using them

  51. Steve Says:

    Wow. Are you people ragging on Daphna dumb.

    She (I assume she’s a female based on the name) was quoting from a Seinfeld episode (maybe the “Kramer;” line should have been a hint), where Kramer convinces George to park in a handicapped spot, and then all hell breaks loose.

    And, no. Seinfeld wasn’t advocating that non-handicapped people park in handicapped spots, so don’t go there.

  52. Not an Idiot Says:

    I don’t know if you guys are just being that stupid replying to Daphna’s post or what but she is quoting Kramer from Seinfeld. She merely thought that this was a decent place to drop a FUNNY quote from a COMEDY. If you don’t believe me then here’s some proof that it’s from a TV SHOW not someone being a cruel person for the sake of cruelty. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Seinfeld#The_Handicap_Spot_.5B4.22.5D
    Next time you see a name followed by a : remember that it’s a quote and not always a person’s personal opinon.

  53. Anonymous Says:

    Even with the “Kramer” disclaimer, not funny. You’d do well not quoting anything from that racist piece of shit.

  54. Jason Says:

    DAPHNA is awesome. Got everyone all fired up with a Seinfeld quote.

  55. NotanIdiot Says:

    Daphna was quoting Kramer from Seinfeld. Are you really so dumb as to not see that? She explicitly wrote “Kramer:” at the beginning of her post. If you don’t see that as enough proof here’s a link to the quote on the quotes wiki for Seinfeld http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Seinfeld#The_Handicap_Spot_.5B4.22.5D . If that’s not enough for you maybe you should consider not posting anymore. This conversation was not constructive and proved nothing but your stupidity.

  56. Elnono Says:

    When youre in a wheelchair youre about 4′ tall. What do you think happends when a car backs off? Thats one of the main reason handicaped people get the “nice” spot =P

  57. D Says:

    Ha, you guys need to settle down – Daphna’s comment was a quote from an obscure TV show named Seinfeld.

  58. Joe Says:

    Daphna, thank you for posting that relevant quote from Seinfeld. It made me laugh. I’m astonished at how many people did not recognize it, especially considering the, “Kramer:,” that started your comment. It warms my heart to see people get angry at someone when they are in fact wrong.

  59. Mark Says:

    He probably was just inconsiderate. But consider this – he could easily have had a space reserved for himself in the Apple parking lot. If he’d done that, no-one else could use it when he wasn’t there. This way, at least when he wasn’t there, handicapped people could use the space. It’s strictly better than having his own reserved parking space.

  60. JDrive Says:

    Wow a lot of fails here, Daphna was quoting from Seinfeld.

  61. Dave Says:

    As much as the things he did were weird quirks and assholish. Remember he was battling cancer for a very long time. Maybe he needed an actual handicap spot and could not admit his frailty due to stocks, his company and such. Maybe in the start it was a egotistical asshole thing he started but in the end he probably needed a handicap spot.

    One of the things he did when apple was not doing well was cut all there corporate charity giving. Did this ever get reinstated when the company was doing well?

    I really and most people really dont know how much steve is really responsible for in his company but if it is like many companies out there then its not much.

    Have a good one.

  62. Raketemensch Says:

    Dude, you’re the CEO. Appoint yourself a parking space.

  63. Anonymous Says:

    @Denver, states are cracking down on “fat people’s parking”. My state will not issue a permit for just “can’t walk more than 200 feet” unless they have another qualifying disabled condition. Basically, you need to have to use a walker or cane in order to qualify for a permit.

  64. Ahahahahah Says:

    Who is this Seinfeld that you speak of? Does he work at Apple?

  65. david Says:

    about the handicapped space thing…are the people here that criticize him for that unaware that he was terminally ill and very, very sick at the time this picture was taken?

  66. Andre Says:

    DAPHNA HAS QUOTED A LINE FROM SEINFELD, YOU MORONS. You all have been trolled by a comedy TV show.

  67. Mikey Says:

    Whenever I see a person who appears to be physically able park in a handicapped spot, I just assume they think it also applies to mentally handicapped people.

  68. Grace Says:

    First of all, many of the original people need to chill out, and not go on the offensive without first looking at what the person(Daphna) was saying. It’s called comedy – racial, minority, majority, rich, poor, etc. no holds barred. If you don’t like it stop reading it or change the channel. Being a black disabled woman I am partially offended by Job’s parking in our designated spots, but I’m not so sure he did that off the Apple campus. If he did then that is dispicable.

  69. rex_imperator Says:

    Over on my side of the pond (the United Kingdom) we have the same issues. Only unlike the US we don’t generally have an oversupply of spaces. Parking in the space when not handicapped (to use the US word, rather than disabled which we use here) is frowned on, but lots of people do it. Many millions have a badge but by no strecth of the imagination ae they not able to walk. Example, a colleague has one arm missing and an adapted vehicle. he can park in those spaces. His primary leisure activity is running marathons. Just another crazy law here is that the permit is a piece permit. One has a timed disk and the other the expiry date. The photo is on the reverse, but parking attendants are not allowed to pick up the permit. They can ask me to show it to them, but I don’t have to comply. So if I use my grandmother’s permit, no one will know.

    And did I mention that parking with a permit is free. Almost everywhere.

  70. Seinfeld Says:

    Lol, look at all the comments from people with absolutely no reading comprehension! Daphna was quoting Kramer from Seinfeld.

  71. Mononymous Says:

    @GT: “All generalizations are false.”
    Think about this statement for a bit.

  72. Eric Says:

    Wow, people love to be morally outraged about meaningless stuff. And that’s what this is – meaningless.

    The accessibility iphone brought to thousands of handicapped people outweighs the 10 people blocked by his car, if there were that many.

    This is more about how it looks. Do you think the Apple offices are filled to the brim with handicapped engineers? It’s NOT a shopping mall parking-lot, it’s a company with a fairly predictable group of people parking every day. If no one ever uses that spot on his private property, I’m cool with him taking it.

  73. Mononymous Says:

    @GT: “All generalizations are false.”
    Maybe if you think very hard about this statement, you can find a counterexample.

    Here’s a hint: logically speaking, what is this statement? What does it do? Does it make a claim concerning a broad group of objects or ideas?

    If that doesn’t help, here’s a less interesting counterexample:
    -Generalization: “All quadrilaterals have four sides and four vertices.” True or false?

  74. Matt Says:

    Thank you Daphna for kicking off what turned out to be an awesome comment thread full of stupidity, I couldn’t stop laughing.

    There’s a Dennis Leary song quote in another of the posts in case anyone missed it. Good times!

  75. holy fuck Says:

    Wow YOU PEOPLE ARE DUMB. Daphna is making a Seinfeld reference. Jesssssus. you all need handicapped spaces. MENTALLY HANDICAPPED SPACES.

  76. sucker Says:

    @D : Seinfeld is not an obscure TV show. Perhaps you were living under a rock… It was a show that ran for 9 (nine) years, see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seinfeld

  77. Khris Says:

    @Daphna Well played….very well played indeed.

  78. Larry David Says:

    “Even with the “Kramer” disclaimer, not funny. You’d do well not quoting anything from that racist piece of shit.”

    You’re an idiot. First of all, his name is Michael Richards, not “Kramer”. And second, he’s not racist. He only said the things he said on stage because his stand-up performance was going to complete shit and he thought he would at least get some shock laughs. It was just poor judgement on his part, not racism.

  79. A. Troll Says:

    Are you guys all trolls or something? It’s very clearly a Seinfeld quote, and meant to be humorous not inflammatory.

  80. Cded Says:

    Just a chain of failure for one Sienfeld quote. Look at all the indignant replies…. wahhh!

  81. destructifier Says:

    I woulda keyed his ass too.

  82. Chad Says:

    What do you expect? The guy was a full-blown narcissist. He was the kind of person that LITERALLY thought his shit didn’t stink. Seriously. He lived with his sister for a short while and in one of her books she mentioned that he did not use deodorant and would not flush the toilet after using it, as if he was oblivious to the idea that his waste could offend. The man had serious personality disorders. Genius and insanity go hand in hand.

  83. Anonymous Says:

    Funny, I am conditioned to believe those spaces are for just fat people. I didn’t realise someone would really actually need one .

  84. Serene Says:

    Go Steve! Its nice to know that not all of us are pretentious idiots who hold the blue wheelchair sacred. That fat f–k next to you over 500 pounds is just as disabled as an amutee, and he doesn’t get special treatment. And what’s with all the special treatment? Can’t we make up our mInd and stop talking about it? People are willing to die in stampedes waiting for some stupid product in a stupid store. And death is far more painful than anything, for close ones at least

  85. Steve Jobs Says:

    Well, Steve was fighting cancer, he deserved a spot without needing to get a handicap tag. I’m sure all that cemo took its toll. Shame on all of you haters.

  86. jim Says:

    “Even with the “Kramer” disclaimer, not funny. You’d do well not quoting anything from that racist piece of shit.”

    Guess what? She wasn’t quoting Micheal Richards, she was quoting Kramer, a character who he happened to play. Not quite the same thing.

  87. Otis Says:

    I am handicapped and I couldn’t care less where Steve parked. He should have had a reserved spot at every place on the planet as far as I am concerned.

  88. The Googler Says:

    You guys are being incredibly reactive AND dumb at the same time. did you bother reading she was quoting Kramer from Seinfeld?

    A simple google of: They wanna be treated just like anybody else
    would have led you very quickly to the Seinfeld wiki with tons of quotes
    http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Seinfeld

    and tada
    The Handicap Spot [4.22]

    So in short? chillax, it was A JOKE

    and if you feel making a joke on sensitive topics like HANDICAP PARKING SPOTS then you probably shouldn’t read what’s on the internet in general because you’ll die of “eye-bleeding” and “keyboard pouncing” before you know.

  89. Nope Says:

    This doesn’t jive with what I learned when I worked at Apple. Back in 2003, I spent a couple of weeks training with someone who had worked directly with Steve on several occasions. He told me that there had been a couple of incidents of people stealing Steve’s license plates, so he worked out an arrangement with the Palo Alto police department, and had special barcodes put on his car instead.

  90. slidersv Says:

    To all the inconsiderate: Have you ever considered that Jobs died of cancer, and therefore was handicapped for all the decades he had it? If not, then you cannot begin to imagine how much pain cancer can cause.

  91. Art Vandalay Says:

    And apparently the majority of posters on here are idiots. Somehow the first word of Daphna’s quote was lost on you.

    Its a line from a TV show folks. Step down from the soapbox now.

  92. Zach Says:

    So its apples campus. That means jobs can park where the hell he wants cause he owned the place.

  93. love_seinfield Says:

    @Daphna@Daphna@Daphna@Daphna@Daphna@Daphna

    brilliant
    brilliant
    brilliant
    brilliant
    brilliant
    brilliant
    brilliant
    brilliant

  94. Jobber Says:

    One would think that he’d get a ticket from time to time.
    They should be able to trace the owner by the VIN #.

  95. koatii Says:

    I used to work at Apple and I had a co-worker who said Steve stopped parking underground because once he hit a building support with his car. After that he used to park in the loading zone outside the company store. I met him three times. Two times he just wanted to check on the status of our project and it was interesting that he would always ask my opinion even though I was just running the demo computer. He would ask everyone in the room if the “feature” was cool. He wanted everyone’s input.

  96. guru_ Says:

    @Koatii

    sounds like my manager always asking for input from others so he can turn around and present it as his

    s.m.h.

  97. iDeadnow Says:

    Um, Stevie. They can check who the car is registered to by the unremovable vin number on your dash, under the windshield. License plates really aren’t going to matter. As for the handicapped parking, well you’re just a dick.

  98. Adnan (ITO) Says:

    I like Steve jobs, look I hate parking, I hate the parking system I hate parking meter maids, I just hate them. Look Steve came from a poor family and worked his way up and on your way you find ways to save money some a bit questionable.You nickel and Dime everything, even after you become rich. Some habits change and some don’t. He was a brilliant man because of his upbringing for always wanting to do better and be successful and wanting to make so much money that you don’t know what to do with it. But about his parking thing and not having a license plate it just old habits that didn’t go away but one thing like that doesn’t mean he was a bad person or he hated disabled people. He gave alot to charity but like i said old habits die hard. I can related to him in terms of parking it’s crazy. But a brilliant man not perfect bit who is, changed the world which we all wish we could do. His creation lives on

  99. bob Says:

    the guy died of aggressive cancer, so back off. IF you have that, you can park in a handicap space as far as im concerned.

  100. Christoph Says:

    Jobs didled when he piddled cuz his middle was a riddle

  101. HerpDerp Says:

    So many generalizations here. No wonder the world is going to hell with people like this in it.

  102. NancyL Says:

    Maybe he designed the Apple parking lot(s) with enough handicapped parking spaces that he’d always have an empty one near where he wanted to go.

  103. JMac Says:

    LOL @Daphna

    All these people are calling @Daphna an idiot, when they are the idiots who didn’t recognize he was simply quoting Kramer from Seinfeld. It was a television show people.

    Wow.

  104. Hyperwolf Says:

    Daphna trolled you all so well.

  105. William Jameson Says:

    Many things about Jobs were morally, um, questionable… not just the car stuff. Like starting his career selling devices to crack/defraud the phone network, and later cracking down on Apple customers who tried to do far less egregious things (jailbreaking etc.) with iPhones. Or going to court to avoid paying child support to his first wife, even though he was already rich and his former family were on welfare. (At least that’s what I’ve read; I don’t know for a fact that these things are true.)

    Being a market visionary doesn’t mean you’re not also an asshole. The two are in no way mutually exclusive.

  106. JP Says:

    Sounds like he was a self-centered prick

  107. Ghyslain Says:

    Daphna was only quoting Seinfeld, did you lived the 90’s in a bunker or what?

  108. jr Says:

    what a roster of dumbfucks.

    jr

  109. GeeksRUs Says:

    Geeks are so gullible for gossip on Steve Jobs
    Couldn’t sleep so I thought what was the production years of the infamous Steve Jobs SL55 AMG. It was made up until 2008, and the 2008 was the model year that he drove without the license plates. Steve was rich, but not totally foolish, he wouldn’t piss away the drive off depreciation of a 130K car every six months.
    Geeks are so gullible.
    —————————————————-
    The SL55 AMG was sold through AMG in the R129 body style from 1998 to 2001 in limited quantity. It was the predecessor of the production R230 SL55 AMG sold from 2002 to 2008.

  110. GeeksRUs Says:

    Geeks are so gullible for gossip on Steve Jobs
    I thought what was the production years of the .infamous Steve Jobs SL55 AMG. It was made up until 2008, and the 2008 was the model year that he drove without the license plates. Steve was rich, but not totally foolish, he wouldn’t piss away the drive off depreciation of a 130K car every six months.
    —————————————————-
    The SL55 AMG was sold through AMG in the R129 body style from 1998 to 2001 in limited quantity. It was the predecessor of the production R230 SL55 AMG sold from 2002 to 2008.

  111. Rachel Says:

    This girl Daphna (or is it a guy?) is brilliant.

  112. Harriet Nye Says:

    He owned the company. He can park where he damn well pleases. I would respect him less if he’d had a “Steve Jobs” designated spot. Taking a handicapped spot only ties one up at certain times. Had he made a private spot for himself, it would be off limits to everyone else ALL the time. Most businesses are over marked for handicapped spaces anyway. Look to any grocery store for proof.

  113. FormerApple Says:

    I heard that an employee really pissed Steve off when one day Steve got in his car, parked on a handicap space at Apple’s campus, and there was a note behind his windshield wiper that said, “Park Different”

  114. Programmer Says:

    Dennis Ritchie had far more influence on the world we live in than Jobs and he was a class act.

  115. handicapper Says:

    Some people may not outwardly appear to have much wrong with them. I myself have Myasthenia Gravis (similar symptom wise to MS). Unfortunately some days are good, and some are bad. Some days I can walk miles and others not 20 feet. I called it running out of gas. Sometimes the tank is full and sometimes it’s running on vapors.

    As for morons parking in Handicapped parking… Do what I do. Park behind them (blocking them in), and call the police. I’ve done it 3 times so far. Make sure you claim having trouble with your car, and not that you are purposefully blocking them in to avoid any legal troubles. 😉

  116. James Says:

    I’m both amazed at how many people haven’t seen seinfeld and how many people are just stupid and reply without reading comments.

  117. ASJTF Says:

    This is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. Celebs or someone of celeb status can get an exception. Note the bar code where the plate is supposed to be. Also, paying fix it tickets is a hell of a lot cheaper than taking a loss on a new car every 6 months. Tom from Myspace had this type of “plate” as well on his jag. He had it for quite a bit longer than 6 months, unless they kept denting the new jags in the same spot as the old one 😉

  118. Mike French Says:

    Wow. The comments here are disgusting. No, NONE of you have EVER done anything wrong. Parking in A handicapped spot, at a building HE created, morally wrong? WHO gets to make that judgement? As all of you naysayers are SO perfect. Meh.

  119. Steve Wozniak Says:

    the guy died of aggressive cancer, so back off. IF you have that, you can park in a handicap space as far as im concerned.

    What? He had that cancer in the 1980s? That is some survival time. Wonder what his secret was?

  120. af1n Says:

    I always destroy mirrors of such suckers 🙂

  121. Anonymous Says:

    So one more proof the guy was an arrogant dick…

  122. me Says:

    The first 80 people here after daphna must be young’uns. How could no one recognize the Seinfeld quote.

  123. Mike Hawk Says:

    “Daphna Says:
    October 27th, 2011 at 9:08 am
    Kramer: I got news for you – handicapped people, they don’t even want to park there! They wanna be treated just like anybody else! That’s why, those spaces are always empty.”

    How thick are you people? This is a quote from Seinfeld. You know, that much beloved and frequently regarded as one of the “best television shows ever made” shows?

  124. Tim Says:

    It’s okay. Steve Jobs was socially handicapped.

  125. Antoine Says:

    Don’t you think he was so sick that he could used those places ?…

  126. No Front License Plate Says:

    19 states do not require a license plate on the front of a registered vehicle. Is your state one of them? If not, maybe you should contact your governor or local representative about it.

  127. Argle Bargle Says:

    It would have been far more entertaining to, if you knew it was Stevearino’s car, climb up on it and take a dump on the windshield. I’m sure he would have understood and appreciated the gesture.

  128. fakecubed Says:

    Hilarious. Just hilarious. The very first post got misread by every person who came after and caused a huge uproar.

    Anyway, about the handicapped parking, who cares if it was on private property? Every single one of those spots could have been reserved for him, and nobody would have batted an eye. The only difference, as somebody else pointed out, was that when Jobs wasn’t parking there, somebody else could, which actually makes it better. If there had been massive numbers of handicapped people at Apple that it actually became a problem, they could have simply added some extra handicapped spots, but there’s no indication that was ever needed.

  129. JP Says:

    Wow… That’s all I have to say to all the people defending his actions. It’s clear that you all have a warped sense of entitlement.

  130. arne Says:

    I thought he was a Saint but this guy was EVIL!!!!

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